[tsubaki]

It's a hydraulic.
The position now is the highest it will go, which will be about 4" deeper than it needs to be while barely moveing, say trolling or shallow water.
Something interesting about the boat, when Daddy owned it he was telling me he could bump across bars to get into inlets around here. The bow would be barely deeper than the motors foot and just barely moveing he could literally bump across the bar to get into the inlets and fish.
At the lowest position it's about 1 1/4" above the bottom of the boat, which is too deep. So I seem to have a lot of room for error.
The setback is about 5" so it needs to be about 2" above the bottom or more.
A test run will let me know.
Also look at the picture if I let it down the prop will be in the dirt.
I'm most likely not going to have the same loads in the boat at any given time of the year. In the summer it might be light but in the fall & winter it will be loaded to capacity going on hunting trips, staying on islands for almost a week at the time.