Impact With Underwater Hazards - Mercury HP 500 EFI Bravo XR/XZ/III User Manual

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GENERAL INFORMATION

Impact With Underwater Hazards

Reduce speed and proceed with caution whenever you're driving a
boat in shallow water areas or in areas where the waters are sus-
pected of having underwater obstacles that could be struck by the
sterndrive or the boat bottom. The Power Trim hydraulic system is
designed to provide some impact protection for the drive unit if a sub-
merged object is struck while boat is moving forward. There is no im-
pact protection in REVERSE. The hydraulic system will cushion the
kickup of the drive unit as it clears the object, reducing damage to
unit. After drive unit has cleared object, the drive will return to the
original operating position, preventing loss of steering control and
engine over-speed. The most important thing you can do to help
reduce injury or impact damage from striking a floating or
underwater object is control the boat speed. When driving in
waters known to have floating or underwater obstacles, boat
speed should be kept to a minimum planing speed (15 to 25
mph).
IMPORTANT: The impact protection system cannot be
designed to ensure total protection from impact damage under
all conditions.
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