installing Talons

buddy and I are thinking about doing the install ourselves - have watched some videos and it doesn't seem like much to get the folding brackets bolted on to the jack plate - any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated and if we are crazy and are better off having it done professionally don't hold back

nothing to it.. just be ready for your performance and holeshot disappear...

Easy install. I didn't see any performance change and you shouldn't either if the height is set correctly. The only change is if you only install one the boat will steer to one side or the other when idling but your dragging something in the water so that should be no surprise.

Install is a breeze..

great, thanks guys!

Raise them up really high, can't tell that any performance was lost but will say that when coming off planet trim the motor down and accelerate at the last second or water comes over the back on the champion.

You do want to mount the brackets fairly high on the jackplate. I mounted mine where the top of the bracket is flush with the top of the jackplate. That really isn't high enough. I get quite a bit of drag in the Champion. So mount the brackets high and you can adjust the depth of the Talons to offset the brackets height.

I have a sandwich mount on mine because when I got the Talon the jack plate mount was not compatable with my jack plate. But I believe they changed the mount a bit so it lined up on more plates without reworking the mount.

Be sure and let us know how it went. I'm thinking of installing a set of 8ft blades on my skeeter. Seems to be fairly simple based on what I've seen online.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try and get some pics/updates and let y'all know how it goes - afraid we may have to drill or get new brackets for our jack plate but will know for sure when my buddy gets here with the brackets

Depending on your JP and bracket your sandwich type mount does not have to be installed between transom and motor. If your bracket comes with spacers you have this option and if it doesn't you can easily make some.

Be methodical, read the instructions twice and keep in mind that finishing fast has no rewards attached to it. Be sure to use the tube of lubricant on the threads as those lock nuts are a bugger if you make a mistake and try to remove them.

First casualty was the swim ladder, we had to remove that and with the mounting brackets we've got there is no room for it no clue how to post pics from my phone but I am taking them and will try and get somewhat of a step by step when I'm done

To get some extra height we used the spacer hole instead of the normal top mounting slot

I did mine by myself. About 2hrs on first one. Little over an hour on the second

What most everyone above said applies.....also, remember to tilt the talons forward slightly, you want them vertical when the boat is on the water at an angle.....not when it's on the trailer......

A smaller boat, 18-19 like mine will lose some top end and holeshot...most boats bigger will be fine.

I installed mine on a 17'6" lowe stinger with a 50hp and noticed no negative effects from it hole [censored] is the same and tip end is the same, I mounted it 4" from the bottom of the transom like the recommend and I don't get any spray when taking off either

The biggest thing I noticed was the drag at first. I was able to fix it by raising the talon. When you install it on the trailer figure what looks good and raise it a few more inches from that and you shouldn't have any issues.

we got it all finished last night with the exception of the wiring - here are pics in sort of a step by step order - let me know what you think, we tried to keep them as high as possible and I tried to take a pic that shows where it is sitting depth-wise - sounds like we may not have positioned them tilted forward enough so if you think you can get a feel for how they are sitting from the pics and think they need some tweaking let me know - thanks for all the feedback!

what we started with - 2: 12ft Talons, jack plate brackets, Talon tilt brackets


jack plate pre-install


mounting the first piece of the standard jack plate bracket - here you can see we used the top spacer hole instead of standard slot to get some extra height (the floor jack was just in place as an extra precaution)


second piece of the standard bracket installed on both sides


skipped a head a bit but here we have already installed the tilt brackets to the Talon and are mounting to standard bracket


close up of tilting bracket and Talon installed


shot from the side to give you an idea of how high the Talons sit at the back of the boat


another side shot to show the angle/positioning of the Talons - let me know if you think we need to come forward more


final product (minus wiring) from the back with travel covers on

any suggestions on DFW area places to take it to have hole drilled in fiberglass for wiring?

Just cut a vertical slice in the flex hose close to the boat and use the hole that's already there. When you are done use electrical tape to tape around the flex where you cut and the wires. I did mine this way with zero problems. Very easy to do.

In the second and third picture, you can see where the rub rail comes together. Remove the little 2 inch cover and run your wires thru there and replace the run rail cover.

both of these suggestions make a lot more sense than drilling a hole in our boat thanks!

Very good mounting the bracket higher than just flush with the top of the jack plate.

thanks! would not have known to stay high if not for ya'lls advice

Well done! Make sure you tighten/torque those bolts on the jackplate. The angle looks good, but as others said you can check it out when floating in the water to see if you need to tweak it.