If you desire a flawless performance from your outboard motor, you have to watch out for how it is mounted.
This includes watching out for signs of outboard motor mounted too low.
This is because the outboard position affects how the boat performs on the water.
If mounted at the right height, there will be a great performance.
But if mounted too low, then the performance of the outboard motor will be affected.
In this guide, you are going to learn of the signs or what happens when outboard is mounted too low.
You will also learn of how to avoid or correct it as well.
Symptoms Of Outboard Mounted Too Low
1) Porpoising Of Boat
One of the things that make a boat trip enjoyable is when the boat can move on the water smoothly.
To achieve this, the health condition of the outboard motor comes into concern.
If the outboard motor has a fault like vibrating when accelerating, then the vibration will also be felt by the boat passengers.
But in other times, your boat can still move in an unstable manner even when you have a well functioning outboard motor.
When this occurs, it can be due to the position of the outboard motor.
If the outboard motor is mounted too low, you are going to experience a situation in which your boat will be porpoising.
When this occurs, your boat will be in a consistent up and down motion even when the water is stable.
When you observe this, you have to look at the position of your outboard motor.
If the position of the propeller is too low from the base of the boat, then an unbalanced boat movement will occur.
This is one of the signs of an outboard motor mounted too low on a boat that will show up when you are using your boat.
2) Poor Handling Of Boat
When there is a poor handling in a boat, there are a lot of reasons attached to it.
It can be due to a poorly build boat quality or due to a turbulent water current.
But in other times, it can be due to the position of the outboard motor.
This is usually when the outboard motor is mounted too low.
When this occurs, then the handling of the boat will not be very good in some cases.
This is due to how the boat will move on the water when the position of the propeller is positioned too low due to the position of the outboard motor.
3) Poor Stability Of Boat
When an outboard motor is positioned too low, one of the things that will occur is that you are going to experience a porpoise when using your boat.
This leads to the up and down movement of the boat when on the water.
This creates a level of instability of the boat when it is on the surface of the water.
That is why you have to make sure that you mount the outboard motor at the optimal height.
This will help keep the boat stable when on the surface of the water while you are boating.
4) Inability Of Boat To Reach Top Speed
For your boat to be able to attain top speed when you are accelerating, a lot of things come into concern.
One of the things has to do with the condition of your fuel pump, spark plug and the quality of the outboard motor.
But in a lot of cases, these components can be in excellent condition but you still struggle to attain a top speed with your outboard motor.
When this happens, you have to make sure that you look at one of the things that a lot of people ignore.
This has to do with the position of your outboard motor.
If it is properly positioned, then you will have a great performing outboard motor.
But if it is poorly positioned in which the outboard motor is mounted too low, then the boat will have struggles in reaching its top speed.
That is why you have to make sure that you position your boat at the optimum level.
5) High Fuel Consumption
One of the things to consider when you consider what happens when outboard is mounted too low is the volume of fuel consumed.
When your outboard motor is not positioned well, the outboard motor will be stressed more when functioning.
This will result in other issues like a higher fuel consumption.
This can happen in cases in which the outboard is mounted too low on the boat.
Due to this, the force from the propeller will not be enough to optimally move the boat as it should move if the outboard motor was well positioned.
This can cause more work for the outboard motor and increase fuel consumption in order to keep up with the required speed.
How To Avoid Mounting Outboard Motor Too Low
1) Use The Right Outboard Motor
When it comes to running your outboard effectively, you have to know one thing.
That thing is that all outboard motors are not suitable for all boats.
You can have a great performance and result from using an outboard motor on a particular boat but have a very poor performance when using on another boat.
This is due to compatibility challenges.
That is why you have to make sure that the correct size of outboard motor is being used on the boat that you are using.
This will help deliver a great level of performance from the outboard motor and boat itself.
2) Build Your DIY Boats To Standard
Some people do not just like following the normal trend.
This is seen in a lot of people that like producing their own equipments.
This is when the DIY way comes into use.
Some people do it well and produce excellent equipments better than the best you can find in the market.
But some people get it all wrong and produce risky and crappy equipments that are dangerous to make use of.
This can be seen in a DIY produced boat not done well.
In such boats, you may have issues like a leakage or a poorly measured transom.
This will cause problems when making use of the boat with an outboard motor.
This usually shows up in flaws like seeing symptoms of an outboard mounted too low when the transom is not well measured.
3) Use The Proper Outboard Position
When it comes to an outboard issue in which the outboard motor is mounted too low, the issue is usually the positioning.
To make sure that you correct this, you have to make sure that you position the outboard motor well.
This can be done by referring to the manufacturers recommendation.
This will help you with the optimal position that your outboard motor has to be at.
When this is done, it will help your outboard motor to perform well.
Apart from the outboard motor performing well, your boat will also be able to move well when it is on the surface of the water.
This will help eliminate most of the symptoms of outboard mounted too low and make your boat achieve great performance when it is on the surface of the water.
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