Question on small boat jack plate??

Last year I purchased a 16 ft alumacraft waterfowler for hunting and beatin through the river…my question to all you boat guys is do they make a cheap light weight jack plate I could put on it to get my 30 horse honda out of the water a bit more?? I think I would be able to bring up the motor about 2.5 to 3 inches and still should run good. I also located a transom lift on the net but would maybe like to stick with a jack pplate..any input on this would be great thanks all…Jay

Does your motor bolt on? Or does it just have the clamp type handles that hold it on?

If it bolts on, all yo have to do is raise the motor until the cavitation plate on the lower unit is even, or just a hair lower than the hull of the boat.. then redrill and bolt the motor in place.

Installing a jack plate is going to move the weight even further back drawing down your transom more.. you might not gain anything by raising the motor then, you would only be compensating for how much the boat lowered.

My guess is right now your motor is bolted on by 4 bolts.. whomever installed it just hung the motor, centered it, drilled the holes and anchored the motor without paying attention to the elevation.

I tried one on an 11 Hydro and it was a disaster. If possible just raise the motor a few inches without using a jack plate.

If you still want a jack plate find one that extends straight up from the trannsom. Those that extend beyond tend to create more problems then they resolve.

See I knew id get the answer from this site…thanks guys…Jay

If thats the same thing as the Panther lift I put on my boat last year, I’d say no way. I put a Panther rated for 10hp on mine so I could use my short shaft 4.5 as a back up mapping on Mille Lac. It works, barely. Now I wish I had a permanent way to mount it or a long shaft but its too nice a motor to trade or sell.
D Scott’s got the right idea.

WarrenMN