Smart Tabs

Marion Moore

Marion Moore

New member
I know some of you guys have built static trim tabs for your boat but I was wondering about Smart Tabs. It's looking more and more like I will be keeping my BBIII so with the money from the sale of my other boat I was thinking of doing a few things to the BBIII.

I'm looking to improve the planing of my boat and wondered if anyone had tried Smart Tabs before. I have electric trim tabs on the Hewes Redfisher and love them. I understand that Smart Tabs are spring tension actuated and not adjustable while driving but some help getting on plane a little better might be worth it.

Let me know what you think.
 
Doesn't Sutton have an opinion on this? I remember he has always banging on the wedges guys for not using trim tabs.
 
If a lobster boat hull does not come off the molds and trim right when built a guy showed how streching a rope around the hull at the transom and tying off very tight with a spanish windlass can give a very good idea of how much trim is needed. Change rope diameter to get trim just right when running. Equals the wedge profile required.
A noted Jersey boat designer used to purposly put a little down twist in his hulls too. Faster and better attitude running at speed.
 
Wedges under the hull at the transom will stop porpoising. If your boat isn't doing that and performs well with no load then I'd say more hp is needed.
 
Marion.

The Devlin Garveys have a history of porpoising. So I put wedges on my boat during the construction process. It worked, i.e. my boat doesn't porpoise.

Many will argue that fixed wedges are a bad program but honestly I can't see why they would be if applied properly.

I wouldn't add the spring loaded tabs on my boat because I am constantly pulling and pushing my boat off of sand bars and marsh crap. The spring loaded tabs would get caught I think.

The wedge debate has raged on this site for years and I don't see why, they work, they don't slow the boat down, they add zero danger and they are simple to apply - and you can forget about them. Oh yes, they will stop the boat from porpoising.
 
I don’t have a problem with porpoising, I just wanted the boat to get up on plain faster. It is usually not a big deal duck hunting because I can shift the load around and mover extra weight to the front. I’m typically plagued with the problem when I fish.

Good point about the tabs getting caught on grass and other stuff. A ski boat is one thing but when you run your boat up into the grass you should expect the tabs to be subject to damage. I may just leave well enough alone.

 
I think Steve may not have power, at least thats what I heard with the last storm through there.
Shiny side up,
Wicker T, Walker & Charlie
 
until now....in the past I've always agreed that if you were "in vegeation" that the smart tabs "might not" work as well as wedges, but then those guys that I first said should "try" the tabs were more of the open water folks where the tabs would be able to do their jobs and not "hang" in the vegeation...

This "fouling" that every one thinks would eliminate the tabs "might" be all in their minds IMO...not saying this for sure but I rarely see anyone so deeply buried in the grass that the tabs would be a big problem.. after all the motor is still down. And what about your transducer which is at the same level as the tabs?

And "finally" what I really suggested when I first mentioned tabs was not the static tabs like smart tabs but the electric ones stating that the electric tabs on a boat that was running the ocean, or a big lake, would give the boater a huge advantage when it came to getting up on plane, running in a cross chop and in not having to worry as much about weight distribution as they do without them....

Hear me know, beleive me later....someday someone on this site is going to put electric tabs on a boat, (and yes I know they are expensive but WHAT in this sport isn't and since when is anything "cheap"?), and the results are going to be "WOW"!!!!

Steve
 
Sooooo...on a BB2..would you recommend the 15" wide by 15" long electric tabs? Are these 24 volt so I can use 2 batteries? Should I put 1 batteriy on each side of the front storage compartment next to the 18 gallon tank and 50lb Danforth anchor?
 
I'm in the "conceptulization" bidness.....

Never said the BB3 was that boat for them anyway...when I first started talking about tabs it was in regards to the garveys...the big open water boats and not the smaller, more marsh oriented boats...

Steve
 
not sure I can help you on that one....

Back to almost normal here although we can't seem to get a break from the weather...had another storm this weekend with heavy rain and 45 knot winds....nothing compared to what Greg Kurz had over in Wenatchee though.

Greg lost his power briefly and also had lost a couple of trees at his house. The wind speed indicator pegged out at 130 at the ski area a few miles from his house so they were crankin there for sure....

Snow predicted here for tomorrow night and Wed. and then its going to get cold and stay that way....

I'd happily shout WOW if we could get some "normal weather for the last couple of weeks of the season.

Steve
 
HOLY CRAPPIN CRAP.....did you find some made of "traditional" material so you wouldn't have to have something made of aluminum hanging on the boat?

Seriously, I'm looking forward to seeing the results of the install....

Steve
 
Just so you don't get too smug, they might be made of brass or bronze, not aluminum.
 
A better hole shot can be fixed by adding a Dol-fin, or something like it, to the lower unit. Everyong I know that has tried it was happy with the results.
 
and I could live with that....not sure about brass but if memory serves bronze is "soft" which would make me believe that it would be subject to unexpected upward flexing rendering the idea of improved performance negative and resulting in a DAMMIT instead of a WOW...

I know that on both mine, and Greg Kurz sleds that we both have a full width TAB which is part of the bottom plate on the hull formed by leaving part of the plate aft of the transom. I'm going to say its 2" or so. I's amazing how much change you get if that tab gets bent up, (in my case due to a collision with a rock). Heck I didn't even realize that is what it was until Greg told me that was what it was there for. When I straightened the dent I flexed it down a small amount the full width of the transom. Improvement to getting on plane with a load was "surprising" and that was just a minor adjustment.

Steve
 
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