NW Redneck
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2006
- Messages
- 643
I haven't been around the site lately due to my 'puter being in the shop, and my house gutted to an empty shell at the moment. I have however managed to get some boating in! 
I hijacked my mom's computer to check in here and give and update one of my last threads: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=197264
I finally got myself a set of SX tabs and installed them yesterday. I moved my tiedowns so the ropes sit just outboard of the outer chines and mounted the tabs so the outboard edge starts at the chine. Installation took about 1/2 hour and was easy. I only had 2 minor 'issues' with the tabs I recieved. First, the instructions on the packaging for the second row of pictures don't match the pictures above them. The instructions are in the right order, but the pictures aren't . Not a big deal, but I thought I'd mention it in case John D. isn't aware of it. The other issue is that one of the black nylon bolts in my kit that attach the tab to the hinge plate is about 1/2" shorter than the other three. This only leaves enough thread sticking out to get the nut about 1/2 way on. I'll call after the long weekend to see if I can get a replacement for it.
Now onto the good stuff! On the package it claims to reduce bow rise by 40%. After taking a test run yesterday, I can say that this is no exaturation, and maybe even an understatement! Before my bow rise was horrible and took forever to get on plane. I had to check the water ahead of me, make sure I was going straight, then gun it and hang on. The bow blocked all forward view and was rather disconcerting. Now my time to plane is cut by at least half, and I can see over the bow the entire time! They made a dramatic diffference!
The boat was also quite prone to porpoising in small chop, especially with a full tank of fuel which is under the floor directly in front of the engine. Now the bow stays down in small stuff, and settles down nicely after crossing another wake.
The third improvement is to planing at lower speeds. The boat would fall off plane at much less than 25mph. Now it will stay on down to about 16-18mph or so! This will be a great benefit for tubing with the kids! All this was with the 80# actuators set in the middle holes. Top end speed did drop about 3mph or so, so I am going to try moving them in one hole and see how it does. Even if there is no change is speed, the benefits the tabs provide are more than worth 3mph. I almost never run flat out anyway so for me I hardly notice.
All in all, I am thouroughly impressed with the performance of the Smart Tabs SX, and they are a great value for the verry reasonable price. I will gladly recomend them to anyone looking to increase their boat's performance and handling.
Kudos to Mr. D and Nauticus for an excellent product!
I hijacked my mom's computer to check in here and give and update one of my last threads: http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=197264I finally got myself a set of SX tabs and installed them yesterday. I moved my tiedowns so the ropes sit just outboard of the outer chines and mounted the tabs so the outboard edge starts at the chine. Installation took about 1/2 hour and was easy. I only had 2 minor 'issues' with the tabs I recieved. First, the instructions on the packaging for the second row of pictures don't match the pictures above them. The instructions are in the right order, but the pictures aren't . Not a big deal, but I thought I'd mention it in case John D. isn't aware of it. The other issue is that one of the black nylon bolts in my kit that attach the tab to the hinge plate is about 1/2" shorter than the other three. This only leaves enough thread sticking out to get the nut about 1/2 way on. I'll call after the long weekend to see if I can get a replacement for it.
Now onto the good stuff! On the package it claims to reduce bow rise by 40%. After taking a test run yesterday, I can say that this is no exaturation, and maybe even an understatement! Before my bow rise was horrible and took forever to get on plane. I had to check the water ahead of me, make sure I was going straight, then gun it and hang on. The bow blocked all forward view and was rather disconcerting. Now my time to plane is cut by at least half, and I can see over the bow the entire time! They made a dramatic diffference!
The boat was also quite prone to porpoising in small chop, especially with a full tank of fuel which is under the floor directly in front of the engine. Now the bow stays down in small stuff, and settles down nicely after crossing another wake.
The third improvement is to planing at lower speeds. The boat would fall off plane at much less than 25mph. Now it will stay on down to about 16-18mph or so! This will be a great benefit for tubing with the kids! All this was with the 80# actuators set in the middle holes. Top end speed did drop about 3mph or so, so I am going to try moving them in one hole and see how it does. Even if there is no change is speed, the benefits the tabs provide are more than worth 3mph. I almost never run flat out anyway so for me I hardly notice.
All in all, I am thouroughly impressed with the performance of the Smart Tabs SX, and they are a great value for the verry reasonable price. I will gladly recomend them to anyone looking to increase their boat's performance and handling.
Kudos to Mr. D and Nauticus for an excellent product!
