H26 Outboard Motor Shaft, Long or Extra Long

Jimmy

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Jan 28, 2018
176
Hunter 26 lake Powell lake mead
Doug are you interested in building more of these mounts I would definitely buy one?
 

Doug J

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May 2, 2005
1,192
Hunter 26 Oceanside, CA
Sorry, I have a friend with a machine shop, is was easy for him to mill that aluminum wedge. He also had the 2x3x8 inch tubing for me. But the bottom line is if you can find a shop that can mill the wedge, the rest is straight forward. The wedge is 1 inch on the high side and 1/2 inch on the low side by 8 inches long.
 
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Likes: Jimmy
Jul 31, 2017
47
Hunter 26 TBD
I have a 2001 Honda 9.9 XL power thrust. It clears the water when tilted all the way up, but I'm not sure it's necessary to be XL. A friend just got a new one on a 240 and he got Xl as well.
 

Doug J

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May 2, 2005
1,192
Hunter 26 Oceanside, CA
I have a 2001 Honda 9.9 XL power thrust. It clears the water when tilted all the way up, but I'm not sure it's necessary to be XL. A friend just got a new one on a 240 and he got Xl as well.
Yeah, I was back and forth on the long vs XL. Someone on this thread said he has the XL and never wished it was shorter. That really struck me. Conversely, there are some who have the 20 inch and wish they had the 25 inch. So... I went with the 25 inch.
 

Jimmy

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Jan 28, 2018
176
Hunter 26 lake Powell lake mead
A Little off subject but anyone know what a2006 Tohatsu 9.8 prop should be torqued to? I have the manuals and it doesn’t say.
 

ronkS2

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Aug 22, 2017
27
Hunter 240 South Florida
Hey guys my 24 Hunter got wet last Sunday. I wound up picking up a Tohatsu 9.8 4 stroke carb with electric start sitting on a 25 inch shaft and very happy with the power and size. It also has a 4 blade power prop on it. In the Intracoastal having no problem with cavitation. I do take Dave's suggestion and put up my engine when I kick up the rudder for launch or retrieve.

Have been looking at photos of a few of the different Hunters and it seems everyone has a different motor mount. My motor sits a few inches higher than it probably has to which may be why the 25 fits me so well. I also took a look at my stainless brackets and it almost seems that if I flipped them upside down from the current position I would get my bracket to a zero degree lean instead of 3 rungs up on the engine bracket. Anyway, figured I would just chime in and catch you up. I assume weather wise all you guys must be able to get back in the water.
 

Fred

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Sep 27, 2008
493
Catalina 28 mkii 745 Ottawa, Ontario, CA
Ronk... It seems to me that the pads on the boat are pretty much vertical so reversing the brackets would simply change the downward tilt to an upward tilt which couldn't be corrected with the motor mount.
 

Doug J

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May 2, 2005
1,192
Hunter 26 Oceanside, CA
Went to Catalina Island last week. My new Tohatsu 9.9hp, 25 inch was awesome. So nice to have a reliable motor. Going the 25 miles to the island, I had to motor-sail all the way, as there was very little wind. The new motor mount worked out very well. On the way back I was able to sail pretty much all the way on a reach to San Pedro. Best sail I've had yet with my H26. This was also the first time I really sailed with my new 4 inches shortened head-stay. My mast was previously raked back 18 inches and there was no room for adjustment. I was getting bad weather helm. With the new head-stay, my rake is about 4 inches. Now the helm is real light. It was a real pleasure sailing her.
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Fred

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Sep 27, 2008
493
Catalina 28 mkii 745 Ottawa, Ontario, CA
Sounds like you accomplished a great installation! Did your motor drag at all on a port tack?
 

Doug J

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May 2, 2005
1,192
Hunter 26 Oceanside, CA
Sounds like you accomplished a great installation! Did your motor drag at all on a port tack?
Well actually I was on a starboard tack for the whole ride back to San Pedro. So I haven't really been on a good port tack yet. But the prop lifts real high off the water, so I don't think it will drag. My friend has a Tohatsu 9.8hp, 25 inch on his H26 an he told me his does not drag on a port tack.
 
Oct 31, 2012
464
Hunter 2008 H25 Lake Wabamun
Very nice install and upgrade to power lift.
I did a similar project on my H25 after Meriachees’ 270 mated with my H25 smashing the top end to smithereens. Insurance and a bit of extra cash allowed me to upgraded to power lift. The mounting bracket needed to be moved aft by 2” to make room for the the hydraulic ram. Other than that it was an easy peasy install.
 

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Kamo

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Jul 5, 2019
5
Hunter 260 Fort Collins, Colorado
Hello Doug J. Since you went into trouble to illustrate your work with superb pictures I am sure that your post is seen by everybody on the forum. Perhaps you or Crazy Dave or anybody with Hunter 26/260 experience can address/ alleviate my concern regarding the outboard mount on the 2000 260 that I just bought. Very nice, high quality boat but even before I bought it the outboard mount made me cringe. The original stainless steel brackets were significantly deformed. First I assumed that the boat was backed into a dock or something and the bracket were bent as the result. Since High Thrust Yamaha 9.9 did not show any sign of damage I started scratching my head and realized that (all numbers are rounded and the Yamaha is a long shaft, not the extra long shaft):
Yamaha is 110 lb with center of gravity 12 inches from the bracket. This is 110 ft lb of moment just from the weight.
The distance from the bracket to the prop shaft is 2.5 feet. After some digging I was able to find the thrust from this particular engine/prop combination at 220 pounds. With 2.5 ft arm this is 550 ft lb of moment on the bracket. It adds to the 110 ft lb component from the motor weight to a total of 660 ft lb.
The bracket has to counteract this with two pairs of 3/8 bolts exactly 2.5” apart. This is about 3200 lb per two pairs or 1600 lb per bolt in tension and compression. That’s about 2x of what I would design the load for 3/8 thread in low grade SS fastener.

But actually this is not really my primary concern. It would be easy to go to a larger bolt, by retapping the reinforcing plates behind the fiberglass. My concern is the fiberglass part of the hull itself. Can it really take those forces without eventually cracking? Clearly those boats are in use for many years without loosing their outboards so looks like I am wrong somewhere here.

Than again, if Doug would feel 100% confident in the original bracket, he would not go to such great lengths to improve on it, no matter how breathtakingly beautiful the result.

So, am I needlessly paranoid or is the problem real?
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
@Kamo
you can access the rear by removing the back panel in the rear berth by removing the 4-5 screws at the bottom of the panel but it will be difficult to pull out . You then can access the rear of the hull. I would pattern the bolt holes onto a either a singular plate or long plates that will distribute the load. What I do surmise may have happened is one of two things or both.
First when trailering, I suggest that you tie a line from the motor handle to the to something on the boat like the base of the stern rail starboard side to keep motor from bouncing up and down when trailering.
Never go full thrust on your 9.9 as the max power is about 8 hp as 9.9 hp is actually too much. Your boat will start to plow with the bow raising up when motoring indication you are going to fast and actually hitting a wall of water like a planning hull as this hull is a displacement hull.
Check to see if the bottom skid of the engine hit anything because you have to be careful with it raised a little when putting back onto the trailer if extra long engine.
Hope this helps.
dave