Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

[Tmacular]

I have a 75 Chrysler. On it is the release and lock for outboard when cruising. Lately I have had it on release just in case I hit something, but I have a 16' flat bottom bass boat and during reverse the motor lifts out of the water? Should I just lock it down assuming I cant hit bottom?

 

[reddogg]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

Lock it down unless you know you are traveling thru a very shallow area. Do you have a fishfinder on your boat? Use that to set yourself a depth limit such as if you are in water shallower than 10' unlock it.

Red

 

[Tmacular]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

I do have a fishfinder and set the alarm for 2 ft. Considering I live on a chain of lakes and most of the chain is less then 4 ft (canals), I shut it down because it was always beeping . However i did find out the prop does not hit bottom unless Im in 1.4 ft or shorter (fishfinder). So assuming that, lock it or keep it, and does locking it opposed to release affect performance?

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

driving unlocked is fine. just be aware of the rie in reverse. seldom should you have to reverse so hard that it comes up.
don't use a fish finder as a bottom alarm for a boat that size, as you noted. too annoying.

 

[MAXXIE]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

I do what reddog said, if I'm in water I know is shallow it's unlocked. One funny note, when I first got my boat I did not know there was a lock there. Every time I was backing away from the dock at the launch it would keep popping up & I thought to myself, there should be some type of lock switch on this to keep it from doing this. Then one day a guy in an inbound boat asked if my lock was broken, I said do they all have locks? The guy just looked at me with the blankest stair I've ever seen.:facepalm: If I know I have to reverse, the first thing I do is make sure the lock is locked. When that prop did come's out of the water it's like a buzz saw.

 

[JB]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

Are you guys telling me that that outboard does not lock itself when shifted into reverse??

Never had an outboard that didn't.

Really bad design or just needs the reverse lock adjusted.

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

JB: The older big Chrysler engines without power tilt/trim had a manual lock. Turn the lever under the steering snout to lock or unlock it. If kept in lock position and if functioning correctly, if you hit something and the engine popped up, when it dropped down, the plate automatically engaged the tilt bar and locked again. Kept unlocked, the engine was free to tilt under reverse power. Engines with power tilt ONLY and no trim did have a lock that used hydraulic pressure (actually, lack of it) to engage while the engine was in running position. This also automatically released when a submerged object was hit at speed and reengaged when the engine dropped.

Smaller engines like 9.9 and 15 had a roughly circular plastic lever inboard, next to the starboard mounting clamp. The lock was a little different but functioned the same. These smaller engines also had a bar between the clamps to hold the engine out at an angle for shallow water operation.

 

[Susquehanna Squid]

Re: Should I keep the outboard locked or on release

When we run my father's fishing boat the motor is always unlocked regardless of depth. Good example, while on the Bay of Quinte' (Tellegraph Narrows to be exact) we were in 40' + of water and hit a gill net at 1 in the morning. We could not see the net and had no idea why the motor came flying up out but after we floated back down to see what was up, sure as sh*t there it was, just under the surface. Hope this helps.