Tabs down or drives in???
 

Would someone help explain a comment Teague made in Powerboat regarding tabs and drive setting. He mentioned that for step bottom boats you are better off setting the tabs down a little and the drives at neutral trim for flying level and running in rougher water.

My question is why is this better than leaving the tabs up some or all the way and trimming the drives in. Assuming you can trim the drives so that you run level. Does this effect speed and or ride comfort?


Thanks,
Rick

I belive the reasoning behind leaving the drives out is to prevent burying the bow and causing a bow steer problem, which could be a problem with a step bottom boat.

I understand you don't want to drive the bow down so hard that you get bow steer. However, in rougher water I thought you wanted the bow down to cut through the wave instead of bouncing on the top of it. Don't you get a more comfortable ride cutting through than pounding on top.

Tabs that are level or slightly down actually extend the boats running surface. Flying level from wave top to wave top is a much smoother ride then busting through waves or going up and down if the boat speed isn't fast enough to fly.

Does the fact that neutral drive position, keeps the prop at optimum thrust angle have anything to do with this??? I really dont know, just another aspect though.....

They way ive been told a few different times is that in a step bottom boat you dont want to tuck the drives cause you will get bow steer and during a turn you can hook or even worse roll the boat. I guess that where alot of people get in trouble switching from a non-step to a step hull...
As for the tabs....like it was mentioned above...it increases the running surface of the boat :)

Someone please set me straight if this is wrong.. :D

As it was explained to me, bow steer and wrong pivot point are pretty much one in the same thing in a step bottom boat. In a single step boat, the pivot point when steering is exactly that one step. When you are in a multi-step boat, and you are in an other than ideal postion in the water, the bottom of the boat can pick a different spot to pivot on for a turn or an unexpected maneuver.
BT's comments make sense to me, that you would want to keep the drives constant, for obvious consistancy, and try to control flight/ride level with the tabs.

My experience has been similar. depends on the waves, but usually I do not trim the drives in all the way, I leave them out and use a little tab. Rides smoother and the bow doesn't tend to nose dive as much. Plus I run a little faster that way:)

"Ideally" one wants to find the balance that provides for the boat to, for lack of better words, "skip" across crest to crest of each wave. This involves tuning the right amount of tab/trim and, let's not forget, THROTTLE. Too little or much of either will put you in the pounding scenario. Is this true for every outing you make? Not even. Wave heights, span, consistency, winds, boat loading, etc. will demand a slightly different approach each time. But one could say the tab/trim setup described by Teague is a good starting point...

Thanks guys for all of the input. Like stated above, it is a good starting point. Then tweek from there by feel.

Rick