Why are poeple putting big O/B's on cats with no tie bars?

[Brad Zastrow]

This week I have seen posts on Facebook S/F of people installing used four strokes on cats. One is a 25 Liberator with 450's the other is a 30 Spectre with 400's. Both boats have used 0/B's that must have been on center console boats as the engines did not have tie bars on the rear. As far as I know you cannot add rear tie bars to those motors unless they came from the factory with the bracket. Both boats have not been run yet. I think it is potentially very dangerous at high speed. I have been in a Skater cat where the tie bar was off by 1/4" and the boat would hook so bad I thought we were going for a swim. I was a passenger and we corrected it and it drove perfect. Without a rear tie bar, I do not see how they can keep the motors straight. Am I wrong or can a liquid tie bar work at 120-130 mph?

[river rocket]

I agree, I wouldn't run without them tied together.

I saw the post on the liberator and I believe buried in the comments was something about it not being done yet.

I pulled up the parts catalog and the mount cradle used as the main body of the 450R AMS mid is the same part number on the tie bar motor as the non-tie bar. So the main part the tie bar appears to attach to is the same. The covers are different. Looking at the bill of materials some parts appear to be different. To me it looks like they can be added.

I looked at photos of my 450R when I put in solid motor mounts and the 3 holes for the tie bar bracket are on my mount cradle. It looks like I could add the rear tie bar bracket. Looking at the bill of materials it looks like the non-tiebar 450R uses two different motor mounts. The top and bottom are different. On the 450R tie bar motor all 4 mounts are the same and the ones used on the lower mounts for the non-tie bar motor.

The tiebar kit is $3,300 and appears to be for sale. That is just the tie bar and not the covers...... Covers are $1,500.

[JPEROG]

People don't realize how much motors move around. The "liquid tie-bar" was not designed for high speed applications. I deleted it from my tri-toon and added a tie-bar after watching them bobble head around at 70. Running no tie-bar at 130 is insane to me--The cost of preventing the crash is A LOT LESS then the cost of the crash.

Joe

[TooStroked]

If memory serves me correctly, I saw a tie bar setup on a triple 400R boat that tied the motors together from the front. Am I crazy or has somebody else seen this setup.

[Headless Hula]

More money than brains. ,


otherwise they haven’t been fully rigged and ran yet?


boats rigged an ran in south Florida are on whole different level of trailer park quality.


don’t believe everything you see and read on the internet. Pics get posted for views and attention.


the heylam “hey look at me” mentality/crowd doesn’t show what’s happening in reality.

[Headless Hula]

If memory serves me correctly, I saw a tie bar setup on a triple 400R boat that tied the motors together from the front. Am I crazy or has somebody else seen this setup.

it really depends on the application. Trip 400’s on the back of a nor-tech 390 sport, or trips on a 28 skater?

[Headless Hula]

I reread the original post, saying they haven’t been ran yet.



if the folks posting the pics are dying to show off their newly acquired hardware, more power to em.


if they need to pull cowlings/chaps to cut back plastic and install the correct brackets, tie bars etc, it’ll be later than the 4th of July by the time these cats hit the water.

it’s not a simple “all ya gotta do is” project. Sourcing parts to put them together isn’t an easy task.

[JPEROG]

If memory serves me correctly, I saw a tie bar setup on a triple 400R boat that tied the motors together from the front. Am I crazy or has somebody else seen this setup.

Yes, its common on center consoles to tie them together with a front mount tie bar. The use the the stock cylinders on the outside and tie the middle or middles with a small tie bar assy. My tri-toon had nothing but he liquid lock valve. Made it nice for swimming and boarding but I would rather duck under and feel secure with that much going back there.


Joe

[kelvin523]

ya so multiple independent acceleration application without oscillation synchronization in a wig in ground effect; what can go wrong.

[JPEROG]

ya so multiple independent acceleration application without oscillation synchronization in a wig in ground effect; what can go wrong.

LOL, I was always waiting for one of them to turn its head...Not a real warm and fuzzy with 15 friends and family on board at 60 mph.

Joe

[kelvin523]

LOL, I was always waiting for one of them to turn its head...Not a real warm and fuzzy with 15 friends and family on board at 60 mph.

Joe

yah, right let alone 130mph+ safety first and enjoy.

[TooStroked]

it really depends on the application. Trip 400’s on the back of a nor-tech 390 sport, or trips on a 28 skater?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of wing plates with tie bars. Much better mechanical advantage. I had Latham wing plate setup on my single 2.5/200 for years before having it re-rigged with a 4.6/250R. Too bad mother Mercury ordained that it would be impossible to get that type of steering on the new motor. (You have to go with at least a 300R to get the wing plate setup.) Could it be that it's harder to get 4.6 liter motors with the wing plate setup and folks don't want to wait, so they're just going without it? Bad move on a high-performance boat.

BTW, on CC boats with multiple engines and "joy stick" steering, you can't have a tie bar because the motors move independently whilst docking.