Trim Indicators - mechanical vs electrical
 

Just picked up a boat that has the standard electric trim guage. Any idea of how accurate this is compared to the mechanical/cable indicator style?

Always had the mechanical setup but not sure its worth changing if the electrical is a proven setup. Thoughts???

I prefer mechanical but I guess the electrical ones are accurate. Until, they eventually stop working.

Depends on the type of boat they are used on.
A cruiser or open bow, electric just fine.

Ok educumucate me boys.... I beleive mine has mechanical but how do each sysrtems work? Mine pops and carrys on like crazy when full trim up

Best way I know to describe it is that the electrical gauge is normally a small circle gauge that shows the position of the drive and usually says UP and Down. It gets the position from the small circle trim senders on the sides of your drive. A mechanical gauge is rectangular and is mounted off to the side of your main instruments. It is usually numbered 1 - 10. The sender is a rod that is mounted on the side of your trim rams. It has a post that has a 33c cable in it and as you trim up the drive, the post is compressed and moves the cable, which in turn moves the indicator on the gauge. They are more accurate than the electronic gauge I was told.

Maybe a generic explanation, but hope it helps!

Good enough..... My boat isn't knew enough to have any of that electrical jazz ;)

The most important points are resulution and lack of freeplay. By resolution, I mean enough travel in the dash indicator that you can tell exactly where you are set. By lack of freeplay, I mean that the indicator moves immediately when the tab does. Many mechanical systems deal with cable freeplay by using preload springs that keep the cable in constant tension, so it doesn't shift from tension to compression as it changes direction.
The newest electronic systems use high-resolution sensors, but can still be prone to freeplay issues depending on the type of linkages used between the tab and the sensor.
One thing that I have done on my tabs is to install spacers on top of and below the piston inside the ram to limit the tab travel to only the amount that I need. This way, I can spread that smaller amount of travel over the entire range of the display, giving me better resolution of where I am set.

Funny thing, though: In the end, you adjust the tabs to get the result that you want, not to a particular number... Go figure.