argus1
Member
- Apr 12, 2015
- 196
- Boat Info
- 2011 350 Sundancer
- Engines
- MerCruiser 377 MAG ECT w/Bravo III Drives, Axius
What is the best way to use the sterndrive tilt and trim tabs on a 330/350 Sundancer?
How to use Sterndrive Tilt and Trim?
- Thread starter argus1
- Start date
BillK2632
Well-Known Member
You will need to play around to see what is best for your boat, load etc. But in general:
Drive trim: Down/in when coming up on place, trim out/up as speed increases, this will bring the bow up, you will seed the speed increase without additional throttle, if your hear the drives cavitate/ventilate reduce trim. You need to play with it to find the sweet spot. A large cruiser with BIII outdrives is generally very sensitive to trim - except for the occasional high speed run, but when cruising 25mph or so, I would use very little trim. The idea is to trim the bow up so it is not "plowing" when on plane.
Tabs: Use to provide more bow down when coming on plan or when in rough seas when you want the bow down to help prevent pounding into waves. Other use is to level the boat, to counter load or yaw into the wind. Learn how to to retract your tabs fully retracted position and realize they work backwords from what you think - usually the left switched works the STBD tab and right switch works the PORT tab.
They work a lot like flaps on an airplane wing.
Drive trim: Down/in when coming up on place, trim out/up as speed increases, this will bring the bow up, you will seed the speed increase without additional throttle, if your hear the drives cavitate/ventilate reduce trim. You need to play with it to find the sweet spot. A large cruiser with BIII outdrives is generally very sensitive to trim - except for the occasional high speed run, but when cruising 25mph or so, I would use very little trim. The idea is to trim the bow up so it is not "plowing" when on plane.
Tabs: Use to provide more bow down when coming on plan or when in rough seas when you want the bow down to help prevent pounding into waves. Other use is to level the boat, to counter load or yaw into the wind. Learn how to to retract your tabs fully retracted position and realize they work backwords from what you think - usually the left switched works the STBD tab and right switch works the PORT tab.
They work a lot like flaps on an airplane wing.
Last edited:
- Apr 26, 2009
- 5,821
- Boat Info
- '97 330 Sundancer, Raymarine C80 suite with radar, Mercury 310 Hypalon w/8hp Yammie 2stk
- Engines
- 2X 454 carbs w/ vDrives
When I had my 25ft campion with a bravo 2 drive and Bennett tabs, I would generally trim the drive fully in (down), tabs full up, for take off and once on plane would trim out the drive just until it ventilated and then down slightly. Then the tabs were used only to level the boat once underway.
Espos4
Well-Known Member
When using the tabs, don’t think about which button activates which tab. Just think about what you want the boat to do. If it’s tilting to port, you want the starboard side of the bow to come down. Just press the “bow down” starboard button and it’ll level out.
