Before y’all make fun of me I’ve had a whole bunch of boats 24 foot and less that had tabs on them.

I’m now looking at my 25 Checkmate Convincor project.
It came with old-school Insta trims which I like.
They have solid tab/plates and rams look stout.
They had a clamp on position indicator that are currently inoperable but could be replaced and I like they’re thinking.
Could also adapt alternate rams to those plates.

My issues and questions pertain to, do I install bulletproof K planes so I don’t have to worry about them or Bennett sport tabs that are easier to tune to a small boat?

I had a 24 foot Sonic with Bennett tabs in Lake Erie and broke one of the Rams in rough water at speed.
That lake with that small of boat you need tabs to stay on plane and make it home which means a long ass, ****ty ride back with a broken tab.
I upgraded to their sport tabs which kept everything the same but added a second ram per tab.
Loved them but broke one of them also in similar conditions.
Even though they are redundant a ram failure opens the hydraulic system and drains the fluid so none of the other three tabs work.

On my second 24 Sonic it came with K planes with the MerCruiser trim pump for operation.
I hated the damn things!

Don’t remember size but smallest available and the boat was impossible to dial with those tabs.
If you just tapped a button the motor/pump was so fast it would free wheel past the sweet spot and you were constantly back-and-forth attempting to get correct attitude.
Got screamed at by the Mrs, multiple times for laying a round keel boat on its side!

Any suggestions from real world experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys. Gary

I’m interested.
PM me when your ready.

Bonz, the over correction was more the side to side effect at speed.

With my Sonics being around Keel there was no real pad to balance it on so you’re constantly sawing at the wheel, playing with trim, etc.
Anything above 50 it’s was very sensitive to wave direction, wind etc.

I would tap the button on one side to try and level the boat and it would roll it on the chine on the opposite side and scare the hell out of the Mrs.

The ram failures were due to me running a small boat where I needed a big boat.

Both sonics were huge fun in a 2 to 3 foot quartering sea.
WFO, with the motors trimmed up to fly the bow and the tabs down 20 or 30% to keep it from skying and it would just run across the top of the waves.
Orgasmic ride!

Twice a Bennett plastic ram cried uncle under those conditions.

My wife is to the point though that I’d pay dearly for doing that w/her in the boat 😉

Other than ram failures, I loved the Bennets on the first Sonic.
Very easy to set/adjust.

We had a 22’ Formula and a 21’ Celebrity at Erie for a while and I installed them on both.
I have an onboard video of bringing the Formula home through 5’s w/zero issue.
Key is, w/tabs you can stay on plane at 10 mph.
W/o, required 20 mph which meant coming home off plane.

Side to side compensation for load was a huge benifit also.

I built mechanicals for my 19’ Glastron Carlson and 21’ Laser.
Put then up to fly the bow, down to ski or go to Erie 😉

Great input.
Always wondered the difference in effect in that mounting method.

Thx for posting.

I have 150S K Planes on my 23’ v with 300xs. Bottom is 21degree with a small pad. I have never had trouble with them. This is my first boat with tabs so I cannot compare the performance of other tabs. I have never noticed overly quick corrections. They will lay the boat on its side if you just hit the wrong one especially coming on play. They work real good keeping the bow down, even in rough water running a little positive trim. I like them and would have K Planes on any other boat that I bought.