For the GW Owners Who Tow - Yamaha Engine Tilt Angle?

hotajax

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How much should the engine be tilted from the vertical for towing over the highway? I've heard ALL variations of it - one of them has to be right. Thanks.
 
Jake,
To my knowledge there is no specified angle that I am aware of. The one thing you don't want to do is to rely on the engine tilt bracket that you rest the engine on when you tilt it out of the water. We have been in quite along thread lately about this. I recommend you go to M-ywedge.com and look at their transom saver. I bought one and will be towing my new Tournament 225 back to Cumberland from Lorain, OH on Friday. It's about a seven hour trip. Several people on this site have them and it seems to work very well.
See the recent thread Towing/Engine Support.
 
Ever since I've had outboards, (long time), I just hold a length of 2x4 just below the hydraulic cylinder, and tilt the engine down until it holds it in place. The engine is then tilted maybe 10 or 15 degrees, and I'll tow that way to the ramp. I also do the same thing for winter storage.
 
As Chris said, there has been a big discussion about this.
I also ordered a M-Y Wedge after listening to what everyone else had to say.

I have split my towing between using the flip-lever(tilt bracket) and just dropping the engines 'till they touch the power pistons, like GW204 does.

My only prob. with dropping the engines to the pistons is that the lower units are just on the edge of being too close to the road surface for me..
 
As others have said, no specified angle. At least none that I know of.

But, something to consider. When your towing the boat out of a driveway or parking lot that drops down onto (is higher than) the road, the skeg needs be high enough so that it will not contact the ground once the trailer wheels have reached the road surface.

As a rule, I like the bottom tip of the skeg higher than the rear most trailer cross member.

Two other notes. Some Yamaha dealerships are telling owners it's ok to trailer using the tilt lever on the motor. The manual says otherwise. At least in the case of my '03 F225 it says otherwise.

When using the M-Y wedge, for some motors it matters which side you use it on. In the case of my F225, it should NOT be used on the side where the zerk fitting is located.
 
you guys should trim the motor all the way up, then go back and push up and down on the motor!

you will be amazed how much she moves!!

you want to be on the trim rams, not on the tilt rod

my-wedge, 2x4, transom saver all work

do not use the lock to trailer