porpoising

[rolling hillbilly]

I do a lot of fishing by myself, and especially on windy days my 18 foot boat can get pretty squirrely on the front end. Kinda fun but a pain the the posterior as well. I was told to put a couple sandbags up front to keep it down, but being a redneck this is what I came up with, works great, and when I trailer the boat I can just dump the water and have 100 pounds less weight to take home.

 

[PSG-1]

Here's how I stopped mine from porpoising:




If you look closely, you can see the bottom "ride plate" on the pump tunnel. Notice how the last inch or so has been bent at a downward angle? This little bend is all it takes to level out my boat and take out the porpoising, even with 2 people sitting at the helm.






I suppose at some point, I could modify that ride plate where it had a set of 'ears' on the fixed part, then, make the last inch or so where it will pivot, using a thru-bolt on those attachment ears, and a push-pull cable to vary the up/down pitch of the tab, as I think I could possibly gain a MPH or two by trimming it up just a tad.

This method would work for any boat, except, instead of mounting it on a ride plate, you would mount it to the transom, on a plate that would extend out a few inches, and the last inch or so of that plate would be a pivoting tab. Attach to the boat by using an angle bracket, thru-bolted through your transom. Then rig the push-pull cable so it will pivot the tab up and down.

 

[rolling hillbilly]

thats cool, I saw a picture of plates on the transom somewhere, I guess its something I will have to experiment with in the spring since my boat now has a couple feet of snow on it much as Im looking forward to the ice fishing season, I cant wait to get back on the river!

 

[PSG-1]

Yeah, they're pretty simple devices to make, really, and a lot cheaper to make them yourself, too.

Plus, you don't have to carry ballast in the bow to make the boat run level, as I'm sure the added weight will cost more in lost MPH and fuel economy than a set of trim tabs could ever cause.