"Bennett Trim Tab" anyone heard about it?

I saw this in Overtons catalouge this month. It looks similar to TAPS or the Wedge, it's a hydrolic plate on the back of the boat that produces a bigger/more shapely wake by raising or lowering the plate. Anyone have any experience with it? If it works I want to install one on my Nauti 2001.

Bennett trim tabs have been used for a long time to help with bigger boats, evening out rides, and quicker planing.

Will not make a wake bigger, will only help with shape. There is no substitute for sinking a boat lower in the water. This is one reason why a san wake can get so large... 1000 lbs of ballast makes more of a difference in a narrow boat than a boat of equal length that is a foot wider.

It is just like the TAPS plate, and the hydraulic wakeplates offered on Supras, Moombas, and a few others (Centurions? Ski Supremes?). I have one on my Supra, and here's the deal:

1. It will not make a wake bigger.

2. It can be used to make it smaller, and to clean it up a little in some cases.

3. It can help a boat with very heavy ballast get on plane faster.

4. It's great for adjusting the ride. It absolutely will stop porpoising, and the ride is much smoother in choppy water.

BTW, you start out by saying that it "looks similar to TAPS or the Wedge." A TAPS plate doesn't look anything like a Wedge. They're totally different in design, purpose, and operation.

TAPS is a fancy Tige word for bennet tab, everything jeff says is accurate.

Actually, TAPS from TIGE is the combination of a trim tab on a hookless hull. Their boats are tuned to plane on their tails and the wake plate is to allow the boat to plane at higher speeds without porpoising.

I heard a good one the other day... a guy called the TAPS system the: Tige Anti Porpise System

Someone call my name???

Yes, Tige claims that the TAPS "system" includes the plate and certain features of the hull design. But, as I said, the "TAPS plate" itself is exactly like a Bennett trim tab (except that a TAPS2 plate is electrically actuated instead of using hydraulic pressure).

So would you guys say it is worth $415? Seems a little steep to me if all it does is make the wake a little cleaner and help the boat plane a little faster.

I paid about $700 for the factory option, and I'd gladly do it again. However, if you're talking about a direct drive boat, I'm not sure it will make as much of a difference as it does with a V-drive.

You have to remember the TAPS on the Tigé's are designed with the hull shape in mind. Your boat may not respond well to adding a trim tab. Just take in to consideration the shape of your hull.

ok look taps is yes a trim tab but no it doesn't work the same as it would with other boats.
Tige has a convex hull, curves up on both ends like a wakeboard.
- without it the boat is going to porpus up and down.
- with it boat won't porpus and you get added benifits the back naturaly falls into the water because the convex hull stays convex with taps in the up position.
- also lets you fine tune how much of the back of the boat is in the water, helps if you weight the boat
- lets you change the angle of the boat while going so you have a smoother ride on the water
- since the back all ready falls the nose of the boat is way up in the air the only way to really understand it is to get in one and use it yourself
- if you put it on another boat, like supra does, all you could do would be make the front go further down into the water.
- finaly if it weren't different Tige wouldn't need a patent for it, and they do have one.

(Message edited by banks on February 17, 2004)

i have always heard of them as the bennet flaps, any pics on this anyway?

http://www.tige.com/tige2003/performance-versatility/taps.htm

click it

and

http://www.tige.com/tige2003/performance-versatility/convexvhull.htm

and

http://www.tige.com/tige2003/performance-versatility/combinedversatility.htm

"if you put it on another boat, like supra does, all you could do would be make the front go further down into the water."

Actually, B, the tab on the Supra does all these things:
- with it boat won't porpoise
- also lets you fine tune how much of the back of the boat is in the water, helps if you weight the boat
- lets you change the angle of the boat while going so you have a smoother ride on the water
- helps with holeshot when you have extreme weight in the boat
- using the plate changes the attitude of the wake - while it can't make it bigger, it shapes it and can make it more rampy and less abrupt if you so desire (as many newbies do - it lets you keep the boat loaded with weight while making the wake less extreme)




(Message edited by supraman on February 18, 2004)

you still don't get it.
like i said the only way your gonna get it is to use it. a friend of mine has a supra. there's a big difference b/t the two. the back of the supra goes down because of weight not because of the hull design.

if you want to understand it reasearch tige' and how it works, then drive one and test it out in every way. sorry if my last post was insulting

b -

I didn't say "Supra and tige are the same." I didn't even say that "TAPS is not unique." The interaction of a wake plate and hull design is what makes TAPS, according to tige. The fact is, I've been on a tige and tested it and I DO get it.

Both the Supra and tige have trim tabs. They are mechanically almost identical. They serve the same purpose - to modify the running attitude of the boat. The tige has a different hull design, so the effect of the trim tab is different on the boat. tige calls that TAPS. Period.

The plate on the Supra still does all the stuff I said it does just a couple posts earlier. That was my only point. Get it?

"so the effect of the trim tab is different on the boat"

thanks