Trim Tabs or wedge?

I see a lot of boats with either trim tabs or a wedge, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

from my understanding trim tabs shape the wake only where a wedge actually forces the rear of the boat down displacing more water and increasing wake size

KG's got it right, trim tabs can shape the wake and reduce the size but will not make the wake larger.

(Message edited by acurtis_ttu on February 10, 2006)

But Tige will tell you different.

Tige will tell you that Taps up (not engaged) is the biggest wake and that Taps down (engaged) is the smallest wake. Tige hulls are convex, modified planing, semi-displacement. Although not used by other ski companies, the basic design is used for many other applications including trawlers and cruisers. Trojan called it Delta Conic. It produced a bow-up ride when the trim tabs were not engaged and allowed for better rough water handling at lower speeds.

Some dealers/sales guys will tell you that a wakeplate/trim tab is a fix for a bad hull design. That may have been true back in the cave man days... but I know that:

1) Supra designs their hulls to make full use of their wake plate. I like it because it gives you direct control over the wake shape.
2) Tige also designs their hulls with their wake plate (TAPS) in mind. Although TAPS works... IMO... not a replacement for ballast to get BIG wakes. Check out March 2006 WakeBoarding magazine.

As far as the wedge... opinions will vary... I look at it like this. If you have a real mix of riders and abilities on board... it is a fast way to add or remove about 1200# of ballast equivalent.

Crank your B*ll Sh*t filter to up to maximum... its boat show season

I will tell you one thing.... When you are facing 2-3' rollers and 2-3 chop like you do in Lake Powell going through the narrows. It is essential to have the wakeplate. I will Put that thing all the way up and go about 10mph and that will stick the nose of the boat way out of the water letting you get through there unscathed.
As far as wakeboarding, the Wakeplate Allows you to shape the wake a little. If you are getting a little curl (because of too much weight in the back of the boat), you can trim down to take the curl out. I use the trim tabe almost every single time I take my Supra Out. Whether it is to Flatten the wake for my Skiing friends or to make the wake smaller or less lippy for my kids, it is definately something I will always have on my boats.

I cant speak on the Wedge too much because I have only ridden behind a BU a few times. I do know that a guy on here JT has a 03 VLX and he doesnt have a wedge and his wake is nice. More like my Supra ( lippy and not ramppy) And my other friend has the wedge and it is quite the opposite.

I have a trim tab on my boat. Trim tabs bring the transom up, put the bow down, and they can help you get on plane more quickly. For wakeboarding I almost always set the tab to 0%, all the way up. Sometimes when I have a crew of only three my boat will porpoise. The porpoise action makes the wakeboarding wake pretty useless. When the boat porpoises I set the trim tab to just a few percent. Setting it too high makes the wake pretty mellow, not good. The other way to fix the proposing problem is to put the watcher up front, but that could restrict the watchers view. I put about 100 pounds of weight in the bow, a better solution than putting the trim tab down.

So in general I set the tab all the way up for wakeboarding, and down for slalom and general go fast operation. I also set the trim tab down 50% to 100% for goofy wakesurf, but up again for regular stance.

Hydrofoil devices like the Wedge and Switch Blade pull the hull deeper in to the water, giving you about the same effect as adding ballast. I don’t have direct experiences with these devices.

I own a Tige 21 V with TAPS and it definitely hels shape the wake. The setting you use, depends largely on the load in the boat. When boarding with three people and a full tank of gas I set it on 5-6. I get a pretty rampy wake and it's a great size. I also ride with a friend in a direct drive Malibu who uses the Wedge, sacks and the built-in center tank and the wake on his boat is comparable to the 21 Tige. Tige's are REALLY REALLY heavy- around 1000 lbs more than others v drives-although I think more of the newer boats are going heavier now too. I also have a set of v-drive sacks (350lbs each) that I sometimes put in the lockers on either side of the engine- this makes the wake HUGE and super rampy. I am going to experiment with center ballast this year too.

forget the WEDGE unless u wanna replace it frequetly. I was out on a boat with a wedge. loaded up stock ballasts, 4 sacs and some lead. Rod for 20minutes and the wedge broke off.

The added weight and turning did it though....

it's amazing how people who actually own malibus and put hundreds of hours on theirs rarely, if ever, have wedge issues that don't involve a log or a stump, but people who own other boats--and only ride malibus occasional--have wedges break on them left and right even when just driving around. what a strange coincidence...kinda like the brand x owner who has a "friend" whose brand y boat is always in the shop

(Message edited by JcV on February 18, 2006)