Home › Forum › Ask A Member › Should I fabricate a jack plate for my boat? › Re: Should I fabricate a jack plate for my boat?
An easy (and permanent) way to solve this, is to just buy some angle iron and place an appropriate 2×10/2×12 between them. Run 4-6 carriage bolts through the holes in the angle iron (you may have to drill out the angle iron) through your transom and that sucker will be strong as ever. If you’re just after 1-5" of flexible adjustment, those holes will interchange based on how you adjust your setup.
I had to do this last season on a pontoon boat that no matter what I did, either I had prop slippage, or water splashing back into the floor of the boat when at high throttle. Never really found a perfect solution, but after 10-12 different settings, I found something I could live with.
I’ve tried putting shims under the steering/mounting bracket, but with the older motors that usually don’t have a through-stern bolt pattern (particularly small ones), I’ve always gotten nervous that they might end up at the bottom of the lake. Doesn’t take much for a loose motor to take a swim….