# Homemade jack plate?



## Fly Rod (Sep 7, 2009)

Has anyone make a jack plate for their boat yet? I have a tracker 1654 griz and like fishing the smallmouth on the upper Mississippi in MN. The river is riddled with rocks and I'm not looking to buy a jet pump for my 25 merc so I thought maybe a jack plate would work. Anyone have experience with a jack plate or mad one at home? I think it could be a great addition to the boat allowing access to areas of water I never had before. :-k :-k


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## Bubba (Sep 7, 2009)

Don't know about making one, but I know you can buy just a standard small jackplate for around $150 bucks. Bob's Machine(https://www.bobsmachineshop.com) Shop actually sells a "mini-jackplate" for under 40HP motors for like $125. So this may be something you'd wanna consider.


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## crazymanme2 (Sep 7, 2009)

If you have access to a mill & some aluminum angle(1/2 inch thick)you might be cheaper to make one.Jack-plates up here bring about $200 for a used one but they are for the bigger horse power motors.


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## TrackerTom (Sep 7, 2009)

I have a 1654SC myself and put a 6" setback Rapid Jack jackplate and it is great. It helped the boat and definitely allows the motor to be higher for shallow water.

Tom


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## Usmctanker (Sep 7, 2009)

https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=139&start=380
about half way down. His name is macgyver. You might shoot him a pm about his.


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## Usmctanker (Sep 7, 2009)

Here is another link. This guy shows step by step how he made his.

https://www.catfish1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38827


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## Specknreds (Sep 7, 2009)

Thanks for the post!!!!! =D> I'm starting mine this week. Hopefully!!!


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## Fly Rod (Sep 7, 2009)

WOW, thanks for all the feedback. I'm not sure but I think a few of the suggestions were just a set back plate and not a jack plate that lifts the motor up and down vertically. Trackertom, good boat selection. If you done mind, can you let me know the name and model of the one you put on? I googled it and see a few options with 4.5 inches of vertical travel and around a 6 inch setback. I have a 25hrs tiller on the 1654, do you know if its possible to put a hydrolic jack on?


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## stinkynathan (Sep 8, 2009)

Fly Rod said:


> Has anyone make a jack plate for their boat yet? I have a tracker 1654 griz and like fishing the smallmouth on the upper Mississippi in MN. The river is riddled with rocks and I'm not looking to buy a jet pump for my 25 merc so I thought maybe a jack plate would work. Anyone have experience with a jack plate or mad one at home? I think it could be a great addition to the boat allowing access to areas of water I never had before. :-k :-k



Have you ever fished the St. Croix? I'm over in Eau Claire, WI, and I might be heading to Stillwater or farther upstream to hit the smallies at the end of the week.


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## Fly Rod (Sep 9, 2009)

HA, yes I am familiar with the St. Crouix and love fishing it. Just have trouble getting the boat way up river and dont want to purchase a jet motor so I thought the jack plate might work well. Do you fish the St. Crouix much? Let me know what your plans are, I'm looking to fish Saturday for sure.


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## WTL (Sep 9, 2009)

I have done the homeade jack plate, using plans from the catfish1 post I believe yall linked. Its a good deal. My one primary tip is a basic for anything, but especially this; measure twice - cut once. Remember that phrase.


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## TrackerTom (Sep 9, 2009)

Fly Rod said:


> WOW, thanks for all the feedback. I'm not sure but I think a few of the suggestions were just a set back plate and not a jack plate that lifts the motor up and down vertically. Trackertom, good boat selection. If you done mind, can you let me know the name and model of the one you put on? I googled it and see a few options with 4.5 inches of vertical travel and around a 6 inch setback. I have a 25hrs tiller on the 1654, do you know if its possible to put a hydrolic jack on?




I have the 1654SC version of the boat. That sounds like exactly what I have for the plate. I'm using the rapid jack version, I think they have a cheaper one that adjust differently. Mine is really easy to adjust. I was running the motor even with the cavitation plate even with the bottom before the plate and thought I could go another hole higher. Mine was setup terribly from the factory with the motor 1.5" below the transom and it definitely runs better with it raised. From what I was reading, for every inch of setback the water will generally rise 1/4" after the transom. Basically I was guessing 1.5" up just to be the same amount of motor in the water as it was with the motor mounted to the transom. But you are still 1.5" higher for shallow water purposes. I have mine 2.5" above the bottom right now. I'm not sure I got any further benefit from the last 1/4 I raised it. I did put a water pressure gauge on it and I still maintain 23psi of pressure even at this height. I put my motor on the plate in the middle holes at the moment. I started out with it as low as it would go and that let me put it 2.25" up before I ran out of adjustment so I came home and put it in the middle holes so that I could lower the adjustments back down. I ended up going to 2.5" up but I really don't think it ran any different with my current prop.

You can run a hydraulic jack, but they are about $700-1000. Most guys say they don't usually adjust them much once they have them right. I could see where you could use it though running rivers to get back in some skinny water.

PM me if you want to talk about the boats sometime. I'll send you my phone number or you could do the same. 

Tom


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## Fly Rod (Sep 9, 2009)

Hey TrackerTom,

Thanks for all the info... I'm new to the site and boating world but would appreciate the opportunity to chat and share ideas and pics. Let me know how I can reach you.

Fly Rod


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## Bubba (Sep 10, 2009)

TrackerTom said:


> I'm using the rapid jack version, I think they have a cheaper one that adjust differently.




This was the one I was referring to with my first post. It's called the "Simple Jack"...same components as the popular Rapid Jack, but without the "rapid" adjustment...you just adjust the simple jack via the slide bolts on the side of the assembly. These only run about $150 bucks. On their site, its listed under "setback plates"...but it still has the up/down adjustment features....Here the link to their site....

https://hydrodynamics-usa.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Itemid=48


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