Getting out of the hole.....
 

This is a dumb question and I'm embarrassed to ask.....a long time ago I read its very hard on the joints in the outdrive to go over 2000rpm with the drive completely down. So for my entire boating career, I've been getting up on plan probably by forcing the engine too much with the drive at a bit less than on plane cruising angle. So slightly plowing the boat up out of the hole. Not excessively....but certainly not with the drive right down at a 90° angle. Can anyone clarify the correct way to get up on plane without damaging the mechanics of the boat? It's far past time I get it right.

A boat for the most part is either on plane or off plane. So you want to get it on plane as quickly as possible to minimize wear and tear in general. That means drive tucked all the way in and tabs down (if you have them) and apply sufficient power to get going. Stock power and a stock drives are just fine to handle the loads. You just don't want to spend long amounts of time "plowing" through the water during that transition to getting on plane.

Jase,

The stresses of getting on plane are obviously shouldered by both the gears and the U-joint. I am no drive expert, but I don't believe the drive will trim down far enough to put a bind on the U-joint sufficiently to do it any harm at any load that the gears will tolerate. I'd say most of us get on a plane with our drives tucked all the way under, for no other reason than the lift helps plane faster. I know I do. I keep it right around 3K getting on plane, backing off the throttle as the boat noses over until it's on plane, then I trim it out, at which time I will then pick up about 400RPM or so.

Thanks. Brad.

I am all the way down and tabs down, not all the way on tabs just because I found it works better not to.

Gets on plane faster and much less stress once on plane.

Wildman,

When I was dealing with what turned out to be clogged injectors, and we were WAY down on power, I tried using my tabs to help get on plane faster. It seemed take longer and put more strain on the mechanisms. I tried all the way down and about halfway down. Obviously, full down was worse than half, but even half seemed to be counter-productive. Could be because I've got the smaller tabs (not K-planes), and I need more angle to achieve a useful amount of lift....?

As it is now, I pretty much just leave my tabs alone, having found a setting the boat likes overall, unless I've got an uneven passenger load or I'm running WOT, when I raise them entirely. I will sometimes use a little left-down tab to counter chine walk, though. Seems to help.

Thanks. Brad.

Yep. trim the drive all the way down (or "IN") to get out of the hole. Trimming the drive too far up (or "Out") is where binding of u-joints occurs. Definitely want to avoid that.

Could be the tabs, but they are different boats, mine is a twin your is a single, just have to find out what works. I do know and it may happen on yours when I put them further down I think the K planes mess up the water flow to the props.

Here since the water can be nasty a lot even on the inside and coming from the sides I am always adjusting tabs. When running fast its pretty busy.

Thanks for the helpful replies 🙂. It's what my gut was telling me all along but I unfortunately read bad info years back leading me down a wrong path. I'll give drive all the way down a try next ride out

Whatever you read was incorrect. Drive all the way down to get on plane. You can run the boat as long as you want with the drive all the down with no adverse effects

I know every boat is different, but mine seems to do a lot better if I ease into the throttle and then get more aggressive. Stabing it (even just 1/2 throttle) right off makes it stand up more.

I have twins with TRS drives - tucked all the way down creates a harmonic vibration that you can feel in the boat so I try to make sure the drives aren't tucked too deeply. My point in saying is that a lot of times the boat will tell you what it likes and dislikes. If you notice strange vibrations or noises, then something isn't right and a different action should be taken.

I've blown up a few drives in my lifetime so I'm one those guys that puts the boat on plane gently. I don't let it plow but I'm also not hamfisting the throttles unless there's a serious reason to do so (safety in jeopardy for instance).

It is a lot easier to blow up joints trimmed up to high. Tucked in is barely different than neutral. They just don't go that far in

I’ll agree with that but my point really was to listen to what the boat is telling the pilot.

Tom,

I would guess that harmonic you were hearing was due to the drive being against hard stops when all the way down, and all vibration of any kind, even just gear mesh, being transmitted mechanically into the hull though the transom assembly. It's annoying, and likely unnerving, but pretty much harmless. We found this, in a buddy's Formula 233 with a B3, and just the slightest bit of up trim, just enough to get the drive off the hard stop contact, made it go away. His wife was convinced that something was wrong.

Thanks. Brad.

Totally agree. I started setting the tabs to where I think I'll need them once I'm on plane. Seems to work well and it's 1 less thing to do during a busy time in the cockpit.

ZZ,

I do this, too.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...81ba85a8a.jpeg

This is essentially where my tabs reside 99% of the time. Since the injector issue that made the effort to help get on a plane described above necessary resolved itself, the only time I’ve had my tabs lower than this pic was when we were trying to see if I could keep it on a plane running side-by-side with my buddy in his underpowered pontoon. Other than that, the only time I mess with my tabs is when I have an uneven passenger load or when I run them all the way up for a WOT run.

Thanks. Brad.