Motor kick up?

[Panda]

I have a 60 ETEC on my 4.55 M Polycraft.

Would the motor kick up if I hit a submerged obstacle like a rock or a log while at speed?

I have tried it out in the garage, trying to lift the motor with it in forward gear, but it seems to be pretty well fixed in position by the electric tilt.

If I hit a submerged object at speed,-- say a bombie, log or even a sand bar, would it kick the motor up or rip he stern out of my boat?

[blaze]

yes

[onerabbit]

Hey Panda,
just befored xmas we hit a shark or large sunfish wich caused heaps of damage to the boat (3ft of gelcoat gone off the keel ). The motor also had full contact with "whatever it was" (was in the pitch black ).
I can assure you there was no kick -up factor, I can only assume you have a power ram on your motor, they dont really allow for "kick -up"

Muzz

[seatime]

I've heard of one kicking up after hitting an immovable object (steel pipe). It broke a couple of bolts, and apparently slammed back down just as hard as it got kicked up. not good. this is a second hand story mind u.

[griz066]

IMHO it will not kick up :-[

[bidkev]

What does the manual say? There's no mention of kick up in my 25merc manual but the 220 stern drive states specifically that it will kick up. That said, I've been grounded twice and the black prop and skeg is now a shiny silver so in practice, it didn't kick up. ::)

kev

[blaze]

I believe it is a legal obligation to have a pressure relief valve on all pressure vessels, Now I hear you say pressure vessel, the hydraulic system on your power trim tilt is a pressure vessel in a broad sense and I believe they all have a relief valve so on a sudden impact the pressure is increased dramaticly and the valve releases. The leg then will only rise up until the pressure decreases, this maybe 1" or 6" but it will move and relieve the pressure.
With outboards without ptt there will be a mechanism the unlocks the tilt when put in foward gear and in nuetral and reverse it will auto lock, the other system used on small boat is a manual lever to lock/unlock the tilt mechanism, this lever should always be unlocked when in the foward gear postion and locked for reversing to stop the outboard kicking up
cheers
blaze

[Argle]

Blaze is spot on the money, it will kick up

Cheers and Beers
Scott

[Getout]

If the outboard is in gear and driving fwd, the skeg will cop the full impact of the collision whether there is motor kickup or not because the leg is being pushed by the prop, not dragged by the boat. The momentum of the hull will then drag the leg over the object if it hasn't already snapped off.
I've hit plenty of sandbars at high speed with my old johnno four banger and there was some sign of kick-up. I don't think she would kick with a sudden impact

[BrandonH]

I hit a sandbar early one morning on the Noosa #:-[ was my first trip up there and i was following the markers untill I couldn't see anymore :-/ was traveling about centre to the river and then watched as my sounder went from 10foot to 5 and 3 then blinking :o boat started to slide at full noise onto the sandbar and the motor kicked right up out of the water. didn't even take paint off the skeg ;D was very lucky there wasn't any rocks or crap on the bar where i hit it but i was very suprised as i wasn't expecting it to kickup like that.. I now know more about teh Noosa river and about what my rig does in certern situations!! its a 15hp 4stroke Mariner too if anyone is interested.

cheers
Brandon...

[2iar]

My Suzuki DF70 kicked up when I hit a fringing reef off Mud Island. If you'd asked me before that, I wouldn't have thoght it would, but I'm glad it did. Slight scrapes on the skeg and a few bucks to fix the prop, but it could have been a lot worse if it had stayed where it was...

Good luck,
Mike

[Panda]

Well thanks for the replies fellas.
Based on the general flow of information here it seems likely that the motor will kick up before ripping the transom out of my boat if I hit a solid object at speed. At least I hope it will! :-)

[tiges]

Not that it is relevant to power trim motors, but concurring with Blaze's comments on the manual tilt tiller steers, always have the lever on unlock (unless you wanna go really fast in reverse). I hit a submerged object in the Mooloolah river at almost WOT, doing around 20+kts. Was in 2 - 2.5m of water at the time, and only about the bottom 2cm of the keel struck the object. Must've been something hard like a log or dumped metal object as the motor kicked right up out of the water violently. Scared the tripe out of me, and my 3 passengers. Only damage was the bottom 1-2cm of the keel was bent and cracked, prop was untouched. Tried to straighten out the keel, but it predictably snapped off along the crack. Sanded it back to smooth/perpendicular, and it is just level with the bottom of the prop, so no real harm done. But a real wake up call, you never know exactly whats beneath the water. If thats the reaction to just knicking something with the bottom of your keel, imagine the outboard leg taking the full brunt of an imoveable object! Probably rip the motor and/or transom clean off your boat! Let alone the physical damage that could be done to one's self as you face plant into the front thwart seat, ouch :o.