ok. managed to get the tm out of the box in the living room and went to the hardware store and bought some extra stainless steel fender washers. haul the motor out to the garage, figure out what holes are which, and put the screws in. i'm thinkin, hey, this looks cool! decided to lower the motor and check for clearance. I need some good advice on this situation.
Looks like i only have about 1 inch between the tm shaft and the rub rail of the boat. the end of the tm bracket is about 1 1/2" inside the rub rail or about 1/2" inside the end of the boats fiberglass. Is the 1" clearance from the shaft to the rubrail enough? I would think that it should be more to allow the bow mount to have more room to move. If i hit something hard head on, i don't want the shaft to contact the boat and cause damage. i figure the rubrail would give 1/4 inch or so and the bottom portion of the shaft would flex some too. It is close. I was wondering what you guys think and what the clearance might be on your rigs. My boat is a lx700 and the new tm is a mk maxxum 65.
Option #1 - 1 inch is enough clearance, drill a couple more holes and mount the puppy.
Option #2 - not enough clearance, move the motor mount forward and drill 4 new holes and have 2 holes left over in the top cap. use those motorguide jack nut rubber thingamajigs to plug the holes left over.
Option #3 - get one of those minn kota $75 quick release mounts and hope it has the flexibility to align up with the original holes. anybody used one of these yet?
Option #4 - i'm out of options. don't really want to leave 2 holes but want the motor on there correctly or i will just have to do it all over again or cause damage to the boat. i fish the shallows and get the tm hung up a lot.
what do you guys think?
thanks again,
jd
Looks like i only have about 1 inch between the tm shaft and the rub rail of the boat. the end of the tm bracket is about 1 1/2" inside the rub rail or about 1/2" inside the end of the boats fiberglass. Is the 1" clearance from the shaft to the rubrail enough? I would think that it should be more to allow the bow mount to have more room to move. If i hit something hard head on, i don't want the shaft to contact the boat and cause damage. i figure the rubrail would give 1/4 inch or so and the bottom portion of the shaft would flex some too. It is close. I was wondering what you guys think and what the clearance might be on your rigs. My boat is a lx700 and the new tm is a mk maxxum 65.
Option #1 - 1 inch is enough clearance, drill a couple more holes and mount the puppy.
Option #2 - not enough clearance, move the motor mount forward and drill 4 new holes and have 2 holes left over in the top cap. use those motorguide jack nut rubber thingamajigs to plug the holes left over.
Option #3 - get one of those minn kota $75 quick release mounts and hope it has the flexibility to align up with the original holes. anybody used one of these yet?
Option #4 - i'm out of options. don't really want to leave 2 holes but want the motor on there correctly or i will just have to do it all over again or cause damage to the boat. i fish the shallows and get the tm hung up a lot.
what do you guys think?
thanks again,
jd