I’m going with cutting the rods and taking a small piece out and weld them back together. My winter project.

What are you planning to use to cut the rods? You're not going to take the rods out of the trim cylinder and cut the ends where the bolt attaches?

I’ll cut the rod with cut off wheel about an inch back from where the hinge pin is and take 1/2 to 3/4 out. Chamfer the edges, Reweld it but still be able to use the zinc. I’ll have to take the hinge pin out to see how much further in the drive tucks in.

You can only cut out that pice that the drive can swing down without the rams hang in. If you cut more out and you trim down you damage the Gimbel ring hing pins with your ram power.

You are correct I was looking at a boat at the marina I work at and the drive will only go in until the bell housing hits the gimble ring. So I have to make sure to cut the rams so that the bell housing does to touch the gimble ring.

Will it hit the gimbal ring if you only take 3/4" off the rods? Do you have a pic?

You should also allow a "little" extra room for the compression of the rubber mounts when with load in forward.

I think it will definitely hit the ring if I take 3/4’s off. I’m going to get the right measurement when I take the hinge pin out to see how much more negative there is to play with.

Well after going to remove the trim cylinders today, I realized the drive already hits the gimbal ring. It appears I have some negative trim. It looks like a lot of work to shorten the rods, trim metal on the drive and maybe off the gimbal ring just to get a little more negative trim. I'm thinking there may not be much benefit in the small amount of increased negative trim I might be able to get.

At least you were smart enough to look it over before you did a bunch of work for nothing.