Motor ? How far can I take it out of the water?

[DiverDog357]

How much of your outboard do you have to keep in the water to run it without doing damage? I have a short shaft 2.5 mercury and would like to run it in shallower water than I can now. Right now the cavitation plate is level with the bottom of the boat. Would I be able to raise it up some so that the prop would be running at the level of the bottom of the boat. I dont want to mess the motor up but where I fish the river is shallow in a lot of places and would be able to go to some real good spots if I could get through the shallows. I would love to buy a Go-Devil, or jet motor but don't have the funds yet.

A friend of mine building a homemade twin engine mud motor for his canoe and if he can get it together it should be perfect for where we fish. I hope it works out as planned cause I will be building one next. We already have a little 31cc ryobi that we mess around with and surprisingly it works pretty good. Just doesnt have the oomph we need to get through the few sections of rapids. You should see the looks we get when we're running that thing. He made the prop out of a bucket mixer head, and a fire sprinkler guard to serve as a rock guard. It works well.

Thanks for the help

 

[tankilla]

I would love to see some pics of your friend's twin motor and also more details about your motor idea. I have had similar interest in some type of low cost propulsion for a small boat that can basically keep you moving as long as the boat is not scraping the bottom. Maybe a sort of jet type motor using the lower section of a trolling motor to pull water through it. I think this would be a great topic to start a new thread on! [-o<

 

[ben2go]

If the prop starts sucking air you need to lower the motor.If it's sucking air the water pump isn't getting water.This maybe a cheap alternative to an off the self mud motor.
https://www.boatdesign.net/forums/diy-marinizing/thai-longtail-mudmotor-6hp-lifan-honda-26281.html

 

[Quackrstackr]

It has to be low enough that your water intakes stay in the water. A lot of the bigger motors on jack plates run water pressure gauges to make sure they are getting enough water to correctly cool the motor.