Hydraulic trolling plate

[Pioneer]

I custom made my own hydraulic trolling plate for the back of my Baha. Pump from a mercruiser sterndrve, new cylinder that has switches both fore and aft for raising and lowering the plate.

[usmcpaul]

Nice work. Very clean and the welds look nice on the upper bracket.

How will the plate affect the handling? It looks like it is directly in front of the rudder.

[Pioneer]

It handles great. As you turn your rudder it shoots water around the plate giving great handling in turns. Surpluscenter.com has all the cylinder and hydraulic parts you could ever want. If anyone has any questions please ask. Doing it yourself saves a ton of cash. Chris

[GLF]

Nice work Chris!

[Nailer]

looks nice Chris.

[usmcpaul]

Thanks for that site Chris. It is one of those inventor paradises. It is right up my alley.

[Priority1]

Chris, It looks great.

[Yoda]

Running a plate like that on a I/B inhanceses your ability to control the boat at slower speeds, Inboards work by pushing water into the rudder to. With the plate you can keep your RPM's up. we have been running one on our 252 Sportcraft for the past 2 years. Our biggest issue with the plate was getting it up out of the water when we where running, if you don't get it at least a little above level it act's as a BIG Trim Tab thats ALWAYS pushing the front of the boat into the water.. In Chris'es Baha he has the room to mount the top of the piston high on the stern of the boat to pull the plate up past level, we didn't have that option because of a built in cooler in the stern of our boat. This year we mounted the top of our piston to a kicker motor bracket, if the bracket holds up, We'll post a few pictures later this spring.

[zollerj]

looks great! nice job!

[Pioneer]

John, Glad you posted. I was wondering how it turned out for you after we talked. As long as you have a nice backer plate all should be good. Thanks everyone for the nice words. I have a list of suppliers and advice if anybody ever wants to do one. P.M. anytime, Chris

[Tad Pole]

Looks greats you did what looks like real quality work.

I have witnessed and heard of many troll plates being destroyed by ussually forgetting its down and throttleing up and bending it up I think I would need a saftey that wouldn't allow me to throttle up until it was up

[Pioneer]

I have heard of that as well. For the last year and a half I put a note on the dash to check it before I motor up. The plate is made of 1/4 stainless so bending it would be hard, I would probibly damage something. The guys at Accurate Marine says I would probibly stress crack the transom if I put it down at speed by mistake!

[diesel]

what about installing a inline micro switch that turns the pump on when you thorttle up kind of like the interrup switch for shifting then you would also have to use a presure switch on the hydrolics to kick the pump off when the plate is all the way up

[Yoda]

I doubr very much your could distroy the plates be trying to bring the boat up on plan..... you will know instintley the plate down when you throttle up..

[Willie Bee]

Your going to love the speed control. Been running mine for the last 16 years. I wouldn't want to fish without a hydraulic system. Saw some for outboards and i/o's for the first time this year. This probably will be a option on boats soon. Don't forget to hit the up button before hitting the throttles.

http://s378.photobucket.com/albums/oo224/willie-bee/?action=view&current=IMAG0003.jpg

[Crowhunter]

I custom made my own hydraulic trolling plate for the back of my Baha. Pump from a mercruiser sterndrve, new cylinder that has switches both fore and aft for raising and lowering the plate.

WE did this on a boat named the Sculpin back in the 70s worked great .Bud

[ChampionShip]

What a piece of crap.......Just kidding Big Sexy- that boat is badass!