Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I keep the boat in the slip all summer. Last year I kept the motor tilted up until the intakes were out of the water. I found frog eggs or something similar in the ends of my lifting strakes and didn't want them in my motor too.

So, Is it best to leave the motor down or up? I can see the extra wear on the hydraulics (tilt) from leaving it up but can also see littl elake life getting in if it's down.

What do you all do, and what is best?

I leave mine up, we have all kinds of nasty marine growth I do want in my drive. I also paint the outdrive every season with anti fouling paint. The eggs were probably fish eggs. I get them all over the logs, probably herring here though.

Before I got my lift and boathouse finished I left my motor down one year. Big mistake it was covered with growth of all kinds. It took a while to clean it up and then get a new water pump installed. I don't know how clean your lake is but mine is not good to let it sit all year in the water.

My outboard has a locking lever that you can engage to hold the engine in the up position. That would be one way to hold the motor up with no tension on the hydraulics. If your motor does not have this, I believe they make bars to do the same thing.

I leave mine down, but now that i think about it, maybe its a better idea to leave it trimmed up?
I mean, is my alpha drive really that much work for the hydraulics to hold up?

from what i can remember when i had the alpha 1 gen 2 outdrive, i was told not to leave it trimmed out (up) because it put too much stress on the bellows (sp?) and they would crack allowing water in. i've often thought about leaving my OB up out of the water, but i've never done it. i've looked at alot of boats on my lake and there seems to be a mix of folks who leave theirs wet vs. dry.

I don't slip, and don't intend to, but the people who owned my toon before us did, and they obviously kept the motor down. Besides the ugly line that was ( I removed it ) on the engine, there were no side effects after an impeller change before I purchased. I have no clue where they slipped this toon though, so that would make a difference. I personally wouldn't leave my motor in the water. I'd lift it, and find something like stated above ( a bar or something ) to keep my motor trimmed up, and not having the constant pressure on my trim hydraulics.

I lift mine up... it has a locking lever as well.. I notice some growth and grime building up on my toons after just a couple of weeks. On the toons is ok with me, I just head into the chop WOT and after a few minuts there clean again, wouldnt like that stuff building up in the intake though.

I keep mine up. Boat is in salt water. Between the sea life and salt water it would destroy the lower unit.