Jack Plate Installation

The off season is a good time to perform boat maintenance and boat up grades. I bought my Triton TR186 in May of 2007. I have known since I bought it it would need a Jack Plate to perform at its best. My numbers before were just ok. I could turn at best 5100 rpms with my 23 Tempest Plus. My top speed was about 52-55 MPH depending on load. I purchased a T-H Marine Pro High Jacker 6" jackplate this fall. Late this fall with the help of my friend Guy we found a Saturday to install it. Guy has a hoist set up in his garage so that was a bonus. We were able to unbolt the motor from the transom install the plate and drop the motor back down. The steering cables were long enough as were the throttle cables. We then set the motor height based on Guy's set up. The dim we set was 2 3/4" center of prop shaft to pad. Overall it was a fairly easy job to do with the right equipment. After we had checked and re checked the fittings. I took the boat to the lake to see how much improvement there was. It was a totally different boat handling and speed wise. I was able to turn 5800 rpms no problem and my top speed was 58.8 before I ran out of lake. This spring it will be fun to try and improve those numbers and dial it in for the best performance. Thanks to Guy for the use of his garage and help getting the install done.