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Location: Eastern Ontario | When towing your boat is your motor in gear or in neutral and why?
My motor is in neutral when I shut it off so I assume it's in neutral while towing. the other day i followed a boat down the highway watched the prop spin and wondered what else was turning, How much is disengaged and is the water pump turning? |
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Posts: 1087
Location: Hayward, WI | Just the prop and propshaft are turning. The water pump is not. It might be a little hard on the outer propshaft seal as it is normally cooled by water, but probably not a big deal. |
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Location: 31 | Hi Frank, always leave it in neutral so it's ready to start when you hit the water.
I've also seen others spinning on the road (how would you see your own:), but they have always been kickers or small motors, it's a non-issue because it's really not spinning very much. |
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Posts: 1209
| Agree that it's not the main motor unless it's a pontoon, I'm in neutral. However if it was in gear and got a tap from a car or dirt in a ditch backing up poorly it may cause bigger issues because it's locked up. Anyways simple solution to prevent the outside seal from wearing out would be bungee your transom saved over the prop, it can't spin wildly and it isn't locked up in the lower unit. |
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Posts: 3472
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
I've seen the spinning prop many times and have never been a fan of it spinning. When I load, I get the boat on the trailer while in gear yet, then just shut the motor off while in gear.
I would think that those who are using a transom saver or tilt support of some sort, this would not be an issue either way as when the motor is tilted up, there is not going to be much wind force acting on the prop. The ones I see spinning are on boats where the motor is down completely while it's being towed on the trailer.
Steve |
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