Bought my first surface drive and dont know how to set the trim. I think it needs to come up some more. The tab that the screw sets against is loose just woundering if I need to adj and tighten it to allow more lift on motor? Shallow water the higher the prop annd deep water lower right?
Running it on a 14x48 alumnacraft. Thanks

With any GDSD a good start is when the motor is off put prop in water, the cavitation plate should be an inch or so below the water. When on step as with any surface drive ur prop should only be about half below the surface or maybe slightly more alot depend on how boat is loaded. And yes that trim bracket should move freely if not when you turn the trim knob it will be to hard to turn.

With the trim adj all the way up and running I can push down on my handle(raising the prop a little) and I can feel the boat pick up more speed. Boat has about a 13" transom. Just gonna play with it some more. I am sure when I load all my gear in it it will be a big difference with load. Thanks.

When starting from a stand still in clean water you should have the prop submerged completely under the water. Gas the throttle and as the boat comes up out of the hole and starts to plane off you will notice the prop will climb up to where half is in the water and half is out of the water. Henced the term "Surface Drive." This is where you want to set your trim. It may take some small adjustments to get it just right but that will get you in the ballpark.

I didn't realize you had a 13" transom. This is why your are unable to trim high enough. The GDSD short shaft was designed for a 15 TO 16" Transom. Good Luck worst case you may have to build up transom to get the best performance.

Thanks for the advice.Need all I can get. I went from a 8hp lt to this gdsd and wont never go back. Thinking bigger already!! Never rode in one or been around one untill I bought this. ( I guess I hadnt I ) Watched enough videos on here to log a couple hours of run time.

I have another question for yall. Will the tow hook (stock)on the front of my boat handle a winch if I made a hook for it to winch from or will i need to install something else to pull from.