Chris,

Great looking gage setup. Besides tach, speedo and fuel tanks what gages are they?

Relocated tab placement complete.

The 5200 came off the transom and backing plates without incident by using Marine Formula by DeBond Corp, and hardwood wedges. The process was slow, but with fantastic relults. I would recommend this product to anyone wanting to un-adhear 5200. No gel-coat was removed or even scratched!

I epoxied fiberglass dowels into the old tab mounting holes, and then also sealed both the inside and outside with 5200. I am leaving the three exposed holes per side alone for now, and will be having them glassed and gel-coated over this winter when the boat is in hibernation. Right now, we are on the water 2-3 times a week.

I mounted the tabs parralel with the bottom of the boat, as wide as possible, and 1/2 inch up from the bottom. I will be testing with both 18" and 24" inch long blades.

I will report my results.

Chris

My tabs (Factory Mounted) Dana HP 900 are mounted like shown in the above pic. No issues and work great.

Thanks Ray

Initial report:

Overall.. Love the tabs!

The 18" blades (Dana HP 900's) worked better than the 24" blades (Dana HP 1000's). I think that the 24's are just too big, and react too fast. The 18's were also 1 mph faster.

The boat handles completely different... in a better way. 97% of my chine-walk is gone. It rocks a little when hitting diagonal wakes at speed (85+ mph), but this is no big deal, and makes sense.

Now for the rest of the story... I lost 2 mph on the top end, and almost 4 mph at midrange cruise. On the water, I picked up 250+ rpm. I had been experimenting with using no spacer, and a Hydromotive P5x - 30 pitch. I have found that the Hydromotives hooks up better on the bottom end than the Herings (with no spacer), while being slower on the top end. (A 30 pitch P5-x is 1 mph slower on top than a 29 Hering, but hooks up better for pulling tubers -- no spacer) The boat chine-walks less at top end using no spacer, while using no tabs.

Anyway... when I went home and did the slip calcs... I discovered that adding the tabs took my slip from 13%+/- to 17% +/-. It seems that the tabs are lifting the rear of the boat, even when fully retracted. They do not seem to be making the bow go down, just carrying the whole boat higher out of the water, resulting in higher slip numbers.

Overall: On the same day
30 pitch p5-x - no spacer - 3.5" below keel
Boat handled MUCH better with the tabs
No tabs = 93.1 mph - chine walk at speed - controllable, but you have to pay attention
Tabs = 91.1 mph - boat is so stable, I could let go of the wheel at speed if I wanted to

After testing yesterday, I promptly went out and installed my 1/2 inch spacer, and will be doing further testing today.

Stay tuned,

Chris