Re: i broke down and did it... i bought SMART TABS
Following is a picture of the full rear view of Tabs installed:<br /><br />
<br /><br />Installation:<br /><br />The next two pics are of Gelcoat cracked (blown out) as screws were driven into the hull
but I am sorry that the pictures dont show the real damage as the tape and hinge in the pictures cover most of it. But I did try to show as best I can. I used silicon to seal the tops of the hinges because behind them the gel was blown out as the screws went in. I used the 1/8th drill bit as indicated per instructions, after a 1/16th inch pilot hole for each hole (my choice).<br /><br />In the next picture you can see a black spot above the right screw, under the silicon bead. Thats the top of a cavity/hole pried out from the gelcoat as the screw went in. Not pleased with this as this is a brand new virgin hull.<br /><br />
<br /><br />In the next pic, if you look just to the left of the screw to the dimple above it, you will see gelcoat blown out here too
its lifted
didnt fall out. This is underneath the hinge, photographed as I am lying down on the street, and I didnt seal there yet. <br /><br />
<br /><br />The installation did not go well, in my opinion. Maybe its my hull, because the upper brackets (two holes each but higher up) when installed did not produce gel blowout. I was per instructions/template and ½ inch above the bottom of the transom for the tabs themselves.<br /><br />The symptoms above, in my opinion, are from driving a certain sized screw into a too small hole
but I was NOT going to assume that the wrong sized screws were shipped and drill 3/16 holes and have them strip-out! So I stuck with the instructions.<br /><br />As far as I can see with my eyes, I have a problem here in the making. Theres no way this tape is going to seal the screw-holes as the cavities are larger than the tape can cover.<br /><br />Installation Repair:<br /><br />I would really appreciate advice on how to repair this
my son (in the Coast Guard) said 5200 would seal up the hull. I mentioned to him that maybe I should back-out the screws, one at time and fill the holes with 5200, and drive them back in in hopes of sealing everything up. He thought that might work.<br /><br />Performance:<br /><br />All adjustments were at mid-point. Stability was greatly improved immediately
so lets get that straight right away. We have to cross/negotiate a lots of large wakes as we travel due to large boats coming toward us and passing us, but at WOT I felt the bow was too low. I raised (while in the water) the top brackets to raise the degree of the tabs to lessen downward pressure on the bow. There might have been an improvement
Im not sure.<br /><br />I still felt that the bow was too low, but was unable to adjust the tabs pressure adjustment to its lowest setting, as these were by now well below the water. <br /><br />Unfortunately, today, we were unable to get out and test the new pressure settings as I had hoped
I am hoping they will work well as they are now set to the lowest settings, but cant report yet. My only complaint at this point is that the bow was too low at higher cruising speeds and WOT
I feel the boat is dragging somewhat, but will report after the next outing with the new settings.<br /><br />All-in-all, I like the tabs mainly for stability, especially on the river with large wakes to negotiate as the speedsters fly by us. I HATE it when my hull SMASHES (BAMB BAMB) at 30 + mph while trying to cut across the wakes. The tabs have allowed me to pilot sort of parallel the wakes and trace them rather than cut across them
a huge advantage with the stability as we roll much less.<br /><br />So I can report about the planing ability after next time out. <br /><br />But due to the fact that I had THREE Danforth packets of Polymer Coated Chain with two 5/16 Galvanized Shackles shipped with my order (Gawd knows what these things are which were not ordered by me), I am HOPING that I have the 60lb Smart tabs installed (which I did order) and not the 80 or 90 lb set which require 3/16th pilot holes! In any event, Id like some feed back and of course I will report about the least-pressure setting after next time out.
