Jackplate Upgrade

Bassinkorea · February 03, 2021, 04:38:27 AM

I have been wanting a hydraulic jackplate for quite some time, well, just a few weeks ago I decided to just go for it, and I ordered a 6" Atlas jackplate.

I've had my 2005 18.5' Triton since 2011 (wow 10 years already!) and it came with a 6" manual Rite-Hite jackplate.

Saturday 30th January was install day in the shop, and I was there to help the owner out with the install. We started around 8am Saturday with the removal of the old jackplate.

New versus old.....

Before installing the new jackplate cleaned up the transom from old silicone and general dirt and grime then soaked the bolts and bolt holes with silicone in the transom.

The Atlas JP came with a rocker type up/down switch, but I didn't want to use that kind of switch, so when I order the JP, I also bought a twin blinker type switch for behind the steering wheel.

I also got the JP gauge for the dash and installed at the same time.

I haven't tested it on the water yet as I wanted the silicone enough time to cure up, but I can't wait to get out and play around with my new toy.

The one small down side to the install was that I could not re-install the PowerPole with the current PP bracket I have, as it wouldn't fit with the Atlas JP. I was actually wanting to get rid of it anyway as I'm only fishing highland reservoirs these days, so it only comes in useful for parking the boat up on the shoreline. And since I've had my Ultrex with spot lock, the PP was kind of redundant anyway.
The owner of the shop told me one of his customers had one of his PP motors down and was looking for a replacement, so I was able to sell my PP.

BassmanRudy · February 03, 2021, 08:14:32 AM

Looks good!! The hydraulic jackplate will be super useful!

Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

Polaris425 · February 03, 2021, 08:33:30 AM

That's cool!!! Mine have always been manual, but my next boat will have to be hydraulic.

Princeton_Man · February 03, 2021, 11:14:45 AM

Nice!

I've always thought it would be nice to have a hydraulic jackplate, there's just too many other things I'd like to have first. Looking forward to knowing how much you're able to improve performance with it over your manual jackplate.

Donald Garner · February 03, 2021, 10:32:50 PM

Steve, your Triton is looking Sweet there. Congrats on the new upgrade.

Bassinkorea · February 14, 2021, 07:18:57 PM

I got to play around with the new jackplate over the weekend. It was super useful for loading/unloading the boat at the ramp as well as parking at the shallow shoreline.

I played around with the height while running WOT and learned quite a lot about different settings with speed and RPM's and got to see a rooster tail behind my boat for the first time ever. I did notice quite a big drop in water pressure as soon as the rooster tail came up. I see tons of boats running around here with huge rooster tails and wonder how they can keep running like that without killing their motors. I have also noticed that most boats over here don't have water pressure gauges at all.

I will keep playing around with it over the next few months as I get things dialed in.

Princeton_Man · February 15, 2021, 05:00:41 AM

Quote from: Bassinkorea on February 14, 2021, 07:18:57 PM
I got to play around with the new jackplate over the weekend. It was super useful for loading/unloading the boat at the ramp as well as parking at the shallow shoreline.

I played around with the height while running WOT and learned quite a lot about different settings with speed and RPM's and got to see a rooster tail behind my boat for the first time ever. I did notice quite a big drop in water pressure as soon as the rooster tail came up. I see tons of boats running around here with huge rooster tails and wonder how they can keep running like that without killing their motors. I have also noticed that most boats over here don't have water pressure gauges at all.

I will keep playing around with it over the next few months as I get things dialed in.

Some folks who run like that have modified lower unit gear housings with low water pick-up ports. That helps some with water pressure. It can also lead to sucking more debris in if you're not careful.

Bassinkorea · February 15, 2021, 05:54:26 AM

I am just glad that I have an accurate water pressure gauge on my boat, gives me peace of mind whilst experimenting.