I mounted this on starboard to keep it free of the port side ladder. In this position, the mount just keeps the Nissan 4HP clear of the water under power, but it can be dipped in the water to used as backup power. There is a pretty narrow window of install positions accomplishing these two things with a short shaft motor.
The wood blocks give you enough space to tilt the motor up if you want (this is also a good way to move the motor from Mac to the tender)
Mounting is SS bolts with washers, Nylok nuts inside with lots of 5200. You can put nuts on without having to hack up the inside.
The little black line is the water line, incidentally
Nice install, and a very handy way to mount a kicker. I have a long shaft Nissan 3.5, which allows the retracting motor mount to be mounted a little higher on the transom. I keep a short loop of nylon line tied to the aft starbard stanchion, which I loop around the kicker when underway. I can tip it up higher with the loop around the tilted motor. One drawback to the longshaft motor is how far down it extends when mounted on the dinghy. It's ok, but I have to be on my toes and tip it up when approaching a beach.
I have been trying to figuare out a system to mount my 2.5 hp and gave up to useing the fixed Garelick mount (not yet installed). I thought of useing the Garelick with a long grove track that it would slide up and down and pined but decided if I need the 2.5 hp for backup I will inflate the Dink and haul the Mac. back to base at 1-2 knots.
I plan on mounting it on the Starboard and use a 1/2 inch wedge behind the outside bracket to keep it 90degrees to Transum, height will be bottom of black boot strip.
I would love to mount it on the side rear railing but that would get in the way of launching and docking.
Dave
Nice install Jack. One of the things my mount does differently is it allows the use of the short shaft motors (which usually work better on tenders) as the backup Kicker.
I have also always wanted to make a backup motor mount that would slide into the rudder bracket, after removing the rudder of course.
Thanks re our mod....re tender and long shaft...we used some aluminum plate/plywood and extended the tender transom ...pretty simple...frankly, for low HP kickers I don't see much performance difference. Tahoe Jack
I think you dont see the shaft length difference in performance on 4 strokes (I think thats what you put on) vs 2 strokes, where the back pressure is more important. That 3.5 HP of yours is also nice, the extra 0.5 HP of mine costs me 20 extra # weight....and the logistics of mounting a 60# motor vs a 40# motor are quite different unless you are a weightlifter....
Kelly, well put. I've also got a 4 HP Nissan, but the long shaft, so even a couple more lbs. Every year it's getting harder to deal with even getting it onto the dinghy. I've yet to do the aux motor mount, but will do this fall, as my main is an older carb'd Nissan 50 2 stk, which doesn't really idle well. I plan to use my existign long shaft via the connection for the main tank, for slow go type travel (on lakes) when I don't want the 50 running.
Have you used the aux fuel connection on your 4 HP, just wondering.
It's either that or go for the lighter 3.5 HP others use, but then need to fill repeatedly for any length of running time, as I'd assume one would need to run that smaller motor near full to get much movement on the X.
Thanks for your posting /pics by the way, very clear.
I probably should start a whole new thread on this, but I hear the mods are bored so I will leave that up to them..
I finally figured out a good protocol to get the 4HP 57# motor to/from the tender..
1 Passing it from one crew member to another is not good...we almost dropped it a couple times and ended up breaking the gear shift lever (200 USD repair)
2 I did rig a jury crane with the mast pole and the main sheet and nicely picked it off the above mount with that arrangement, but it was awkward to reinstall
3 Eureka!! This is how I moved it last time...
a) Move motor mount all the way down
b) Now tip motor up as far as it will go so that the prop sticks out astern parallel to water (almost)
c) Now bring dinghy stern first under the tipped up motor and cleat off on both sides (in the middle picture above, note the useful transom cleat for this purpose)
d) release motor clamps and lift power head off and onto dinghy. Since the dinghy is bumped up against the mount, the motor has nowhere to fall.
You reverse this to move motor from dink back to the mother ship. It helps stabilise if another crew member balances your weight in the front of the dink.
Tahoe Jack
