Bungees on O/B's...how important are they?
 

I have always run bungees on my motors. A trick I learned when racing offshore. This is typically used to control the extreme vibration and excessive shock loads placed on the motors and trim pumps when running in rough conditions. Seeing as how I usually do not run in water that is REALLY rough, usually just lake chop with some bigger waves from cruisers/yachts or tour boats thrown in for fun from time to time, do I really need them? I ask because sometimes I like to pull into shallow water and I am limited due to the bungee cords. Can anyone give me some ideas?

Thanks.

Shane

I believe Merc O/Bs only lock into position when you go into reverse. In forward or neutral they can tilt up in case you hit something.

If you remove the cords, you might have the engines slam against the transom when you jump a boat wake.

REALLY?????? Did not know that! Thanks for the insight Ron!

What if instead of wrapping the bungees to the boat, your wrap them to a 2" or 3" ring attached to a hook or a climbers latched ring. Then attach the latched ring/hook to the boat. That way you could make the bungees removable if necessary.

"Please note: May need to acguire serious muscle to re-attach bungees to boat"! :)

In order to be effective they need to be EXTREMELY tight and several wraps are required. Although your idea is a good one, I don't think it would work. Has anyone else ever tried this before?

Here you go:
52 grams of protien, 600 calories per serving!


Here is another option:
What about 3 or 4 1-1/2" diameter rings. That way you could muscle them on to the boat, but it wouldn't take as much.

Other than that no ideas here. Maybe someone else on this board??

At what point do the bungees come into play? If you are running a "V" and have twins or tripps, run in occasional rough water but might only see 70 - 75 mph on the top end, is it a good idea to have them or not really worth it?

i always wondered why i would see the bungee cords on a boat like that. is that a merc product or something you do yourself???

Why don't you let me take the boat with me on my trip and I'll experiment with both setups and let you know! :D

I'm not an O/B expert but here goes.

With the boat on the trailer, put the shifter in forward with the engine off. Lift the skeg of the engine. If you can lift it, you should use bungees. If you can't, then you don't need them. I had twin OMC V6 engines on a Sonic and you couldn't tilt them by hand so they didn't flop around while in the air without forward thrust holding them against the transom.

OMC had (don't know what they currently use) a spring loaded locking mechanism so if you hit a submerged log, the engine will tilt up. Merc just leaves the engine "unlocked" when ever the shifter goes into forward.

I never owned a Merc, just seen a few.