New Tri Tabs on my 1990 Sea Ray 280 DA after install 4ft swim Platform

[Barry S Gilmour]

Hi All
Hope everyone is having a great start to he summer .
I bought a 1990 SEARAY 280 Sun Dancer DA last year ,Twin I/O Gas Last year. It's in great shape . This year I had a custom 4 foot firer glass swim platform installed. seems to work great our mara has no shore power so I had a rack made and installed 3 flexible marine solar panels on the bow along with solar smart charger and 2 x6volt glass mat golf cart batteries in series for house. I also installed a Fusion Apollo A770 stereo head a fusion da 1400 amp 4x 150 was RMS into 4 ohms and 4 kicker kms Co axil 150 watts rms on deck with Led cones and Surround with remote.
I wanted to get benett hydrolic auto trim tabs but parts difficult still to get.
Question please :
1)What would be the best size swim tabs for that boat?
2). My starboard leg will not come up to trim unless I use the Trailer lift toggle ,which lifts both It does go down though. Any suggestions?
Had to use an unmatched gauge for the leg positions as no Sea Ray ones available.
The starboard gauge never reads totally down.
3) I find my throttle and shift controls quite stiff. Are there any better alternatives for a carbed engines?
The swim platform never drags , however I find it difficult to get the bow down quickly on plane.
My top speed was about 38 nautical miles per hour according to GPS and about 3500 on the tach both engines synced with6 adults on a very calm day.
Thanks in advance for any and all your help Have a great safe summer.

 

[Lazy Daze]

1) So you don't have ANY trim tabs, right now? Get trim tabs with the highest span that will fit. That's more important than chord. B's website has excellent information - take some time and look around. Also, call them directly if you want. I have no personal experience with these, but they seem to be doing well - check into Zipwake.

2) The most common reason is a failed or disconnected trim limit switch on the side of the drive. Google/search here - lot's of info on this one.

3) Probably (again, "most" common reason) old cables. Main cables and/or lower shift cable. Sounds like you're saying both so I assume you tried throttle only with no change. Diagnose by systematically disconnecting cables at the engine to see if things get better or not.

It's a big boat being pushed by small, Alpha props - I'm not surprised it takes a bit to get it out of the hole. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's supposed to perform like a newer boat or a smaller boat. It won't. But full down trim and tabs will help.

Your speed sounds right, but the tach is not reading correctly. Try playing with the little switch on the back side of the tach, then leaving it on "8".

 

[Barry S Gilmour]

1) So you don't have ANY trim tabs, right now? Get trim tabs with the highest span that will fit. That's more important than chord. B's website has excellent information - take some time and look around. Also, call them directly if you want. I have no personal experience with these, but they seem to be doing well - check into Zipwake.

2) The most common reason is a failed or disconnected trim limit switch on the side of the drive. Google/search here - lot's of info on this one.

3) Probably (again, "most" common reason) old cables. Main cables and/or lower shift cable. Sounds like you're saying both so I assume you tried throttle only with no change. Diagnose by systematically disconnecting cables at the engine to see if things get better or not.

It's a big boat being pushed by small, Alpha props - I'm not surprised it takes a bit to get it out of the hole. But don't make the mistake of thinking it's supposed to perform like a newer boat or a smaller boat. It won't. But full down trim and tabs will help.

Your speed sounds right, but the tach is not reading correctly. Try playing with the little switch on the back side of the tach, then leaving it on "8".

I have the factory install ones but they are as old the boat. with the new 4 foot swim platform and my 10.6 beam I am wondering if when I the auto trim tab unit should I look at upsizing the Tabs. Boat is not here at the moment so I don't have size that are on it . Thanks for yourquick advice, and help.

 

[Lazy Daze]

OK, I'm guessing that with only a 10-1/2' beam and twin engines, you're not going to have a whole lot of room to add much span. Just get as much as you can and consider B's "drop fin" tab as that can make up for some lack of span. Adding chord can't hurt, either. But discuss it with B to see how big you can go with your existing ram.

 

[Juju Bill]

So you are using solar instead of a generator?