Adventure Marine rotating dinghy motor mount

Anyone ever used one of these or ordered from this company? *

https://www.adventuremarine.net/product-catalogue/index.cfm?ProductID=3&do=detail

*

I am extremely tired of lugging the dinghy motor up to the trunk deck and really....one of these days I will probably fall and break a leg or kill myself lugging it up there. *So as a matter of safety and greatly reducing the headache of powering up the dinghy, I am planning on ordering one of these, like tomorrow! *

From looking at it, I like the simplified design and easy use- seems more simple than the weaver leaver system. *Before I give them my credit card info I thought I'd see if anyone has used that company before or tried out their rotating engine mount and whether it is any good. *One thing is for sire- I'm DONE taking that little motor off the dinghy every time and hauling up onto the boat- what a pain!!!

We've had one for almost thirteen years on our 9' Livingston and love it. I believe it's rated for 9hp but we have a 4hp 4-stroke on the dinghy.

Since we have a four-stroke outboard I always rotate the motor to the 45 degree position before deploying or retrieving the dinghy. This ensures that the shaft is never higher than the powerhead, which on a four-stroke engine can result in water getting into the cylinder(s). When deploying the dinghy I rotate the motor from the 45 degree posiion to the upright run position after the dinghy is in the water. When retrieving the dinghy I rotate the motor to the 45 degree position before we pivot the dinghy up to it's stowed position. Once it's there I reach out and rotate the motor to the upright stowed position. If you have a two-stroke I guess you wouldn't have to do this.

We also deploy and retrieve the dinghy with the boom fall using the mast and boom. We used to manhandle the dinghy up and down with a short line until a few years ago the lightbulb went on and I realized that if I replaced the existing boom fall with a 100 foot line it would be long enough to lower the Livingston all the way to the water (the boom fall is fitted with double-sheave blocks at both ends). So what was once a two person, one-two-three-heave operation is now a one person, one hand operation. Between that and the Adventure Marine mount it's almost--- but not quite-- like having a Seawise Davit but for a hell of a lot less money

We intially looked at the Weaver Lever but a more Rube Goldberg contraption I could not imagine, which is why we went with the dirt-simple, infalible Adventure Marine mount.


-- Edited by Marin on Monday 18th of July 2011 11:16:11 PM

Thanks Marin for that long term insight. I am ordering one tonight/tomorrow. As I said earlier, I am done lugging that engine up to mount on the rails and it would only be a matter of time before I drop it and damage the boat or me or fall and get seriously hurt.

The only negative to consider is that if you have to rotate, or finish rotating the motor into its vertical stowed position after the dinghy has been pivoted up on the swimstep you'll need to do this manually of course, which may require you to kneel down on the deck and reach out between the caprail and the handrail and sort of manhandle the motor upright. Depending on the configuration of your boat this could be a bit of a strain. The Adventure Marine mount is not very sophisticated, one reason it works so well so long. But it's not rotating on ball bearings or anything. It's just one aluminum tube rotating inside another one.

So you might want to visualize how you're going to rotate the motor upright after the dinghy is stowed and make sure it's not going to pose a challenge that's too physically daunting.

Tony,

I considered the Adventure Marine bracket very seriously.* I would have used it, but it is not rated for 15 HP.* It looks like an inexepensive, simple, and great solution.* The one thing I really like about the Weaver Leaver is that fresh water can be hooked to the engine, it will be flushed while running the gas out of the carburator.* This keeps the jets from clogging up as often.* Of course,you can do that before rotating*as you don't have to worry about salt water.

Thanks guys for the comments. Our engine is only a 7hp or somethings so this mount should do fine. Rotating it manually will not be an issue- HECK of a lot less strain than hauling it up on the boat!!! I can actually get down on the swim platform with the dinghy tilted up on the snap davits so this should not be an issue. I think I am going to have to add some stand offs though to keep the dinghy off the transom. THus far I have not needed it as I tie it off hair less than vertical but adding the weight of the motor could result in it flopping around if I hit a heavy sea though really...where I boat right now the only heavy seas are created by those darn sea rays blowing by me!

Just ordered for Friday delivery- can't wait!! This is almost more exciting than ordering the new head was and should make life aboard MUCH easier and happier and taking those trips to shore for the dog will no longer be dreaded as much!!!

Moonstruck wrote:The one thing I really like about the Weaver Leaver is that fresh water can be hooked to the engine, it will be flushed while running the gas out of the carburator.

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*I do this with the motor on the Adventure Marine mount when we're back in our slip after a cruise.* It's a simple task to connect the hose to the Yamaha using the screw-in flush fitting and then run the motor with the fuel shut off to empty the carburetor.* The motor will run long enough like this to thoroughly flush the water passages.

Woodsong wrote:
I think I am going to have to add some stand offs though to keep the dinghy off the transom.

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Tony--- If you add Weaver Stand-Offs one thing you might consider is mount them in such a way that the dinghy is slightly leaning forward so as to be pushing on the standoffs rather than pulling on them.* I believe this will help ensure that the screws securing the transom end of the standoffs don't work or pull out over time.* If you through-bolt the standoff mounts to the transom then it won't really matter but we fastened ours with good-size wood-screws and 5200.* But as you can see in the photos we set the standoff distance such that the dinghy is leaning against the standoffs, not pulling back on them.