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I've seen forum posts and adds extolling the virtues of having a skid
plate to stop the bottom of the jack plate from digging in on hole shot
and when slowing down. Drag racers have been using them for years, so
there seemed to be good experience. I wanted to experiment with different
sizes and shapes (straight versus downbent) so I got to thinking of building
one myself with materials that would be cheap enough to experiment. Total
cost less than $10 including hardware. The plate itself is tough 5/8"
plastic bought at 2$/lb at a local plastic suppliers junk bin. 4$ was
enough for 2 separate plates. The brackets are 1" 'L' aluminum from Home
depot with 4 stainless steel screws and nylock nuts on each side. You
have to drill 2 holes on each side of the bottom of the jack plate and
2 holes from the bottom of the 'L' bracket that will screw threw the plastic
plate. The pictures should be pretty self explanatory. I bent one of the
plates at about a 20 degree angle down to see if that would give me a
little more lift on blast off. Bending the plastic is easy with a propane
torch if you make a piece of wood or metal for a form and heat the plastic
slowly. If you haven't tried bending plastic before, practice on a couple
of small scraps first. That's the one I ended up using. I think it helps
blast off, shutting down with out a major wave breaking over tail, and
I'm convinced that I can travel a little slower without porpoising. Not
bad for a 10$ project. By the way, My first effort with the bent plate
lost me some water pressure on long turns, so watch out for that and shorten
the bent section if it is a problem.
