Land and sea jackplate

[STELLIX]

In my search for a jackplate , I've found a couple Land and Sea hydraulic plates that look nice. I've read some bad things about them, are they that bad?

[BigJohnson]

In my search for a jackplate , I've found a couple Land and Sea hydraulic plates that look nice. I've read some bad things about them, are they that bad?

I bought one new in 1984. Had it until 1990. Never one problem. Used it on a 380 Ray Laser that had a 2.6 XP Evinrude on it. Wanted something with very little setback. If they are still around they can't be too bad. But I have found out something can happen to just about anything you buy. Just makes sure it's rated for your application if you decide to try one.

[XstreamVking]

Hard to find parts is the big drawback to l&s jackplate.

[dompie99]

I had one like this. I keept the cylinder, the piston and outer shell BUT discarded the pump ass'y. I had an aluminium plate (1/2'')machined to close the bottom and used an outside mercury trim pump with proper hoses. I works like new....

[STELLIX]

What is one in good shape worth?

[Velocity72]

A couple hundred? Parts are hard to find if the hydraulics go out. You'd have to get creative for a good fix like dompie99. I had one that was original to my Velocity and I ran it from '04 - '12 with no real problems. It developed a very slow leak, and I mean real slow. It never affected operation. I'd have to top off the reservoir once a season.

[STELLIX]

The ones I found didn't work out. Anybody have one they want to sell?

[dompie99]

When I got the HST, it was mounted on it but not working. Tore it apart completely to find out that the gears were not there anymore. Tried for about 3 months to get gears made up for this pump but only succeeded to spend 500$ for absolutely nothing.
Crankbearing sold me an external trim pump, I rigged it with hoses to a modified land and sea cylinder and out it went. I even did a remote setup for it. It works like wonder ever since.

[bobthebuilder]

I would like to have a new set of plastic guide sleeves for one.. Otherwise it is junk without them..

[STELLIX]

So are y'all saying I should forget about a Land &Sea? I found a 3" Slidemaster and a 3" Vance , what do y'all think about those?

[STELLIX]

Thanks to Mirage 659 ( Jeff) I found a new 3" R&R Slidemaster . It looks like a pretty nice unit. Now I need to figure out some seats and steering. I have a dual cable setup but it has the rotary style helm and I'm not sure I'm comfortable using . Any recommendations on a good steering system?

[hsbob]

good choise. the lns units worked good but the hydralics will fail and no parts.

[bobthebuilder]

If you can afford the hydraulic steering it is worth it big time........ It is like power steering on a car or truck.. I wouldn't trade it back for anything on my boat... Also one issue with Land and Sea jack plates is the hydraulic cyl was off center and it started binding when the plastic guides got worn out. Then it bent the hydraulic cyl rod.. I put 2 small cyls form an older Merc 80hp outboard that was junked out in it and mounted them and used a pump from the old single ram trim system.. Worked great but the plastic guides need to be replaced.. I shelved the stuff for right now and am using a manual jack plate.. I might fabricate some guides for it this winter.. I have my own machine shop so I can play with it myself... But in your case forget Land and sea...

[brotherxb03]

I would forget about the land and sea unit, they haven't made them in years, they are very slow and have a hard time overcoming the torque of the motor to raise when u are on the throttle. The bob's I have now is 4 times faster then the land and sea I had. The only draw back is u have to have a place to mount pump and the weight.

[bobthebuilder]

I was going to use a hyd cylinder from an old 85 merc engine I junked out and put the pump in the boat just like Bob"s did.. Only thing is the plastic sleeves on the L&S jack plate need replaced. L&S made it just wrong when they put the cylinder off center and it was trying to bind when it raised the engine especially under power....... My grandson could have designed it better when he was 10 years old.!!! I just hated to scrap the old jack plate when it has potential if it had new plastic in the guides.