Re: will Trim tabs help wakeboarding?
Yes, they will help your boat plane faster. But they will not help with wakeboarding, because a fast planing boat completely defeats the whole purpose of wakeboarding. You want to create the biggest wake possible to make most wakeboarders happy...and that usually means NOT allowing the boat to plane, therefore running at slower speeds closer to 15 or 17 mph, adding more weight to the back, less to the front, trim motor up, put trim tabs UP (so, no I don't think they'd help create a larger wake), and plow across the lake at whatever speed puts the nose sky-high and leaves it there. Real watersports boats will pump 100's of gallons of water into tanks on board to help bog the back of the boat further down into the water for wakeboarding.<br /><br />But if you're talking about waterskiing? Just the opposite...flat wake and fast planing speed is what you want for that. And by all means trim tabs will help a boat plane faster and should flatten the wake a little bit. And on real watersports boats you'd pump the water tanks back out when it was the waterskiiers turn.<br /><br />As for brands? Many many people here seem to like Smart Tabs...cheap and easy to install...self-adjusting which is nice, but you can't manually adjust them on the fly if you want to do something special with them. For 2 or 3 times the price you can get conventional trim tabs with electronic actuators and controls on the dash...harder to install because of the electronics, but you can fine-tune on the fly with the push of a button.<br /><br />I honestly have no personal experience with any to be able to offer a specific recommendation.
