I own a 90 day old, nearly brand new, 25 hp, 2003, Mercury 2 cycle, 20 inch
shaft, with electric-start & remote steering.... I may need a 15 inch shaft
instead on my little boat.

Does anyone have a reasonable guess as to the costs to buy and install /swap
to the shorter shaft???

I posed this question to my dealer today, but he is swamped with guys trying
to get set up for fishing/boating by Thanksgiving and won't be back to me
until next week.

Any reasonable guesstimates would help me with another decision.

Thanks RichG

You might also consider a jackplate such as this one,
http://www.rmind.com/jackplates.php?...5466.196.72.74
do a search for jackplates. It will let you mount the engine 5" higher.
"RG" wrote in message
...
I own a 90 day old, nearly brand new, 25 hp, 2003, Mercury 2 cycle, 20
inch
shaft, with electric-start & remote steering.... I may need a 15 inch
shaft
instead on my little boat.

Does anyone have a reasonable guess as to the costs to buy and install
/swap
to the shorter shaft???

I posed this question to my dealer today, but he is swamped with guys
trying
to get set up for fishing/boating by Thanksgiving and won't be back to me
until next week.

Any reasonable guesstimates would help me with another decision.

Thanks RichG




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In this case, I need to LOWER it. RG

On Sat, 22 Nov 2003 20:51:32 GMT, "RG"
wrote:

In this case, I need to LOWER it. RG



Then your post doesn't make sense. Do you mean 25" instead of 15"?

The 15" shaft will put the prop higher than the 20". If you need to lower it,
you may be able to cut the transom. If you really need to raise it, the jack
plate will do the job but it will also put the motor a few inches farther back.
That might throw off the balance if the boat is really that small and it
might even require longer steering and throttle cables.

If your dealer sells a lot of outboards, you will probably save more money by
having them take it in as a trade compared to buying the new parts and paying
for the labor to shorten it.

Dan



RG wrote:
In this case, I need to LOWER it. RG

My reply to Habbi was incorrect. I was on the way out of the door and didn't
stop to think.

The Jackplate ( I've had two before) might wind up doing the trick. The
current very short (14 ft) boat with a 15 inch transom....has a CMC-PT35
power trim and tilt already added. That puts the motor back about 5 inches,
and supposedly raises it about two inches.

While the CMC-PT35 does exactly what IT is expected to do...what with the
too-short transom and the set-back, the motor apparently isn't far enough up
in the water column to gain the advantage of the set-back. ( I run in
extremely shallow water). If I ADD a jackplate, that will just increase the
problem due to additional setback...maybe I'll wind up switching the
jackplate for the CMC trim unit ???

Another alternative is adding a heavy (1/2 or 3/4 " )aluminum plate to the
CMC unit, and just raising the motor another couple of inches without
causing much more set-back.

I bought this boat used 2 years ago, and love it for it's skinny water
characteristics..but it has never planed out as well as I would like. Just
looking for solutions or ideas. Thanks RichG