hello, i am new to the site and really am impressed with the amount of users online.  i have just purchased my first bassboat and have shameful question.  i have been boating for many years, but have mainly dealt with the large cumbersome deck style boats.  these were equipped with older engines that were either up or in the operating position.  my boat is far from new but has a larger engine with the tilt/trim gauge and i have never used one.  are there tips for using this gauge to plane the boat out quicker and does it really come into play on the average fishing trip?  i guess i'm not familiar with the different angles that the motor can be operated in.  thank for you for your time.

rookie bassboater,

TonyT

I seldom even look at mine. I drive my boat watching the tach and water pressure guages. I can tell where the motor is trimmed by the tach. This topic came up during a discussion after a tournament and several guys said they look at theirs a while driving. I really don't remember their reasoning. Maybe others can explain...............Al

Probably one of the most useless gauges on a boat next to the speedo.  High performance boats are driven by feel, reaction to what the boat is doing and watching the tach.  A trim gauge merely shows you what position a motor is in.  As I step off the front deck to move to another location I can see if my motor is trimmed all the way down, ready for takeoff or not.  That's really the only time I'm interested in the position of the motor anyway.

1.  Trim engine down until you hear "THUMP".  Engine is now ready to blast off

2.  Immediately upon flooring the "go-pedal", start the trim up.

3.  Watch tach.

Hint:  If you're shooting a "roostertail" higher than the top of your engine cowling, you overtrimmed it. 8-)

Not totally useless if you have a very stiff neck and can't turn your head enough to see the angle of the motor when you get ready to start off.  Other than that, really serves no purpose.   Like cart7 said, I use it to check trim angle on motor to start off, I don't trim mine all the way in and other than that it's probably never looked at.  The boat is driven by feel, not by the angle some little guage says the motor is at.  If I need an extra hole for my EGT monitors or anything else,  the trim guage is the first to come out.

Like said trim all the way under to start. Each boat reacts a bit different but mine sets up best as follows. After I get on plane I back the throttle off a bit and trim out slowly until I get an engine noise that I can only describe as sweet. At this point I have no steer torque and can release the wheel and the boat continues straight ahead. The boat is now set up for most any throttle position. If you do reduce the throttle and the boat begins to porpoise you can trim in a bit or increase the throttle to stop the porpoising.

All of this occurs in less than 10 seconds after getting on plane and your passengers don't even feel the changes except hear the sweet noise and fell a real steady ride.

Also as said a high rooster tail is from a motors trimmed out too far.