Another Smart Tabs thread

[dmoriarty51]

I've read over some of the threads about the aww over smart tabs and i ponder whether they are a good fit for me, so i ask you gods of the boating forum whaddaya think?

My boat is a 1995 Crestliner ProAM 1650, this is a 16ft 5in aluminum deep vee side console with a 70 HP Johnson 2 stroke for power. This boat seems to ride very tail heavy and will porpoise easily. It is not carrying water weight as its undergone a full tear out rebuild just recently. It also requires something on the order of 3800-4000 rpm to stay on plane, max rpm is listed at 5500 rpm and it will obtain that so I believe I am correctly propped. This is a fishing boat that I use mostly to ride around and hang out on the sandbars and beaches of the mighty Mississippi, very little actual fishin perhaps more as my 6yr old becomes more patient.


I currently use an SE200 hydrofoil on the motor which allows it to jump on plane but it creates a large fountain of water spraying up until I am trimmed up to nearly porpoiseing and didn?t help to lower plane speed/rpm much if at all. It did take out some of the wander at low speeds but thats not a huge concern to me

By Nauticus's the chart it looks like either ST980-40 or SX9510-40 should be the right fit.

So should I drop another $170 on the boat or let it be cuz well its just a little tinny.

 

[Another retired guy]

Re: Another Smart Tabs thread

Looks like you are a good candidate for Smart tabs - if you want to spend the money of course
If you do go for them remove the whale tail! ( check the thread started earlier today " what is the whale tale for" )

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: Another Smart Tabs thread

I'm not a fan of tabs at all.
I have Bennett tabs on my boat and they are pretty much useless. They don't help getting on plane or stopping the flop (porpoise) when I trim any little bit. They do add some drag at low speed and help keep the boat straighter, but mine doesn't suffer from this much at all.
I bought the 300 version of that foil, just to try it, and like it very much. Plenty of lift and can plane at 16 vs 21 mph now. I still get the flop when trimmed, but I just don't trim it up. I can turn tighter without blowing out also. I did lose about 5 mph in speed, I think because it lifts to much, as the RPM's are higher at top speed now, which is a bit slower than before.
If you can trade your 200 for a 300, i'd try that before adding holes to the boat for tabs that probably wont help either.

 

[triumphrick]

Re: Another Smart Tabs thread

I put smart tabs on two of my previous boats...and they solved the issues I was having..

One boat was 18' and would porpoise a good bit, especially when at WOT and the motor trimmed effectively.

The other boat was underpowered with a 90 on a 19' Hydra Skiff...and the tabs really helped it get on plane.

For my applications they worked as advertised....

 

[dmoriarty51]

Re: Another Smart Tabs thread

I emailed nauticus with the same things mentioned in this thread asking if they thought i should put tabs on it and have heard nothing back, its been 4 days granted over a weekend but i hope that is not indicative of their customer service.

In the meantime more reading and now wondering if the ole motor may be a shade low on the transom? I made a flat water full throttle run and asked my trusted buddy to look over and see what was visible, according to him the cavitation plate is full submerged almost to the next plate up. Now, obviously shifting 230lbs to the extreme rear of a 16 ft boat is going to change its attitude no matter what you do.

A pic, looking at it on the trailer based on some guidlines she could come up a couple holes i think? Not that it means much, but this appears to be a factory setup there are no other marks or holes from motor mounting.