Trim Tabs Yes Or No

[Spaniard_King]

Dave, I thought you would have engines on that boat by now

[FNQCairns]

Hey Bill thanks for the advice and pic's. The pic of the controls appears to have 4 positions could you explain. Is, what everyone is saying that the tabs lift the rear of the boat hence putting the front down giving more boat in the water (longer boat) and that as well as leveling the boat improves the ride. Won"t trimming the motor in do the same thing.
MARK

Yes you can do near the same thing with the motor although say it takes 15% of the available thrust directed down to achieve trim thats 15% efficiency lost to forward travel, with tabs a person can more or less keep the engines thrust parallel to the direction of travel, the tabs will trim the hull more efficiently and you reap the difference as performance or fuel economy.

cheers fnq

[Vitamin Sea]

Yes you can do near the same thing with the motor although say it takes 15% of the available thrust directed down to achieve trim thats 15% efficiency lost to forward travel, with tabs a person can more or less keep the engines thrust parallel to the direction of travel, the tabs will trim the hull more efficiently and you reap the difference as performance or fuel economy.

cheers fnq

That's what I meant to say

Cheers

[OPTI]

Dave, I thought you would have engines on that boat by now

thats a old photo ,but yes still no engines,half way through the new dash plug and the hard top,ive got pretty much everything except engines and time,and a extra 40 grand would be handy .lol

[ozscott]

It made the ride of my 70's Seafarer Vagabond - Bennett 120 sport tabs.

Never not have tabs now on any boat around or over 16 feet I reckon

[copie]

Sounds like the jury is out on trim tabs i had better start loking a size and brand.
Thanks to everyone and special thanks to vitamim sea for the pic's and info.
MARK.

[ozscott]

yep mate..hard to decide to get them hey? The easy bits over - just have to work out which ones now...
Cheers

[rosco1974]

have a 610 makocraft with qls fitted.was a very ordinary boat without them but is an exceptional boat with them on...hope this helps

[fishing111]

I've been trying to get my head around it but I'm a little confused. Say I have a set of QL's and I have my boat motor at a parallel position for max forward thrust. Now lets also say that I have a heavy arse (bow pointing to sky) and a heavy list to port. Will tab's fix both problems without me touching my motor? It's been driving me nut's all day...I get how they can trim port to starboard and to raise the bow, but how do they lower the bow? I think I've done a real number on myself because for the life of me i'm stumped.

[Angla]

For you Paul, you may have to have a ride on a boat with tabs. They do work well and do all things the guys have said.

Ill try with some explanation

They force the water that has travelled the length of the hull to then travel in a downward thrust direction. If the boat is leaning to port, If you just move the port tab downwards then the starboard side of the boat will be forced downwards, levelling the boat. And vice versa. If you are travelling into a head sea and the waves are pushing the nose of the boat up and then you fall back down into the following depression, then pushing both tabs downwards will reduce the amount of rise in the bow, effectively giving you a longer transom. This means that the bow then does not fall so far when falling into the following depression. ie a smoother ride.

Chris

[Malcolm W]

Hi all just wanting to know advantages/disadvantages of tim tabs. I own an older haines hunter v19r which i use offshore and in the bay. I have had several boats before larger and smaller and have to say for size i am very happy with the ride, but can it be improved. I find the haines is great when in a following sea where not as good running head on. I don't know a lot about trim tabs but i believe they can make some boats much better and others worse is this correct or not. Are all tabs adjustable hydralic/electric or are some fixed or automatic.
Thanks in advance MARK.

Mark, heres one for the disadvantages I fitted trim tabs mainly as my 5.6 ali cc leaned to port slightly ( later fixed mostly by changing the prop and engine height ) and i found they are great for leveling the boat from port to starboard. the problem is when you drive the tabs in on the port side to level the boat it looses speed with the drag of the tab. I actually found the opposite to most of you replies and used more fuel with them ( trimming the motor had a better result for and aft ). Driving the front of the boat into the waves gave me a better ride but created more drag. I now find its easier to level the boat by adjusting the load or moving people around. But it appears most of your replies are from those with heavier and deeper v boats. Just a bit more info before you shell out the money