tohatsu 20 control unit

[Ixneigh]

hi. so they are working on my boat this week. the control unit for the engine is going to be on the left. its much larger than the west marine unit which was originally equipped for the etec. has anyone mounted this type of control unit? if so, in what fashion? the mechanic said the only way it would fit would be vertically. since horizintally its too long to fit the binnacle. thanks

ix

[OverEasy]

Hi Ixneigh!

For what it’s worth… the control unit on Over Easy for the Tohatsu engine we bought the boat (26X) with was mounted to the outside of the pedestal vertically … it was workable but cumbersome. It took up cockpit space and the edges were knee knockers.

When we changed out to the Suzuki we had the control mounted vertically inside the pedestal with only the handle protruding through the side panel. Much cleaner and smoother to move around the cockpit. No hard corners to knock the knees. (Mine are old and abused enough already…they didn’t need additional banging about ).

The interior space of the 26X pedestal was sufficient to accomplish only a vertical mounting. In preparation for the conversion to the new Suzuki I made an additional penetration through the deck within the pedestal area with a high collar above the deck surface to keep water from penetrating into the aft berth region. This second extra pass thru freed up a lot of the jammed up cabling and wiring that had been crammed into the one original. Now there is one pass thru lined up for the throttle and steering cables and one for the electrical bundles.

The old and new throttle controls handle could be indexed in 90 degree increments so that the handle was accessible.

There are a variety of control units available that are compact and compatible and I believe could be interior mounted to a 26X pedestal for a Tohatsu. Not sure what the space environment of 26M might be …

Best Regards
Over Easy

[Ixneigh]

i though about mounting it horizontally and adding an extra support panel down to the cockpit floor, but i told the mechanic he would have final say. I could incorporate a shelf or catchall box to the front of the binnacle to make it seem intentional. i was surprised to see how large the control unit is. the one thing which did occur to me with the vertical mount was knee controlled throttle (perhaps)
ix

[OverEasy]

Hi Ixneigh!

As far as the ‘knee controlled throttle’ goes… my experiences were more of a ‘throttle controlled knee’ …

The making of a shelf around the front is an interesting idea with a horizontally mounted external control. ….kinda like that!

Best Regards
Over Easy