Re: Trim gauge Necessary?
Joe, A lot of non-high performance boats are not greatly affected by trim, and therefore a guage is optional. My speedboat benefits the most from power trim. I do not have a gauge, but have become accoustomed to the feel of the boat at various trim settings. The steering will pull to the right when the trim is down. When I trim the motor, the steering becomes light without any pull. This is optimum for a safe, reasonably fast ride. Trim the motor more, and you max speed, but steering and control is much more critical if you want to stay "open side up". To summerize, a guage is not mandatory, and feel is more than adequate. In addition the guages are not (IMHO) quick enough to respond, and since they do not have 'tick' marks, it is hard to tell exactly what the setting is.