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Alright, I could use your smarts on kicker bracket for my nephew's 27' Catalina. There was a 4 hp 2 cycle and it just missed the water in the up position on the fixed bracket. The new 4 cycle 9.8 Tohatsu doesn't sit clear of the water. The wood in the bracket was flexing so we rebuilt and fiberglassed it, but I'm thinking we're going to have issues with keeping the nice newer outboard out of the water. Is there a trick to getting the motor to "lock" in the tilt up position? It's so heavy we quit trying to tilt into the "lock positon and just removed it. I'm thinking we'll have to spend more time fooling with a 90# outboard hanging over the transom to figure it all out. Looked like it was going to still be in contact with the water. Should a spring assisted lifting bracket get the motor clear of the water witout tilting the motor? The transom was made with the opening for tilting the motor. Thanks in advance for your tips.
Man that looks just like my boat. I think I even have the same motor! Except we have ours mounted directly on the transom plate. It does touch the water a bit - but not bad.
The previous owners had a lift-up bracket on the transom starboard of the OB well, but they didn't reinforce it very well and the OB well walls started cracking/delaminating. It seemed a bit squirrelly too with the motor offset.
Just make sure to do provide a good backing plate if you go that route.
Thanks Smack. The motor shown is the old 4 hp. I'm not sure we're getting the Tohatsu high enough to engage the pawl on the tilt. Might just be with all the humans hanging on the transom, we're pushing the aft down and just need to figure out how to get it to "click". Wait, are you saying don't use a bracket? Maybe just reinforce the transom and use it as designed? Novel idea...
Yeah- we just use the transom as it was designed. You should have a metal mounting plate on the inside/bottom of the opening for the clamps. So it should already be reinforced.
BUT - you might still have trouble tilting the motor all the way up if the head is too long/wide for the opening.
Here's a pic (pardon the grunge - with the drought we haven't had water at our slips for powerwashing for over a year now):
THanks very much. Would be good to hear from some others who have that arrangement on whether there's interference. This can't be the only Tohatsu on a 27' Catalina and it ran quite well.
Briefly had a 4 hp 4-stroke Tohatsu in the OB well (i.e. mounted directly on the bottom of the hole, no bracket). Front to back, it was too long to tilt all the way up. I now have an Evinrude 9.9 in there, 2-stroke, which just clears the top of the hole when tilted (got to be careful about your knuckles); the bottom of the gearcase clears the water by a comfortable inch.
To tilt the motor I have a rope looped around the top section with the tail running through the hole and into the cockpit. It's pretty easy to do, but a more permanent solution would be to rig some tackle to do the same job. Eventually I'll probably be in the market for a new motor, and then I'll be dealing with the same problem again.
I keep hearing about a different bracket design built and sold locally, I think called the Breeze Bracket. The mounting plate rode vertically on rails mounted to the transom. Unfortunately I don't think you can get them anymore.
Thanks, more knowledge....Was the 4 HP Tohatsu a short or a long shaft? I'm really asking is the OB well designed for short shaft? Reason I'm asking is maybe going to 4 stroke long shaft electric starting, alternator model turned out to offset some of the good with a down side. If a good used 6 hp 2 stroke short shaft in the original OB well would suffice it may be less effort and affordable.
Sadly short. The long shaft version interfered with the rudder unless it was tilted at an angle that seemed silly to me (not so with my current 9.9 long shaft).
It was definitely more likely to aerate in a chop than my current OB.
Ok, problem solved. So with the transom and bracket both tilting it's hard to say what dimensions will produce clearance for the motor to tilt fully up yet still clear the water. Here's a picture of the old bracket that didn't allow full upswing.
So I used the old bracket to "mock up" the transom to estimate a new bracket. A large cardboard bolted to the old bracket in the garage showed maybe 4" interference when the motor tilted up.
I wanted to give the bracket a slight tilt but concerned the motor then won't clear the water. Probably the hard part was accurately drilling the holes to match the boat because they weren't all true. Here's the final sitting position with clearance to the water as well as the transom. Success. Thanks for all the guidance you guys gave.
Lastly, I want to share this home made hoist really made hoisting the 90 lb motor a breeze. You can see we were relieved at the final resting place!
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