Not normal, must be bypassing seals, my one (yammie) sits for weeks at a time and never moves.

I've had my boat about 7 years Cirrus, it's always done that. Technically it shouldn't but unless it sinks fairly rapidly I wouldn't be too concerned

Thanks everyone for the prompt replies. Clearly it should not be doing that. Will follow advice and do a few checks. Come to think of it last few trips out the trim dropped markedly a couple of times when motoring and drifting .Thought nothing of it and just trimmed it up again. So question is if i go out before the issue is dealt to what could potentially go wrong.? Just wishing i knew more about the mechanical side of motors.

Think about this.. a digger, bob cat , whatever, you park it up , you drop thr bucket and leave all the hydraulics unloaded on the ground.
 Your trim is the same.
 Always drop motor vertical, even just resting on a block of wood.
 As mentioned above ,along the same lines, never travel supported by the hydraulics...
 And also , cover the engine vents from weather, when parked up.. water in the vents lays in the engine bay.. causes corrosion, and on some makes, eg mercs, this corrodes the shaft/ bush that goes down to change gears.. stiff gear change.. new cable , doest fix it.

 Add it that , I believe most OBs are designed to fully drain correctly in the vertical position.

 As to sinking.. hydraulics dont unless you bleed , or by pass.. or gave a bad seal that does by pass.
 Think about it.. does you car brake pedal slowly fade sink?

So if you shouldn't travel using just your hydraulics what do you use ?
I was told not to use the engines lock while travelling as this should only be used for servicing. I had a plastic clamp that fitted over the hydraulic shaft, this split after about a month and I never lowered the outboard right down on to it. When I asked my service agent about it he said don't worry about using it for short trips.

you can get an engine support thingy from most chandleries. has a fork on each end, one goes on the leg of your motor above the prop and other end fits over the frame of your trailer.

other then on my mac boats where you HAVE to use one of those, i’ve always just used the engine locks.

smudge wrote: I don't understand why it's wrong to use the engine locks. I always have.

Agreed Smudge.. old neighbor who has sadly passed found out the hard way they are stronger than some may think.. (they held up as he tried to trim down and he buggered his hydraulics. Cant remember exactly was 8 at the time. Will ask Dad in the tomorrow arvo)

Id prefer to potentially break those than have stress on the system as a whole. 2hrs towing northland roads is just brutal on equipment.

I susoect that the risk of travelling on engine locks alone, will vary with the age and brand and model of motor. eg cant imagine any risk with say a 50hp motor compared to huge weight like a 300hp motor.

On my Merc 90 it came with a blue "C" shaped plastic section that just clips over the hydraulic ram whilst towing and works perfectly.

Hey playtime 123, the previous two motors I owned were Yamahas purchased new and the manuals said do not use the tilt lock bracket for trailoring and that it's for service only. I bought a special Yamaha product which was a hard rubber ram type thing that fitted over the trim rams that the motor lowered down on to, I used it for long trips. It did set the motor quite low, no problem for along the road but did need to watch elevated driveway entrances etc. the funny thing is it took a while to find one because most yami dealers have never heard of it and told me to put it on the lock.

Following this and the endless problems I had with Yamahas I bought a 250 Verado and that manual specifically said to rest it on the lock for trailoring, so I suppose all brands are different.

I would go with the user manual for that motor and not listen to dealers