Nauticus Smart Boat Tabs, 8 Cylinder (21’ to 25’ Boats with Up to 250 HP)

Got to try out the smart tabs I put on the boat today on just a trial run. Gotta say it was a short run and wasn’t super rough out but really seems to have smoothed the boat out and gets up on plane super fast. They have a hydraulic rod in them that has a predetermined pressure so as you go faster they fold up and then basically adjust under waves and all that. Stopped the boat from porpoising as well which is giant help had real issues with that. Another thing is the boat got on plane in half the time and stayed on plane at a way way lower speed and that helps.One of the issues I had was I always had to keep my io trimmed nearly all the way nose down all the time in order to get a half way decent ride and keep it from porpoising. With the tabs I have a lot more options with trim. I was able to trim nose up and still not porpoise a big plus when it comes to ride and efficiency.What they do for fuel mileage is yet to be seen though but so far boy what a help.Oh plus they don’t tell ya I was pretty happy all the hardware is plastics nuts bolts everything so no rust ect. The attaching screws are stainless but that’s the only metal I found.The bad? Only bad thing I can come up with is they should include a small tube of 5200 to put in the holes would have been nice to now have to open a big tube just for this.Anyway I’m pretty happy.

Application is a 1995 Crownline 210 CCR, which is a 21' cuddy with a 5.7L Mercruiser and Alpha 1 Gen 2 outdrive. This is a relatively heavy boat for its length. The difference with these installed is, as others have reported, night and day. Boat came up to trim much faster, turns were much more smooth, performance at speed felt great. Easy to install and a great investment.

I have to admit I was a bit hesitant buying and installing these trim tabs. However, my rationale was "If they don't work then I'm only out $150 and I've blown way more money, much quicker, on much less on a boat before." So I gave these a whirl.Specs of my boat are as follows: 1988 21' Glasply Questar w/ extended transom and a 250 hp Evinrude E-tec as the main power.First off, installation is as easy as advertised. If you can't figure out how to install these trim tabs then you probably should do us all a favor and sell your boat and stick to a landlubber activity.Prior to installing these trim tabs, the boat was experiencing a fair amount of porpoising at higher speeds - no matter how much I trimmed the motor. It also had a few side-to-side stability issues that weren't too much of a concern because those could be resolved by proportioning the weight evenly. Getting up on plane was also never an issue with the E-tec - other E-tec owners know what I'm talking about.After installation and into the first 10 seconds at wide open throttle, the smile on my face just grew and grew. The difference was that noticeable. No more porpoising and when the boat does hit wake you can feel the tabs adjust to keep the boat on plane.The one downside is that they don't necessarily resolve the listing issue as advertised. You can manually adjust the tabs out of the water to correct a constant list but this doesn't help you when underway and passengers shift around or you have an uneven load from the day's catch. They do help some but not as good as electric or hydraulic tabs would - and this is my only reason for giving these trim tabs 4-stars instead of 5.Bottom line: I would recommend these tabs.Update 2/27/2015: After a couple years in the water I can say that the tabs are still working. However, I leave my boat in the water for about 5 months each summer. After this last summer I did notice that one of the actuators was greatly swollen for some odd reason. I've concluded that the tabs are best for trailered boats and that leaving them in saltwater for several months at a time shortened the life of the actuators. I would still recommend this product as a quick and low budget solution to my issues noted above.

The Nauticus Smart Boat Tabs really work! We have a 22.5ft cuddy sportboat and noticed a lot of bow rise when pulling tubes or skiers, especially when we've got 5-6 people in the cockpit. We also had a problem with chine walk and some porpoising at higher speeds. The Smart Tabs almost totally eliminated each of the above problems. The boat more easily pulls skiers out of the water and planes very quickly now - we're seeing fuel savings as a result. High-speed cruising is noticeably smoother and top speed increased by 1-2 MPH.Installation was straightforward and the instructions were thorough. I watched the installation video first, but it's really not needed. All in the installation took me about 1.5 hours. I measured everything twice but still managed to make a small mistake in placement by placing the tab too close to a sonar unit (easily corrected, just took some extra time).if you are looking to improve your small boat's handling, performance and fuel economy you should check the Nauticus Smart Boat Tabs out!

While these tabs do work and serve their purpose, they are absolutely WORTHLESS, and almost dangerous in a following sea. I'm assuming most ppl that are buying these are putting them on an "inland" boat...which I would presume they would function great at. I have a 23 foot walkaround that's nearly 5000 lbs. loaded with fuel, gear, and a 4 man fishing crew and I fish mainly Lake Erie. I was fishing last week twice, both times with some pretty nasty wind out of the north and we had 4+ footers with chop one day and 5+ rollers another. Let me say, the boat was downright scary once I turned my stern into the wind. It felt like I was pulling a drift sock and my stern was being pushed down into the lake. I had to keep adjusting my OB engine trim and RPM's to compensate and you could really tell the engine was under heavy load.Now I know that this might not be of concern for many boaters that would buy these but I am going back to Insta-Trim hydraulic tabs (Boat Leveler) and not looking back. You MUST be able to fully retract tabs into the up position in a following sea. "Big water" fisherman...BE WARNED. I wish another big water guy had posted a review such as this as it would have made me think twice before purchasing.