At the risk of sounding REALLY stupid.... What is the difference between dual ram trim tabs (which I have on my boat) and K planes? I have always thought that trim tabs and K planes were pretty much the same thing...

I agree with everything that was said here so I'll play the devil's advocate. The K-Planes are much more expensive. They are also longer than the Bennets and will exert more leverage as a result. If you're condisering putting them on your 25 Baja, its small enough that dual ram Bennets should be just fine. I have them on my 28' boat (4900lbs) and the work fine, but my boat doesn't need a lot of tab to change its running attitude. Would I rather have the K-Planes...sure, but the Bennets are working just fine (I also run in some good chop), they wern't worth the extra $$$$$ to me. If my next boat is heavier and/or longer, it will be a no brainer, K-Planes all the way.

I will be running these hybrid k-plane /bennetts on my 60+ mph cruiser this spring. Each side will be run by its own pump. Total investment <500$ including indicators.

You all are right about them changing the pitch of a smaller boat, on my 27 Fever I have K-planes, std on FTN. and I use them to plane off w/ heavy load, as soon as I plane I need to bring them up or the boat is very hard to handle, almost doing a Beak Dive

WILL

Try having 30" Kplanes on a 29' Fountain. Talk about anchors when they are down. It's a very wet ride if the tabs are down. They are HUGE for that boat.

So you think 30" K planes are huge on a 27 Fountain? I have them on my 24 Progression. Talk about effective!

i bet with a little practice on those tab buttons you could paddle your way back with those big 380-s K planes

Could you please itemize the components? I may be interested in doing something like that.

OK no problem. The boat had bennetts so I had one pump and 2 actuators and had 2 old actuators. I bought another brand new pump on ebay for $75. Found a set of 280 tabs on oso for $200. Bought the bennett trimdicator kit from boatfix for $227. This kit has everthing to retrofit 2 actuators for a nice indicator setup. 2 peices of aluminum angle and a little milling, drilling and taping to mount them to the tabs. I made the hinge out of some 1/2" x4" ss flat stock I had and welded 2 pieces of 1" round bored 1/2" for the rods and thats about it. Will through bolt of course. Primed and antifouled everything cause this tank stays in the water. It should work much better than the 12 x 24 bennetts that were on the boat especially for smoothing out landings and leveling the flight a little. I needed something more than the bennetts for this speed and size of boat but will never exceed 70 so this looked like a good compromise without having to spend $1500 on the k-planes. Plus I got indicators which I wouldnt have gotten for the $1500. I wont know how it works till spring but based on some sources I have, it should work just fine. I have the wiring diagram for the twin pump setup too. I you are serious about doing this I can get more specific and email you some diagrams and such.

Tom

Tom:

Thanks for the details. When I get to opening-up the boat for the Spring, I may be getting in touch with you.

-Mark