Wake shaping?!?

I want to do some wake shaping on my Sanger V237. I was thinking of adding trim tabs. Comments? Good or stupid idea? Suggested setup?

I've got the extra trim tabs on my V237. I like them a lot for simulating having weight up front, and because they let me rip off to another spot without draining weight (lets you make the boat level).

However, I've found those extra tabs will only act to decrease the height of your wave, or even wash it out if you don't have it set right. What they do really well is lengthen the pocket of your wave. Keep in mind though, that the same results could be achieve with bags up front; tabs are just much much easier.

I remember reading a post by someone comparing the V237 wave of one with the tabs and one without them. They thought the one with the tabs could not make as good a wave as the one without them. I'm not really convinced of this, as I've demo'd 237s with and without, but it may be something worth keeping in mind. I'll know more as I get onto my boat this summer and really dial it in.

Here's a picture of my tabs.

Andrew-Do the trim tabs on the sides really help?
Can you show us a pic of with/wothout?
The wake plate in the middle,what does it do?It's just stationary for the most part right?

The reason I'm asking is I have a V210 and was thinking about adding them to my boat.
I can do the plate in the middle,but it would have to have a cut out for my FAE,the ones on the sides would'nt be a problem.

I'll be heading out on Monday to take another of already many shots,at setting up my wake.

Hey Ricardo,
Mainly the tabs on the side push the nose down . That allows for less weight in the front. We used the tabs on a V237 at our contest in L.Å. to adjust the wake on the fly for the skim riders that want a flatter wake. I wouldn't mess with the FAE IMO. I found someone who has surfed at lot on the V210 i will ask her how she set it up.

I thought about cutting the plate tight around the FAE,sort of a U shape,I'd never remove it,that thig is the bomb.

Could you push one side's tab down and the other side's up the cause your boat to tilt to the surf side? Richardo, that plate in the middle comes on all the V237's. I guess it helps with the wake....according to Sanger. I've thought about taking off the stationary plate in the middle and putting a center trim tab there instead.

FAE? I'm assuming that's Fresh Air Exhaust? That might be the next upgrade on the boat....so watch for the thread to show up soon, I would love to have your input.

The only thing the tabs are effective at doing for surfing is decreasing the wave height, which lengthens the wave. You can tilt the boat to the surf side, but that acts to wash out the wave. I played around with it last summer, and had great results with lengthening the wave... but that's it.

As for a hydraulic middle-plate, it didn't show much of a benefit over the stationary tab (when combined with the outside tabs). I believe that was the word coming from Sanger.

I have fitted the centre tab to my V210 and it helps with the surf wake a lot, you can tune the wake to lengthen out the pocket by adjusting the plate up and down, I guess you could do the same by adjusting the speed but the my surf wake has been a lot better since fitting the tab.

The set up we run is:
220 pounds in front chain locker
120 pounds under surf side bow seat
600 pound floor sac full
350 custom v drive tank full on surf side
300 pounds steel in surf side locker on top of tank.

Normally the plate is all the way up but even in this position it is in the water a bit, once we get more than 5 in the boat the plate comes down to length the pocket and control the curl.

Thanks guys for the useful information!