Maybe silly but... is it real bad / catastrophic to drive momentarily with drive completely up?

Y

yogi799

Member
Powered onto the trailer today as I have done a million times. Today however i had to adjust the boat so i reversed the boat very gently and then realized the drive was all the way up. It was less than 2 seconds in total with the gear in reverse, fairly low RPM and the drive all the way up or close.

All good, forget about it or real bad for some u-joints, gears, etc. or whatever is in my bravo 3 that suffers when the drive is not down?

Just wanna be able to sleep well, since that was my last time boating here this year... or should I go out again to try if all is good?

Thanks Bros.. the season is almost over here in Ontario (for me at least). It was a great one!
 
Due to something impacting my normal starting routine I started mine on the trailer when backing in and I forgot to lower the engine. Major oops. It took me a few seconds to get the lower unit under water. No issues from my screw up that I'm aware of.
The main thing is water. No water to the lower unit will burn it up. 2 seconds should be negligible so my anwer would be:
Fa Get About it. (but don't do it again LOL)
 
Sleep fine... It's tough on the u joints but the B3 is a beast and can take that abuse. No worries.
 
OK thanks guys. Yeah, I wouldn't think 2 seconds would ruin it but i felt stupid to have done that. I rarely correct when powering on, usually butter smooth and straight. Live and learn. OK, gonna sleep well but maybe i can take it out on the water one last time, all up to the weather!

Hope everyone is great and had a good season! Hope Lake Powel is planning on coming back soon too!! We cannot lose that treasure!
 
Doc said:
Due to something impacting my normal starting routine I started mine on the trailer when backing in and I forgot to lower the engine. Major oops. It took me a few seconds to get the lower unit under water. No issues from my screw up that I'm aware of.
The main thing is water. No water to the lower unit will burn it up. 2 seconds should be negligible so my anwer would be:
Fa Get About it. (but don't do it again LOL)
Click to expand...

I've ran mine dry too once for about 10 seconds, the muffs have slipped off the drive water intake. Also felt like shit but the new impeller did perfectly fine. Did not cook itself or anything.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Doc
The u-joints and gimble could care less. At idle it's no problem. The issue is when you apply power and the drive is no longer getting secondary lateral support from the side guides on the gimble ring. Case distortion can cause a failure. At idle, as long as she's wet, she's happy.
 
Hey Wing, good to see you back. You say at idle it's ok, but what about at 1500 rpm for 2-3 seconds in reverse to adjust on the trailer. Nothing to worry about? U-joints completely unaffected for a momentary RPM increase (with drive all the way up)?
 
Just reporting that I took my baby out for the last time of the season and the drive is like new, knock on wood. You guys were all right and gave me some peace of mind!

Lucked out with a beautiful Saturday and did a few WOT runs. This was a very nice season. Time to winterize in the next 4-6 weeks. Ran the tanks empty, always stressful returning to port with so little gas. I hope the boat has A LOT of reserve gas when the indicator hits zero. I realize it is only very approximate but for that reason I imagine the reserve is very generous. Got it down to 2% and i would imagine there really is at last 10% still left in the tanks.... Premium with no Ethanol into the tanks soon for the winter.
 
WIngnut said:
The u-joints and gimble could care less. At idle it's no problem. The issue is when you apply power and the drive is no longer getting secondary lateral support from the side guides on the gimble ring. Case distortion can cause a failure. At idle, as long as she's wet, she's happy.
Click to expand...
Your knowledge has been invaluable to many of in the past so, I for one, am thrilled to see that you've migrated to this site. Welcome aboard!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top