I want to add a jackplate to my gheenoe classic but i dont like the manually adjustable ones on the market right now because you cannot asjust them on the water. I dont want the extra weight of hydraulic or electric rams, so i came up with a simple design to allow me to adjust my motor height quickly while on the water. Imagine the simple bob's mini jack plate design. I want to make something similar but with a mechanism to lift or lower the motor easily. So in order to explain this, i need to first define the terms i am using to describe this. The jack plate is made up of two halves, the back half that the motor mounts onto and the front half that attaches to the transom. These half slide up and down on four bolts that connect the two halves. These four bolts will have large wingnuts of them so they can easily be loosened and tightened. The lifting mechanism is simple: I will attach a plate to the bottom of the back half at a 90 angle, and one to the top of the front half at a 90 degree angle (see the conceptual diagram). A large square neck bolt will go through the centers of these two plates from the bottom. The square neck will lock into he bottom plate and the bolt will continue through the top of the top plate. A large lock nut will be put over the end and tightened until it contacts the top plate. In this design, tightening the nut on the bolt will lift the bottom plate up and therefor the motor. Losening the nut will lower the motor. So all i would have to do to adjust the motor height is stop, losen the wing nuts, crank the motor up or down and retighten the wing nuts... Has anyone every attempted something like this? Do you think it will work? Any comments or ideas would be appreciated.
Conceptual diagram... Pardon my terrible drawing skills https://www.dropbox.com/s/ocvvtrkr1c9az6a/Photo Dec 23, 12 39 49 PM.png
There are a few on the market that do what you are trying to do, but they are easy enough to build. Look at Nate's build, he just made a nice example of one. I wouldn't use wing nuts if you do build it, no way can you hand tighten the bolts enough after you adjust the height, just bring a set of wrenches with you to crank them down with.
Used to be a guy on this forum that sold them. TSG was the company name. I got one with my Gladesmen when I bought it.
Thanks guys, thatnis exactly what i had in mind. How does it work? Is it easy to make adjustments or do you just find a setting n leave it?
It works just like you would think. Loosen the side bolts and crank the center bolt up or down, tighten the side bolts and then test how it runs. Once you find a height that works well you leave it.
There is an entire thread called "DIY jackplate". I don't remember the dudes name but I am fairly certain the guy was from Dawson, GA. He went through the build step by step. Keep looking, you'll find it.
How funny is this??? His name is Dawson GA...who woooda thunk! http://www.microskiff.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1335531644
Yep, I made one. It is pretty simple. However you can buy one by Vance that does the same thing for $175ish or $140 if you shop around and get lucky. I don't know how you value your time, but unless you have a shop at your disposal and a convenient pile of aluminum of the appropriate dimensions, I feel it is more cost effective to just buy the ready-to-go one. TSG made a very nice jackplate, but he unfortunately stopped. Mine ended up weighing around 17#, but it is built to mount a long shaft motor on a standard transom, so a regular version would be a bit lighter. If you are still wish to proceed, feel free to pm me with any questions. Nate
