hey fellow fishos and boaters

i was thinking the other day of putting hydro trim tabs on the boat

has any 1 else tried them out and do they really work that well or are they best suited to the bigger toys ?

My dad uses them on his underpowerd 4.1m with a 30hp 4st honda..

Personally I think they have made the ngine worse, it cavitates and is gutless...

But thats my call... Dad loves thm and thinks it all works great?

If i had the choice id have a 2st 40hp on the boat and it would have the power to not need th trim tabs..

What also concerns me with them is cornering, I sometime drive a overpowered ski boat that has them to try and keep it in the water, During high speed turn the boat spins on the tabs and the inside corner almost goes under water as the boat turns on a almost scary inward lean...

Rum sounds like your dad is one one those peeps who says something is good to justify money not wisely spent just Joe King wit chu haven't seen the goat so cant really comment.

Going by what you've just said my guess is the 30 hp dosen't have power tilt & trim so thats why your dad fitted the tabs as far as making the goat gutless goes ??

I'm putting that down to Rum error ! tabs work & no different to to tilt on a motor if not correctly used what you described will occur by the sounds of things you have the tabs tilted to far up when you take off which in turn doesn't allow the prop to bite in hence the cavitation and gutlessness.

hustler if you picked up on what I just said to Chadd Chadd then you wont consider them

Outboards have their own tab system it's called power tilt & trim & they use the cavitation plate on top of the gearbox as the foil.

Fitting additional foils would create koas & there's no needfor them.

I've had them in the past actually made my ownbut they went onto the transom of my big moored goat which was shaft driven

You know what Jumpas.....

I rest my case!!! I incorectly read the "TITLE" and the "FIRST POST"

My dad has not fitted hydro trim tabs...

What I though he was refuring to was the hydro foils that get mounted on the outboards..

My apologies!

What boat & motor Hustler, is it misbehaving?

Can you explain koas Jumpy, not a term I'm familiar with?

hey fed, ive got a 5.7metre cruise craft hustler bowrider wih a 140 2 stroke johnson,

and thanks for the advice guys i think il stay away from them.

Very simple Fed

You have to always be aware that both are trimed down when 1st taking off else one will nuetralise the other in other words you have to trim both motor & tabs up & down in unison which would be a definite pain in the butt.

If you are having probs planing you boat then there are adjustments & if they are not enough then you can always get tapered wedges there's no need for tabs with outboards ubless like I previously mentioned your outboard does not have power tilt & trim.

No probs Chadd Chadd very easily done

Did used to ski behind a childsplay race hull with 400chev inboard, It had trim plates, however not hydralic, they were set a flatout / ski angle. I think hydralics, like you said jumpas. are only nessacary on large inboard sahft driven boats.. even then only if the boat will plane.

Its funny how you see cruisers driving around FLAT out with the boat trying to break onto the plane only doing 2 knots more than they would be if they backed off a few hundered revs.

A relative's boat, from the hacking (now sold) was a ex game boat, 32ft Cresta with twin 800hp turbo volvos (somthing ridiculous like that)
THAT was Fun!!!!!!

Ski boat dont need much to get them up & planing & @ the speeds they reach well a bit to easy to get it wrong with hydraulic tabs.

Same as my big boat now it's basically planning from the onset & no need to play around with tilt a great deal very easy boat to get planning right

When I had the bigger game boat it took me a bit of practice to nut out the hydraulic tabs & most of those big boats you were refering to, well the skippers are clueless most are just weekend warriors with very little expirience in handling a Goat.

No different to people with trailer boats again they dont have a clue how to get the boat up planning or to arrive @ maximum performance from their outboards