Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

First sorry, for the long post, but I hope someone can help give guidance on past experience.

We are having some serious motor height issues on our new boat. It's a 2016 Cypress Cay Seabreeze 230 performance plus package tritoon with a Mercury 150xl. Up until this model year they used the long shaft and not the extra long shaft, but they didn't change transom height. It was in for warranty work this week, and that is a whole other thread for another time, and we discussed this issue with the dealer. The test drive when it was picked up they agreed with my assessment the motor is too low but the only problem is I'm as high as you can go on the mounting holes. This is where it gets fun.

The dealer called the factory and their solution is some type of deflector that goes on the bottom of the transom that is at least supposed to help with the spray I am getting. It looks like you have a water hose on high blasting my motor and higher RPM and trim levels. This still doesn't help the motor height issues, but it will at least keep the motor from getting blasted with water.

There is a Harris (same company) across the cove with an identical toon setup but he has the 150 long shaft. The dealer had a Verado 175 or 200 mounted on my exact boat but it was the long shaft and not the XL. Basically every other boat I looked at that was the same or very similar to mine has the long shaft which is 5" shorter but we all have the exact same transom. The previous version of the boat was running 5800-5900 RPM at 40mph. We are turning 5250 rpm and only around 35 mph. Everything else is identical. When I told the factory this they said we were "in spec" for the new setup so nothing they could do about it. I told them this was unacceptable because we were told to look at the bulletins Mercury has on file which showed the other measurements.

I offered to take it to my welder and have the transom extended up where there is a spot it could easily be done if they would sign off and say it didn't void any warranty, but they weren't willing to do that (I even offered to pay at the end, no go). I also asked why we couldn't just swap the lower and shaft and convert it to a long shaft, but they claim this would void my 8 year Mercury warranty(owned by same company as boat manuf). I feel they should fix this problem because it is not properly rigged, but maybe I am wrong. Finally I mentioned adding a manual jack plate and he said that would work and I asked if they and the dealer would be willing to work with me to make this right (along with around 20 other warranty issues we have had from day one). He said he would look into it next week and talk to the dealer and see what we could come up with. Given my experience thus far I have higher hopes of winning both lotteries this weekend than getting help from either the dealer or the manufacturer.

Cliff notes version:
Motor has too long of a shaft and can't go any higher but manufacturer says having the cavitation plate a few inches below water at WOT is "in spec." We have an 8 year warranty and swapping to the long shaft lower would void warranty and if I add height to the transom it would void warranty on the boat. Finally got around to the only fix really is to do a jack plate.

Edit to add: One more piece of info - the dealer measured the transom and it was well short of 20". I think it was 15 or 18 inches.

My questions are:
What are my rights in regards to this? We have a solid lemon law in our state but I don't really want to do the whole boat order process again as it was painful.

Has anyone done a jack plate on a tritoon for an issue similar to this?

If I have to buy the jack plate and install it should I go with a longer setback as I have heard the further back the motor the better performance?

Unless the engine came from the manufacturer with the boat mounted, you might have a dealer issue. They mounted a motor suited for an offshore fishing boat on your pontoon. I seldom even see a 30" motor in the center of the U.S. on any boat.

A hydraulic jack plate might work, but it's a very expensive proposition @ $900-$1100 plus labor to install. But it's just a compromise--not solving the inherent too long lower unit problem. It would be an experiment.

I understand that pontoon boat manufacturers don't want jack plates put on their boats as it puts extreme stress the motor mount which is relatively weak to begin with. They're really meant to go on bass boats for top speed.

As we can see on this forum, pontoon boat setups are often hit and miss; Go messing with engine heights and props too much and you sometimes screw up the delicate balance of these boats. You may be pulling within 4 mph of others with tritoons and 150 hp, but relative performance might drop dramatically if you put a bunch of people on that boat.

The dealer should have known better to have put that motor on your boat. He really should swap out the motor for a 25" version commonly used on pontoons and spec'd out by Harris on your specific hull. Or, he should repurchase the boat.

Bamaman wrote:Unless the engine came from the manufacturer with the boat mounted, you might have a dealer issue. They mounted a motor suited for an offshore fishing boat on your pontoon. I seldom even see a 30" motor in the center of the U.S. on any boat.

A hydraulic jack plate might work, but it's a very expensive proposition @ $900-$1100 plus labor to install. But it's just a compromise--not solving the inherent too long lower unit problem. It would be an experiment.

I understand that pontoon boat manufacturers don't want jack plates put on their boats as it puts extreme stress the motor mount which is relatively weak to begin with. They're really meant to go on bass boats for top speed.

As we can see on this forum, pontoon boat setups are often hit and miss; Go messing with engine heights and props too much and you sometimes screw up the delicate balance of these boats. You may be pulling within 4 mph of others with tritoons and 150 hp, but relative performance might drop dramatically if you put a bunch of people on that boat.

The dealer should have known better to have put that motor on your boat. He really should swap out the motor for a 25" version commonly used on pontoons and spec'd out by Harris on your specific hull. Or, he should repurchase the boat.

Thanks for the input. The dealer did rig the boat but per Cypress Cay they only offer the 150 XL on this boat and not the regular long shaft version. I'm not really interested in them purchasing the boat back unless they pay close to msrp since I can't replace the boat for what I paid for it. If I did a jack plate it would be a manual and not a hydraulic. Also, the manufacturer would have to sign off that it doesn't void the lifetime warranty on the structure of the boat which I don't know if they would do. I agree it's a bandaid but it might be my only option.

I've been trying to find what they want to do with a spray deflector on the transom. Said something about bolting on the bottom of the transom, but I'm not sure what they want to do and didn't get a response yesterday. Anyone have something like this done to a boat before? Thanks!

If you go the jack plate route, I'd suggest going the one with the least amount of setback.
No reason to mess with the geometry any more than you have to.
When you get into trial and error, a pontoon can sometimes defy reasonable adjustments.
The difference in getting the engine height right is often just an inch or two.

Bamaman wrote:If you go the jack plate route, I'd suggest going the one with the least amount of setback.
No reason to mess with the geometry any more than you have to.
When you get into trial and error, a pontoon can sometimes defy reasonable adjustments.
The difference in getting the engine height right is often just an inch or two.

Okay Good info. The one advantage of a 5 inch or 10 inch setback on my setup would be that I would actually be able to trim the motor out of the water. As it is rigged I can't even get the entire prop out of the water much less the engine because it is an inch away from hitting the deck.

The 20" shaft tests ran on bolt hole 1 and 2. They did have some problems with cavitation on some of the test. Granted, these were run with light loads and low fuel. I start every weekend with a full tank and usually run it down to a 3/4 or a little lower. If we are going to run it more I fill up mid weekend as I like to keep the tank at 3/4 or above because you never know what's going to happen. I'm carrying around 200lbs more fuel and an extra battery mounted in the back of the boat so I'll sit a little lower than the test boats, but for arguments sake we will use the 1 bolt hole. By my calculations the mount depth of that motor would be 20" and my would be 21.25 so I'm only an inch or so off. Basically, I need two more bolt holes and I'd be good to go.

One more piece of info I gave them that confused them was that I can't make my boat cavitate, period. The closest I have come was running a light load of fuel on purpose trimmed all the way up, WOT, and cut the wheel as hard as I could. I did get it to slip a couple of times but it caught almost immediately. There was a lot of turbulence around the prop though so it could have even just caught some of that as it never really "blew out."

I was only expecting 40ish MPH on the boat where other boats we looked at were running mid 40's. I do love the boat above deck and will love it more once they replace a few of the upholstery issues but the performance and service I am receiving from Cypress Cay and the dealer is infuriating.

If the transom is only 19" tall then a 25"XL should have never been mounted in the first place and if make them either put the proper length COMPLETE engine on, Factory approved transom spacer, or take the boat back. Those would be the only acceptable solutions to me. Premier pontoon has a 5" spacer kit for there pontoons if someone wishes to run a 25" motor, I'm sure other manufactures must do that also. A Jack Plate usually gains you only an extra 3" in height which probably wouldn't be enough IMO. I built my center tube with a 26" tall transom and my 25" motor is mounted in the 3rd/middle hole of my engine mount to get cav plate running at the surface.

What frustrates me about this is something multiple posters have brought up, that length shaft should have never been mounted on the boat. I can't fault the dealer on this issue because theveryone manufacturer only offers the 150 xl on their boats and not the long shaft. The confusing part is for the Honda option is an akl which from what I can find is a 20 inch shaft like the mercury long shaft. It's 20lbs heavier but I don't know why that would create the need for 5 inches more shaft length. I'm going to bring this up to the warranty guy at cypress cay on Monday. I hate to be that guy but I think at this point I'm just going to have to pester them until I get a fix for the issue.

Most pontoon boats use 25" shaft motors. 20" motors are commonly used on bass boats.

On my original 1985 Starcraft pontoon boat, I equipped it with a 20" Yamaha 115 hp 2 stroke originally mounted on a bassboat. It was plenty fast, however any time I had 2-3 people sit up front, the engine would raise and I'd get ventilation.

When Yamaha came out with the SHO, it was meant for bass boats and only came in a 20" version. Bennington, as the largest user of Yamaha outboard engines, had to modify their middle toons with a shorter mount for boats equipped with the SHO. They got some criticism at the time because of the "bath" the SHO had to take with the shorter transoms. The Yamaha SHO's later because available with the 25" version so they are now being mounted on the more common taller toon mounts.

The Mercury 150 FourStroke is also available in 20" and 25" versions--with the 25" the preferable unit used on pontoons..

My 24' Bennington has the 25" motor, and it's mounted 3/4 inch or one notch above the transom. I'm getting optimal performance for my motor and my specific hull--40 mph @ 6000 rpms with a 15 pitch Reliance prop.

It's just such a shame all pontoon/tritoons cannot be easily setup and propped, as time is money--and props cost money too. Good luck to you.