Anyone Try Smart Tabs on a 185 sport

When it was new it should have been set up for wot in the 4600 to 4800 range, and 4800 would be the max you should ever run it and that really for a short period of time. Now I have to ask, you are trimming up once you get on plane and trim down when you take off. With the prop you say you are running and the original prop you say you have that you can try, 21 pitch should bring rpm even lower, the 17 pitch should have you at the top of the rpm range if not over at wot. I'm thinking that maybe you are not trimming up and the bow is still in the water which would kill your wot rpm and mph to about where you are.

I just looked at your previous post list and see that you are a new boater with first boat so I am going to say look at your shift lever and there is a small switch that trims the drive all the way down then the first click trims up and on its second click brings the drive to the trailer position. You need to play with that switch and you can do that on the trailer just make sure you have ground clearance for the drive to come all the way down. Lower the drive all the way, then ease the switch up and the drive will start to raise then quit, this should be max trim, then move the switch further up and it should raise to trailer position. Get a feel for this, I think maybe you have not been using it correctly when on the water, start with the trim all the way down, once on plane trim up a little at a time as you do the speed will increase a little at a time until you reach the best trim setting, it won't go any faster if you trim further, may start to porpoise, when that happens trim back down slightly, with a little trial and error you will figure out the best setting. Also how heavy are you loading the boat, that does make a difference also be sure the engine is performing properly, but it sounds to me like trim may help you a lot, then get the Smart Tabs.


Thats with trimming it out... I start with it all the way down once on plane i'll pull it back up till I find the sweet spot... as far as load I had cooler on board with a Large bag of ice a dozen bottles of water and a gallon of tea, and about 700lbs of people... 4 adults... we were just out for a cruise so no real gear... had life jackets thats about it... I put the 21 pitch Alum stock prop back on today... Thinking I'm going to head out for a 30 minute cruise to see how it does... but I guess I should bring the 17 pitch with me so I can run both same day with the same load and see how they work out... The 17 SS was a Quiksilver that I pulled off, I've also got a SS 17 pitch michagan the boat came with... and the 21 Alum stock...
 
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I have the same boat and engine as you. I had it out yesterday and with four (large) people and gear, I was maxing out at 36 mph with a 19 pitch high five propeller. Without being trimmed out, I could only get to about 30 or a little better. That is with our 4800 feet elevation. My absolute top end with one person on board was 38.5 mph and that was with a 19 pitch mercury vengence stainless prop. But.......these speeds are all GPS. My dash speedo runs about 10% slow. Are you checking the speed with a GPS or relying on the dash gauge?
 
I have the same boat and engine as you. I had it out yesterday and with four (large) people and gear, I was maxing out at 36 mph with a 19 pitch high five propeller. Without being trimmed out, I could only get to about 30 or a little better. That is with our 4800 feet elevation. My absolute top end with one person on board was 38.5 mph and that was with a 19 pitch mercury vengence stainless prop. But.......these speeds are all GPS. My dash speedo runs about 10% slow. Are you checking the speed with a GPS or relying on the dash gauge?

That is just going off the dash... I'm sure it's off a bit... From what I am seeing everyones choises is the 19 pitch, it is by far the most popular descision from what i've seen posted. I have two 17's I would love to trade one for a 19... Like I said before I'm going to give my alum 21 a try for a half hour or so sometime this week and see if I like it better than the 17 the only thing that sucks is I can't really duplicate the weight I carried over the weekend so I'll prolly end up running the 21 and the 17 by myself this week to see which one performs better to decide what I want on it for this weekends outings...
 
When you run it with both props pay attention to the time to plane, rpm and speed at cruise, wot rpm and speed. You know what you ran loaded with the 17, now you can see what the difference is. Do post the results when you make the run. I don't think you will like the 21 pitch, I expect to hear a much longer time to plane and a lot less rpm at wot and less speed. The rule of thumb is approximately 200 rpm per inch of pitch that would make approximately 800 rpm difference between the props, but run them and lets see what happens and hopefully you can have smooth calm water to run in as rough water slows you down. Bad to the start of your posting, Smart Tabs are great and I feel they would help you but first you need to prop the boat to the top end of the rpm band, that way you are getting all you can out of that 3.0L then you can look at adding the tabs.
 
Just went on the SeaRay site and looked up your boat in the prop charts, 2000 180BR, 3.0L ,Alpha1 2.00:1 ratio, 141/4X21 prop at 4800 wot rpm. Some thing does not sound right with what you are getting now.
 
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I'm going to ask a very odd ball question - how is your battery??

Last year I had a very difficult time getting my boat up to speed and RPM range. Turns out I had a bad cell in my battery; I replaced it this year and everything came back to where it should be. The only thing I could figure was that the bad cell was drawing enough power off the alternator and affected either the brain or quality of spark at the plugs.

Go figure!!
 
I would check the actual speed with a GPS and also tighten and clean the tach connections under the dash to verify the current results first to verify the RPM and speed is actually accurate. With those verified, then you could proceed with determining if it is an engine power or a prop problem.
 
I guess I should of mentioned earlier the boat was stored for quite a while (year or so) and the carb is a bit gummed up. So that may be my RPM issue. I've ran a half a bottle of Marvel threw it last outing and it cleaned it up a ton. So I'm going to do that again and see if I can clean it without pulling it and rebuilding. I also figured out today that I had the plugs gapped wrong so that could have to do with it also. In another post I mentioned that I found some contradictions on what specs to gap the plugs. On my air cleaner it states .45, but i had gapped them at .32 to .35 as most people have stated was correct. I found one post on another site stating that .35 is for older 3.0's and .45 is for the newer with electronic ignition. That seamed to clean it up even more on land so I'm wonder what I will see in the water with the proper gapping. That may fix my RPM issue at WOT. On the cleaning tach connections, I crawled under and they are all making great conections with no corrosion, the boat is a one owner garage kept in immaculent condition. So I didn't think I was going to find an issue with that but I checked to make sure. I'm thinking it was a mixture of the carb and impropper gapping on the plugs. So will figure that out tommorow or friday.
 
I'm going to ask a very odd ball question - how is your battery??

Last year I had a very difficult time getting my boat up to speed and RPM range. Turns out I had a bad cell in my battery; I replaced it this year and everything came back to where it should be. The only thing I could figure was that the bad cell was drawing enough power off the alternator and affected either the brain or quality of spark at the plugs.

Go figure!!


Battery is fine, I come from the motorcycle world so I keep it on a battery tender (Float charger) at all times while not in use as we do the bikes and quads. It's maintains a full charge at all times and prolongs the life of the battery as it never lets it drop below 80-95% charge and turns itself back on to boost it back up when needed. Great $35 investment at any motorcycle shop. and it comes with rat tails that bolt on the battery and pull them out and plug it in like a remote control car. I swear by them
 
Get a can of Sea Foam and put in the gas tank, you can pick it up at most auto parts stores and maybe Walmart, $5 to $6 a can.
 
Get a can of Sea Foam and put in the gas tank, you can pick it up at most auto parts stores and maybe Walmart, $5 to $6 a can.


That was already on my to do list was going to run out a one more tank with the rest of the marvel then prolly a clean tank to diloute any left over down then move on to the seafoam. I've never really used the stuff, heard good things but never had to go past the marvel. From what I understand they are very simalar products but doesn't the Seafoam do something to handle water in the tank also?
 
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Sorry for bringing up an old post, but I'm thinking of installing a set of smart tabs on my 2005 185 Sport. I'm mainly looking for better holeshot, but like the other benefits that it offers as well.

FYI, I've got the 4.3MPI and am already running a 19" highfive, and a whaletail. I've added some extra weight though as well (tower, stereo equipment, extra batteries, etc) so I'm looking to help bring the performance back up, specifically when I'm pulling a skier.

Midway - I've read through the whole post and you did an excellent job on the install and write up on these products. My question for you is this - did you order just the basic kit, or did you need something special because of the way that the hull contours? I'd like to go ahead and order these in the next few days so that I can get them installed before my next lake trip.

Also - is there any interference with the tabs and the ladder? What about the trailer, or beaching the boat?
 
I ordered the standard tabs, I originally ordered the ST1290-80, the 80 lb actuators were too strong, could not get the bow out of the water, called John at Nauticus, he swapped for the 60 lb and I returned the 80's to him, you need the ST1290-60, I believe the new ones have three holes in the tab plate, mount the tab bracket in the rear most set of holes, that will help in the mounting, I may still one day drill the extra hole in mine and remount the upper bracket to see if it makes any difference, don't see how it could, I am completely satisfied with the performance as they are.
There is no interference with the ladder, plenty of room. I back in to the beach, the outdrive will hit bottom before the tabs do, no problem there. I do not beach the boat where I go, water gets too rough, those 4 foot wakes off the ICW from large boats are not good hitting the stern.
There is no interference with the trailer either, my bunks stick out maybe an inch behind the stern of the boat, they could stick out more without interference.
Get rid of the whale tale, it will cause handling problems with the tabs.
If you are going to try and use the composite tabs call Nauticus and check on the mounting for them, the tab bracket is molded on the tab plate and not movable. I am not sure you could mount them like I have my SS mounted. Nauticus phone 800-233-0194 .
I also think Jim, who supplies this forum for us, sells Smart Tabs in his BOE store.
 
Thanks for the info. I like the looks of the SX tabs better (and they are quite a bit cheaper), but the install on the standard SS tabs seems to be quite a bit easier, so I may end up going that route. Good info to know on the actuators. I would have gone with the heavier ones as those are suggested on boats of our size and horsepower. What size plates do you have though?

I don't know if the whale tail is providing any performance benefits right now, but it sure does make a great seat when floating out in the middle of the lake. ;) I will remove it if I have any adverse handling for sure though.
 
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The ST1290-60 is 12X9 inches and 60 lb actuator, in other words the part number tells you what you are getting. Part numbers are not usually that simple, when I first started looking at them I had no idea what was what, they were pretty new then, there were no SX tabs, only Stainless. It will be the best money you ever put into your boat.
 
The ST1290-60 is 12X9 inches and 60 lb actuator, in other words the part number tells you what you are getting. Part numbers are not usually that simple, when I first started looking at them I had no idea what was what, they were pretty new then, there were no SX tabs, only Stainless. It will be the best money you ever put into your boat.

After doing some more reading (mainly on this board), the part numbers became clear to me. Thanks for clarifying further though. I've put a lot of money into the boat, and I sure do hope you are correct that this will be the best spent yet! :smt038 I'm sure I will be disappointed though that it's taken me 5 years to figure out how to get the most performance out of it!
 
I had a whaletail on my first SeaRay, the only benefit I got was getting on plane faster, I lost speed, actually used a little more fuel, had porpoising problems, I eventually took it off. On my current boat I have the Smart Tabs and they are great. There is another forum I am on that has a lot of discussion on the Smart Tabs, whaletails and other tabs, one thing that is said over and over is take the tail of when putting tabs, from my personal experience I agree. There were some safety issues brought up also. I think that you will find that if you take the tail off and put the tabs on you willl not want the tail back on the boat. This is still one you may want to call Nauticus on and discuss with them, they can explain better than I can.
 

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