A little "quality" complaint - for ATC/Tabman

[kaz911]

Hi Tabman,

i have a little/tiny quality complaint. I am installing an ATC on a friends boat. And the crimp pigtail quality is not very good.

It was not crimped correctly from the factory - so after the first test ride (that did not work) - 2 of 4 cables had jumped out of the "factory crimp". Looking at the cables afterwards - the crimp was mostly done one the plastic/cable insulation part - and hardly any crimp had reached the "connector"

Right now I'm soldering them so should give a bit better "reliability"


best regards

Kasper

 

[Tabman]

Kasper,

Thanks for letting me know about this. I am forwarding it to the factory Monday morning. If you were in the US I would have a replacement sent out right away. I think soldering them is a good idea.

Please let me know how the rest of the installation proceeds and what you think when you sea-trial the system

Tom McGow
Bennett Marine

 

[Jimmy Buoy]

Tom,

Your response time for this post is pretty impressive! Gold star my friend!! :smt038

 

[kaz911]

Yes - Tom's response is better and faster than most!

thanks Tom!

One more little question - how long should it take for the ATC to "learn" the boats trim tab performance? My friends SR 240 - is very lively (by birth) - and the ATC seems to over correct a bit. But after 1 hour it seems like it had "diminished a bit" but not gone. How long time should/would it be before the ATC only does "enough" and not too much.

I can hand trim it without problems - but due to the high centre of gravity - it is very lively.

/Kasper

 

[Tabman]

Yes - Tom's response is better and faster than most!

thanks Tom!

One more little question - how long should it take for the ATC to "learn" the boats trim tab performance? My friends SR 240 - is very lively (by birth) - and the ATC seems to over correct a bit. But after 1 hour it seems like it had "diminished a bit" but not gone. How long time should/would it be before the ATC only does "enough" and not too much.

I can hand trim it without problems - but due to the high centre of gravity - it is very lively.

/Kasper

Kasper,

The ATC continually adjusts its reaction based on how the boat reacts to the last series of input from the Trim Tabs. It should "settle in" in just a few minutes. After that it is using much more recent adjustments and reactions to refine its performance, so it really does not take an hour.

One observation I have made over the 13 years or so I have worked with our ATC is that "lively" boats, as you point out with higher centers of gravity are a bit more difficult tho handle. One of the biggest factors is that the Trim Tabs on most of these boats tend to be undersized. Therefor they need to be deflected more to make enough lift, taking more adjustment than a larger Trim Tab. Often times you may see one side of the ATC "time out" as it has put one Trim Tab all the way down.

Installing larger Trim Tabs will allow better control both for a manual operator and the ATC. The larger Trim Tabs have a much more "linear" adjustment influence on the boat, resulting in smoother results from the ATC.

If at all possible I would recommend looking into fitting larger Trim Tabs as well.

Tom
Bennett Marine

 

[Phlorida]

I like the ATC a lot, I wish that I had done this earlier. I upgraded my tabs at the same time from 10x12 to 24x9. I also had to call customer service and have the power cable replaced because the ground wire wasn't crimped well and pulled out.