I/O with trim tabs

Do you have a problem with makin a wake without washout? Trying to figure out if I dont have enough weight of if the trim tabs (smart tabs) are messin up my wake. Have a 21' wellcraft excel with a 5.7. Im running about 1200-1500lbs of ballast and I can get a pretty high wake but still a little bit of washout.

i cant be the only i/o with trim tabs

Its rough with an IO no matter what. Its a function of the deep V hull. The wakes dont converge all in the same place creating that lovely roostertail. The wider washed out table that IOs have leads to washed out wakes, and the exhaust bubbles in the water lead to soft wakes. Not saying you cant ride behind an IO and you cant get a decent wake, but you definitely have these things working against you. If you suspect the trim tabs, back off the trim just a bit and try and get your wake dialed in via ballast bags alone. If its still washing out the same, it might not be the tabs.

Hmm, it's funny you should say that, ours seems to converge in the same place, but yeah there isn't as much of a rooster tail as what I've seen coming off some inboard boats, then again we probably don't run as much weight.

The other thing I've been noticing is that some of the newer boats coming out now are moving to a deeper v hull like the x30.

Where are you putting your ballast?

(Message edited by jtnz on July 22, 2008)

Well, of course I cant vouch for every hull out there, but the majority of I/O boats we've owned, and that ive ridden behind all have a similar rooster tail that sort of crosses over itself.

I dont know specifically about the x-30 hull, but most of the inboards and V drives that are coming out with deeper V hulls are actually more of a keel. Its a deep V up front to cut through chop and move water aside, however the aft portion of the hull still seems to have a flat bottom, a very mild V, or a bunch of compound angles to closer resemble a curved half moon cross section punched out of the water. I dont know how I feel about a flat bottom hull vs the compound curves, but I do know some curved vintage hulls that put out incredibly pronounced and sharp rooster tails and what look to be very nicely shaped, albeit very tiny, wakes. Just my take on things for what its worth.

(Message edited by GuitsBoy on July 22, 2008)

whats weird is when I make a slight turn. which ever direction i turn the washout on that side goes away but when go straight again then it comes back.....any explanation for that?

Maybe it simply unbalanced weigh distribution? Try moving some people around to see if you can get that side to clean up. It might be caused by prop torque, but thats a lot less noticeable for wakeboarders than it is for skiiers. BUt really, Im just throwing out random guesses. My IO is pretty clean and balanced. My inboard takes a lot more work to keep balanced, but its worth the effort.

what you mean by prop torque? I have a 21p high five and im about to drop to a 19. I have tried transfer all 5 riders to the front, all the the back, some up front some in the rear and the best thing ive found is just put one or two up front and trim all the way down. seems weird being everyone with i/o says trim up. As far as weight excluding people...im running about 750-850 in the rear 300 in the locker and about 400 in the bow.

I thinkkkkk he's meaning transfering 1 or 2 to one side or the other. maybe just 1 up front, and 1 to the other side, etc.

Good luck.

Prop Torque means that because the propeller rotates in one direction against the water, the boat has a slight natural tendency to list to the opposite side. Not a terribly great force, but it might be enough to make one side need a little extra weight.

As for the weight, Im not surprised that you need to keep thetrim down. On my IO, we would put 500 in teh locker and 540 up in the walk through. Nothing in the rear. Then we sould be able to trim almost half way up to push the ass end down a bit. With that much weight in the rear, you probably already have a solid balance.