Trim Tab Maintenance Guide: Ensuring a Ride You’ll Love
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Take care of the systems on board for a smooth ride.
Today’s trim tabs are not the trim tabs from your childhood boating memories. They do a whole lot more to make your cruise more comfortable and fuel efficient while on plane. But you can’t just set it and forget it. There are still some trim tab maintenance issues to consider.
Traditional Trim Tabs
Traditional trim tabs use stainless steel flat planes called tabs on the transom. The actuators adjust the tabs up and down to counteract with the bow up or bow down. In fact, that is how the control panel is marked, bow up or bow down. Years ago, many electrohydraulic trim tab designs converted to an all-electric option—no hydraulics to maintain.
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Simple Maintenance Begins With Proper Set-up
Simple and easy DIY maintenance starts with just keeping your dock lines and fenders away from the hydraulic reservoir, consisting of the pump system and the connecting tubing. The total electric systems have the same concern—keep snags from disconnecting the control system wiring.
Regular Maintenance Tips
Outside the boat is another simple maintenance item. Regardless of how your boat is stored—in a dry stack, on a trailer, or on the water—you should be able to see the condition of the anode, or zinc as it is sometimes called. These are generally pancake-style zincs and can easily be seen to judge effectiveness. Watch for zinc degradation and replace them along with other zincs on your boat: the shaft, strut, or outboard lower unit.
(See anode installation images below)
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Trim Trab Maintenance: Tab Positions
Another area to maintain is the actuator ram rod or stainless steel piston push rod that deploys the tab and retracts it. The major preventive maintenance tip is to retract the rod mechanism after daily use. If the piston push rod is left extended in the water, then marine creatures may attach to the unprotected rod. This could cause the oil seal to wear and leak oil into the sea or water into the actuator mechanism.
Most important to remember, when fishing from astern you may run the boat backward. So be sure to retract or raise the tabs UP or the reverse motion may break off the tab. I have seen many sportfishing boats install a homemade design of stainless cables to prevent overextension and breaking the tabs off. Some tabs even have sacrificial plastic shear pins to avoid pulling the actuator out of the transom.
Wow…that’s a lot to remember.
Do New Trim Tab Systems Require Different Maintenance?
Evolution
Just like most everything else in boating, trim tabs have evolved and become smart. The traditional helm control panel may be augmented with a smart design that will remember the trim you set for the boat and can automatically adjust for changes in vessel speed and wave direction. This change will keep the boat in trim and the bow down. Be aware of the location for these automated sensors and make sure to keep objects away from the smart sensor and wiring.
Maintenance is virtually the same for these evolved systems.
Revolution – Rotary Actuator
Enter the modern age of trim tabs and vessel stabilizers. Instead of using the traditional stainless steel planes or tabs at the transom, there are two new concepts creating a revolution in our boating world. The rotary actuator is a polymer design which acts as a trim tab and vessel stabilizer. The function of this unit is the rotary actuator spinning that can deploy and retract the scoop making 100 adjustments per second. Because of this speed, it also provides vessel stabilization.
How To Maintain Them
Maintenance is easy. If the boat is stored out of the water, there is almost no maintenance. Just keep the smart system clear of any fenders or dock lines that may snag on the installation. If the boat is wet-slipped, keep an eye on the rotary actuator. Wipe off any sea life with a deck brush whenever possible.
Revolution – Interceptor Design
A different revolutionary innovation is the interceptor design. With all submerged components made of a polymer, this does not have any moving metal parts to get wet. So, no anode protection is required. This design acts like a guillotine device with a polymer blade that actuates vertically perpendicular to earth and intercepts the water flow beneath the boat and transom. This provides the lift required for trimming the boat stern up and bow down. When cruising faster, it also performs a stabilizing effect.
A smart sensor system corrects for vessel trim and stability. The blades act quickly—1.5 seconds deployment and then another 1.5 seconds to retract. If the boat is left in the water, use anti-fouling paint on the polymer housing to prevent marine growth.
Trim Tab Maintenance Takeaways
DIY maintenance starts with a visual inspection. Check the equipment each time you use it. Take action if the moving parts are challenged by sea life or anode degradation. When replacing an anode, be sure to use a wire brush to clean up the contact area for best metal to metal contact. Some trim tab devices may be painted with anti-fouling paint, but keep the anode clean for better service. Traditional. Evolution. Revolution. Take care of whichever systems you have aboard, and you will be rewarded with a smooth ride.
-by Chris Caldwell
The post Trim Tab Maintenance Guide: Ensuring a Ride You’ll Love appeared first on Southern Boating.
Source: https://southernboating.com/maintenance/trim-tab-maintenance-smooth-ride
