Towing boat with drives up or down?
 

I'm sure this question has been asked, couldn't find a thread on it, but for those that do regular decent haul trailering and have the clearance, do you tow with drives up or down? I have twin Bravo XRs, I do store all winter with drives down for those known benefits, but what about trailering? I have about 12" clearance, skeg to ground in full down position.

Thx

I trim mine up to the limit switch cut off. The boat sits high enough on the trailer , clearance is not an issue. No need to use the trailer switch

Up....don't risk it when towing. Too many variables when towing.

I always towed mine all the way up, and put trim clips on the rams to take the weight off of the hydraulic systems. Part of me feels that if the boat was rear ended when I was trailering, I'd want the vehicle to push the drives into the boat, rather than downward, and risk ripping the transom downward.

UP

Down for me, my boat sits high on the trailer.

I leave mine down since I'm high enough on the trailer. I have never liked my drives sitting in the up postion when they don't have to be.

Thanks guys, seems to be a close split, but couple more seem to trailer with drives up. I can see the good reasons for both perspectives...

We had a customer come in asking about a new Bravo Lower. He towed drives up but the seat spun around and ground the skeg and bottom of gear case off flush to the gears.

Down for me - but my boat sits up pretty high on the trailer.

Up
even if we may think the boat sits high enough
measure the day leaf springs brakes or tear off
it may become much, or too much lower!

up up !

Trailer - up.
Store - down.

Broken a few leaf springs and the trailer does not sit any lower. The axle gets crooked then the tire heats up and blows.
I trim my drives up high enough so that the skegs are higher than trailer crossbeams. That way anything I might run over won't hit the drives.

a hair higher than cross beam
might not be high enough depending back lenght of trailer and on conditions
ask me how I know!
I went to fuel up in a station that was higher than the street
the way it was made , when I went out to the street, one of the skeg rubbed the pavement. Drives were not completely down but not way up either
since then the higher the better!
but completely down when parked home

On my Cigarette I'm re-doing, I installed a remote control for a winch on my drives just for this. As long as you have a single switch for both drives, it's easy to wire in and it works great. This way I can put the drives all the way down when parked and don't have to uncover the boat and get a ladder to hit the trim switch. This boat sits high enough to keep them somewhat down while towing, but as others said it's a nice piece of mind knowing they will not never drag. I'm going to put some kind of pin with a tag that will remind me on the tongue that has to be removed before hitching. Only downfall is the battery switches must be on, which shouldn't be too much of a problem since I will plug in the shore power to run the charger while parked.
On my other boats, which are single engines, they sit much lower and having them all the way up is a must for towing. It makes me cringe knowing the bellows are stretched all the way out for any length of time and uncovering just to trim the drive is always a pain.

Aircraft use these: https://www.google.com/search?q=remo...client=gws-wiz

Trailer - up

Store - down

On my Eagle trailer with the 377 Scarab, I have a drive guard. I trailer mine with the drives down. If I raise my drives, I will raise them up so the drive is still supported side to side by the wear plate in the lower portion of the gimble. I dont want all that rotational force acting on just the hinge pins

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...712064a67.jpeg
I leave my drives right where I run them.

Definitely up for a standard length Bravo 1!

I like the way the trailer is boxed and extends past the drives. Definitely got some protection there in the event of an issue.