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Can anyone with the Tohatsu motor post the mounting info for the control box? The travel ban has delayed my motor purchase. I’d like to get reinforcement inside the tank and use threaded inserts, but I have no idea where they’re going to go. If there is a mounting template, a scan would be great, or a photo of the back side of the control box with fastener dimensions…
Alan Brown has engineered thrust brackets for the 6 hp and 8 hp engines.
Alan Brown has listed numerous pieces of hardware you might find useful in racing the cocktail class wooden boats (https://btmco.com/product-category/cocktail-class/). His most recent additions are the thrust brackets for the Nissan/Tohatsu 8 HP and the Tohatsu 6 HP 4 stroke.
They are a little more pricey than the original classic thrust brackets ($165) since it actually took a fair bit of engineering to get them right. Should you purchase one, please provide feedback to Alan and he’ll analyze the feedback and adjust the design as needed to make it better.
8 HP ($259)
6 HP ($209)
Has anyone else had trouble procuring the Tohatsu motor package?
We’ve had multiple contacts with Annapolis Inflatables over about two years, via phone, e-mail, and in-person, and they’ve never (to our knowledge) had the entire CCWBRA package. It’s usually a few excuses and a promise to contact us as soon as they have it, which never happens.
I’ve inquired of two other Tohatsu vendors, one by e-mail and in-person, and one only by e-mail, and neither of them has replied. I’m going to pay the latter dealer a visit later this week to see what happens.
If anyone knows of a vendor in the Mid-Atlantic area who actually wants to sell the motor and accessories, please reply.
After yet another lack of a promised response from Annapolis Inflatables, and no response at all from another dealer I visited in person, I went to Backyard Boats in Woodbridge, Virginia yesterday and put $500 down on the Tohatsu package. No discount, of course, but they were willing to work with me and actually order everything.
The motor is back-ordered until sometime in December. Apparently there are currently 144 of them back-ordered in the United States. I hope that we’ll have everything by January so we can get #150 in the water in spring 2021.
I’ll report my experience here when parts arrive.
I got a call from Backyard Boats in Woodbridge yesterday. The motor arrived two days ago, so apparently a batch of them has been sent to the US.
Here’s another question for those of you with these motors: What should the wedge angle be, at least to start out? If the motor even needs a wedge?
Also, would anyone care to address how to secure the motor against going to the bottom if it comes loose? Unfortunately, my boat partner and I are total novices to outboard motors.
We finally got the 6hp Tohatsu and accessories at Backyard Boats in Woodbridge (Virginia) and will be installing the hardware in #150 next month.
The Tohatsu remote control box is big and heavy, definitely too much to entrust to the thin plywood of the side of the cockpit. What to do? The boat is built and the inside of this area is not accessible.
I examined all the toggle bolts I could find on-line and in my hardware stash, concluded that ALL of them except the old fashioned split-wing model would not work because they require more depth in the mounting surface that the 3 or 4mm that is there. I didn’t want to use the split-wing style because I don’t think it will be a satisfactory solution, not to mention fiddly to install, and we would probably need some bushings in the holes to keep it from shifting around under stress. Sounds like a bodge.
We decided that a 4-inch access port in the area directly behind where the control box will go will provide enough access to the inside to be able to epoxy a piece of wood there. Size might be a piece of 1×4 or a wider piece of 3/8 or 1/2-inch plywood, whatever we can find in our scraps. We’ll cut the 4.5-inch hole for the port, install the remote control box, then install the access port, which reduces the opening to 4 inches. We’ll have to take the frame locations into account when we position these things. Any wood that’s installed there, and all cuts and holes will be thoroughly epoxied before the point of no return.
The control box comes with 3 M6-1 x 90mm oval-head bolts, nuts, and washers. We might have to get longer bolts or use similar-size wood screws instead, but we’re not that far yet to decide.
I’d like to post pictures when we do this, but that hasn’t worked for me in this forum for a while. I’ll return here with comments after we get this done.
More information if anyone is reading this thread:
The Tohatsu 6hp thrust bracket we got from Alan Brown doesn’t work with our boat and our motor for two reasons:
First is that the aluminum backing plate for the bracket goes from the top of the transom to the bottom and fouls the drain cock. We’ll probably have to close that drain hole, and drill a replacement for it more off-center in that space.
I’ve inquired of CLC if they have any suggestions for how to close that hole. My idea is to enlarge the original 1-inch hole toward the next larger dowel size (5/4 inches?), epoxy a piece of dowel and jam it in there with epoxy. I’m not sure if that’s a good enough fix, given the need for that repair to be absolutely secure.
The second problem is that the bracket itself, at the bottom-most range of its adjustment on the backing plate, lands more or less on TOP of the cavitation fin instead of under it, where it belongs. Alan has sent me another piece to relocate the bracket to lower on the backing plate. I haven’t had an opportunity yet to take it to the boat and see if we can make it work.
Note that the second photograph on Brown’s web site shows a prototype setup that is not on a CLC kit boat with the drain in the way.
I’ll report my findings here.
Hi Marty and All,
what were you able to find out for the Tohatsu’s thrust bracket placement? I am getting my 6hp Tohatsu soon and was trying to figure out what I need to do for this.
Thanks,
Andy
Alan Brown sent me another aluminum piece to correct the vertical misalignment, but I can’t visualize how it’s going to fit in with what we already have.
I’m going to Baltimore next week to see what we can do with it, and I’ll report the result here.
Jack and I plan to be at the race on 19 June (without a boat). I’ll have a T-shirt on with our number 150 on it. Please find us if you’re there. We’ll bring the thrust bracket pieces with us.
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