Sorry it's a little wordy with slang,I recent purchased this fine product. I installed it myself with an engine lift along with upper and lower support brackets. It was a little challenging to do without someone to hand you tools. You have to keep your cabling in mind. Use NEW BOLTS.The first time out I was conservative in operating the jack plate. Yes I did try it at high speed, 3 lift max. and yes it seemed to go faster and I operated it at maximum lift at low speeds to see if it would still pump water, duhh, yes it did. Everything worked as it should. But one thing at low speed is it tends to wander about a bit. It straightens out the faster you go. My opinion is you still need tilt to operate in the shallow areas.The 2nd trip: Well let me say I got the guts up to trim the motor vertically and ALL THE WAY UP. I adjusted, trimmed the motor, to run vertical to the boat. Then I hit the throttle, after the boat was going as fast as it would go high speed I started to lift the motor till it ran out of UP. I knew, from the way it felt as the motor lifted to the top position that it was going faster then it every did before but I was amazed that it picked up a total of 6 mph GPS on my fish locators gps. The thought that I really put it through it's paces and used a bunch as fuel. To my amazement it appears to be a fuel saver too. I don't exactly know how much fuel economy I gained but I am getting around 4-5 more miles out of a 6 gallon tank.Finally I had a good day:My last time outI gained what I think is final data: My outfit - 16ft Alumacraft MVTEXCS 40hp Johnson VRO.Without the jack plate I was able to get the boat too around 35mph with minimum gear and a quarter tank of fuel/6 gal... I'm a little guy, 185. I was all by myself, and was going very fast so no pics to prove it YET. You can do the GPS mph math here 35mph 6mph 41. Not to bad I'd say.So here are my questions answered:Is it worth it? If going faster on the water is what you're looking for and optimizing your equipment is important? Yes, Yes, Yes.Is it safe? Yup, as safe as the operator.Do you go faster? I sure did.Is it fun? Heck yeah!I was always told, The best way to gain speed is a stainless prop. Not so anymore. You wanna go FAST? Then get one of these...I didn't need a big setback on my boat I was able get keep the prop in clean water with just a 4 Bigger boats with different hulls will perform differently I'm sure.I gave my neighbor, an avid boater, a little ride. I made my try it out too. He was totally amazed, now he wants one. And he blames me. LOLI originally bought the jack plate to operate my boat and fish in shallow water, the rest of the story was a nice surprise for me as I expected a little more speed just not what it has actually gainedHave fun, be safeTorque all the mounting bolts after the first couple uses.
Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]