Trim Tabs

LetsRock

LetsRock

New Member
Dec 16, 2009
405
Long Island
Boat Info
1990 Sea Ray 220DA
Engines
Mercruiser 5.7 liter, 265HP, Garmin 541s
With a very nice day and week ahead here on LI I am starting to get the itch. I was thinking today that this is my first boat with trim tabs and I am not entirely clear how to use them. I have been reading up on them and obviously know what they are for but I wanted to hear from the SR family if anyone has any tips, advice or words of wisdom. Thanks!!
 
I use them to settle the boat port to starboard and to raise or lower the bow. The point is to get a smooth ride without bobbing up and down or left to right, or plowing through the waves with the bow. I trim to get as much of the boat out of the water as I can. Best thing I could say is bring it up to speed where you are planning, play with the trim tabs, and watch your RPM. If the RPM goes down, wrong way, if RPM goes up, keep moving until it starts to drop, then bring it back. BTW, you make me jealous, I am about 6 weeks out before my first ride with my new boat.
 
Ka1oxd said:
I use them to settle the boat port to starboard and to raise or lower the bow. The point is to get a smooth ride without bobbing up and down or left to right, or plowing through the waves with the bow. I trim to get as much of the boat out of the water as I can. Best thing I could say is bring it up to speed where you are planning, play with the trim tabs, and watch your RPM. If the RPM goes down, wrong way, if RPM goes up, keep moving until it starts to drop, then bring it back. BTW, you make me jealous, I am about 6 weeks out before my first ride with my new boat.
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Oh I am about 6 weeks away too, but the nice weather this weeks has me "jonesing" big time. Thanks for the tip on wathcing the RPM's. I hadnt read that anywhere. At the risk of sounding more stupid than I probably already do, I have 4 buttons that look like the 4 on a die. I have read that the two toward the bow raise the bow and the two toards the stern lower the bow. Is that correct. Also do you tend to raise/lower the tabs together or does it vary on conditions?
 
Usually the the trim tabs are rocker switches. Pushing both at the same time is absolutely fine. From a dead stop, push the top of the switches down to drop the trim tabs all the way down (Assuming yours are "Bennett" and setup normally in the dash!). Get up on plane and then push the bottom of both switches to pull the tabs all the way up. As you do that, the boat will settle to the left or right a bit. Use one tab to correct and level the boat. Don't worry, you can push either tab all the way down while running and the boat won't tip over. It SEEMS like it will at first, but it won't. If you have a GPS on board, you can use that to fine tune your speed as suggested by Ka1oxd. Set your cruise at the optimum for your engine, around 3,300 to 3,500 for the 260 with a 5.7 I think? Then adjust the ENGINE trim and see what happens to your speed. Once that is optimized, play with your tabs to see if you can increase your speed. I find on my 300 DA that I can pick up over one mile per hour with engine and tab trim and I don't adjust the throttles. It varies based on the load and changes as folks meander around the boat too. It's kind of fun actually!
 
There is some good info in the above posts reguarding RPM and speed. Thats great if you do most of your boating on a calm lake. Those tips give you a good starting point. There primary function is to adjust the boats ride and handleing. ie. heading into a choppy sea you want the bow down so the v hull cuts through the waves and dosent pound into them.Note your rpms and speed will drop some but the boat will ride smoother and handle better(unless you drop the bow too far) in a smaller boat like yours as passengers and coolers and such move around you will start to tip tward the heavy side. lets say your listing to port. there r two ways to correct this condition. starboard tab bow down will level you off.Or port side tab bow up. wind ,currents, load shifting all affect the ride.You may find yourself constantly making adjustments to the tabs to keep your ride smooth and level. Best advise is to play with them and you will see and feel what im talking about.
 
Lady Ashley SR560 said:
There is some good info in the above posts reguarding RPM and speed. Thats great if you do most of your boating on a calm lake. Those tips give you a good starting point. There primary function is to adjust the boats ride and handleing. ie. heading into a choppy sea you want the bow down so the v hull cuts through the waves and dosent pound into them.Note your rpms and speed will drop some but the boat will ride smoother and handle better(unless you drop the bow too far) in a smaller boat like yours as passengers and coolers and such move around you will start to tip tward the heavy side. lets say your listing to port. there r two ways to correct this condition. starboard tab bow down will level you off.Or port side tab bow up. wind ,currents, load shifting all affect the ride.You may find yourself constantly making adjustments to the tabs to keep your ride smooth and level. Best advise is to play with them and you will see and feel what im talking about.
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Thanks Lady Ashley. That is actualy my daughters name and we will be naming the boat after her this season.
 
The one thing you need to be sure of is that it takes very little input of your trim tabs to change the attitude of the boat. The first time I messed with mine I thought I was going to kill everyone around me. Remember just a short little push of the buttons is all you need.
 
bigcathunter said:
The one thing you need to be sure of is that it takes very little input of your trim tabs to change the attitude of the boat. The first time I messed with mine I thought I was going to kill everyone around me. Remember just a short little push of the buttons is all you need.
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Yeah, I have been read you should use 1/2 second bursts when pressing the buttons and wait awhile to give the boat time to adjust
 
LetsRock said:
Yeah, I have been read you should use 1/2 second bursts when pressing the buttons and wait awhile to give the boat time to adjust
Click to expand...

Good tip. I will be playing with mine (trim tabs) in a couple of weeks for the first time. Yes, I too am a trim tab virgin.

:grin:
 
I was a new boater last season, and I kept getting tripped up with my trim tabs because they seemed counterintuitively wired. In my mind, it would make more sense is pushing the rocker switches DOWN would move the trim tabs DOWN, but that's not how it works. Pushing the rocker switches UP moves the trim tabs DOWN, and vice versa.

Then someone on this board made it easier to understand: Treat them like an airplane joystick. Pushing the joystick forward makes your nose go down. Pulling it back brings your nose up.

Now I always think of that when I use my trims together.
 
jattea said:
I was a new boater last season, and I kept getting tripped up with my trim tabs because they seemed counterintuitively wired. In my mind, it would make more sense is pushing the rocker switches DOWN would move the trim tabs DOWN, but that's not how it works. Pushing the rocker switches UP moves the trim tabs DOWN, and vice versa.

Then someone on this board made it easier to understand: Treat them like an airplane joystick. Pushing the joystick forward makes your nose go down. Pulling it back brings your nose up.

Now I always think of that when I use my trims together.
Click to expand...

I like the joystick analogy ... thanks!
 
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