Anyone use a jack plate with their bracket-mounted outboards

[SBH2OMan]

Before I got the Parker, I was looking at another boat with a bracket-mounted OB and it had a remote-controlled hydraulic jack plate. After reading how profoundly moving the motor up or down one hole can affect efficiency (e.g. MPG) and with gas likely to hit $4 a gallon this summer, I'm wondering if it would be worth the investment to consider a jack plate that would allow for the motor to be lifted or dropped depending on conditions.

It seemed like a nifty thing on that other boat I was considering (too bad it had a Johnson Oceanrunner 225 hanging from it!)

 

[BradV]

do you burn 1000's of gallons of fuel a year? if you do then you can justify the cost, installation and maintenance of the jack plate. if not then id set your motor up where it runs the best without blowing out and make sure youre propped correctly.

 

[SBH2OMan]

Kinda what I figured, but I was just curious to hear what people are doing.

As gas approaches $5 a gallon, and two-stroke oil + Ring Free adds ANOTHER $1 a gallon, the break-even points for things that save gas will be coming down....