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1996 Seadoo Challenger Boat

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Carlosm

Carlosm

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My boat is 15 feet long and the ride is a little rough on full throtle. It bounces a little too much, and Im wondering if it's because of the size. Are there any kind of stabilizers to keep it from bouncing so much? It really takes it's toll on your back after a while... Is every body experincing the same? I could use some tips please. Thanks guys have a great day!! :seeya:
 
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Nauticus Trim Tabs. I've owned a 15' (96 Challenger) for 6 years now and putting these trim tabs on this boat made it feel like a completely different boat. Tremendous improvement in ride quality. I have the 9" X 12" stainless plates and the struts are based on HP. This was one of the best mods I made and I highly recommend these to anyone with a 15' SD jet boat. They will not work on twin-screw boats though...nowhere to put 'em.
 
believe, they're a universal part, just need to know where your mounting them, and look up the dimensions, of each. Repaired a boat last year, and it had them on. I thought i noticed, off take-off, that the bow dont lift much....cool part.
 
OfficerSeaDoo,

I purchased my Nauticus Trim Tabs from Cabela's. Nauticus has a dealer locator on their website. When I bought mine they only offered the Smart Tabs, they have since come out with Smart Tabs SX, which look to be a plastic instead of the stainless steel Smart Tabs, at a lower cost. I can't stress enough how much better my boat rides with the Smart Tabs. Here's a link to the Nauticus site:

http://www.nauticusinc.com/smart_tabs.htm

I put the ST1290-60 model on my boat...again, awesome! Probably run in the neighborhood of $150 bucks and worth every penny.
 
I'll have to look to see if I have any pics. If I don't, I will be taking some pics soon as I plan on selling the 96 Challenger this Spring and I'll post pics when I take them.

I hate to see the Challenger go, but it's for good reason...I just bought a 2002 Sea Doo Utopia 185 Sport (navy/silver trim w/2002-2004 hull design, they also offered the Utopia 185 Distinctive in 2002 which had green/gold trim w/1999-2002 hull design.

So, I end the Rotax era and begin the Mercury era this season...mixed reviews on the Merc powered boats, but I've wanted to upgrade to a Utopia for a few years now and the right boat came along this season...can't wait! I've definitely enjoyed my Challenger and the Rotax motor has been great...hopefully I'll like my Merc.
 
Chester,

I'm not sure if you're talking about the Nauticus Trim Tabs on my 96 Challenger or the adjustable ride plate on my 02 Utopia.

The Nauticus Trim Tabs on the Challenger have slots on the plates and slots on the transom mounts for the struts. Per Nauticus instructions I placed the strut in the center of the slots on both the plates and the transom mount. Nauticus also provides a template to put the Smart Tabs at a 30-degree angle off of the bottom of the hull as a starting point and you can adjust from there if need be. Mine seemed to work great with the 30-degree setup so I left them alone. You can adjust the two plates differently as well to compensate for boat lean due to weight...i.e. you always ride with the same people/person and the boat leans to the port side, so you could adjust the starboard side down or the port side up to compensate for the lean.
 
The 96 Challenger has a trim system on it from the factory... Should be the outside handle next to the throttle, been looking for the trim rings, thought about adding this to my 1800 challenger..
 
Ahhh, yes the Variable Trim System (VTS)...I almost forgot about that tiny little lever out there on the end...I've got the VTS set neutral ever since I put the Nauticus Trim Tabs on the boat...Nauticus recommended this. I played with the VTS prior to having installed the trim tabs and it doesn't hold a candle to the trim tabs. I would say the VTS is absolutely useless in comparison

The VTS does not have a big enough impact on the handling to nearly illiminate porpoising and has absolutely no affect on chine walking...the trim tabs almost eliminate both porpoising and chine walking, not to mention that the boat is on plane right now, the bow remains down at slow speeds and they adjust automatically with the water pressure acting on them.

I got to say it again, I can't stress enough how much better my boat rides with the Smart Tabs.
 
parrothd,

Looks like you've got the twin screw setup based on your pic...I don't know that you'd have room for Smart Tabs on your boat with two pumps. I don't have any experience with the 1800, but I've got to imagine that it's much better than the 15' Challenger being how much bigger the 1800 is all around and the 220 hp has to get 'er on plane pretty quick.

If you are looking to improve planing time or combat a problem with porpoising (your boats probably no where near as bad as a 15 footer) or chine walking, I've had extremely positive results with the Nauticus Smart Tabs. The Smart Tabs are stainless steel (they now also offer an SX model made from some type of plastic...cheaper alternative) and the largest plate they offer is 9" X 12". That's what I put on my boat and for my single 110 hp they recommend the 60lb. strut (60lb. for 60-150 hp). If you do decide to put a pair on your boat they do make two other plate sizes which are smaller if space is an issue with the twin setup and I think the next strut up is an 80lb., which I believe your 220 hp twin would fall into the recommended hp range for the 80lb. strut.

I see you're in Chicago...I'm about 20 miles north of Ann Arbor, MI...long winter eh? Can't wait to hit the water!
 
Thanks for the info..

I've been researching on how to add the challengers vts trim to my boat, but from the sound of it, it doesn't work... :)

One of my concerns was how effective that trim was on a the smaller challenger, and since my challenger 1800 is 3x the size of the regular challenger I'm going to pass on that option.

I've spoken with Greg at Nauticus, I'm going to send some pics and measurements and see if something will fit. This is the only complaint I have with my boat, the porpoising can be a real pain!...
 
YUOnDaGround,

I had the same concerns about drag and losing top end speed, etc...Nauticus claimed that the boat may even have a gain in top speed (I was very skeptical of this...seemed against the physics) as a result of the hull being more stable/working better in the water. I can't say that I noticed any top end speed gains, but I didn't appear to lose any top speed either.

I would not worry about drag as long as you don't have a strut thats rated for substantially more HP than your boat has. I think that as long as the right strut for the application is used you shouldn't have any issues with drag. I didn't notice any drag...the boat was much quicker to plane with the trim tabs. I've had only positive results with them.

If you did experience drag, you can adjust the plate angle to be less agressive or go to a lighter strut.

It looks like you've got the same setup as parrothd, the 1800 twin screw 220 hp...he's been in contact with Nauticus regarding a setup that will work with his boat (your boat, 1800 Challenger) and may be able to help you with plate/strut selection that will work best for you.
 
Just got off the phone with Nauticus, they suggested the mt-1080-80, due to the limited space & HP. He also mentioned that with the metal trim tab you can and that I may need "modify" them to fit my application. They also sell a retractor mounting kit, he didn't recommend them because of the swim platform but I bought them anyways..I'll post up when I get them and see if they fit..
2 PR500 Plate Retractor Kit $65.98
1 MT1080-80 Mobster Tabs trim tabs $189.99
 
Trim Tabs for my 1996 Seadoo Challenger

I just bought a pair of the Nautics for my boat on Amazon about $30 dollars cheaper than ebay and Nautics direct. I purchased the Plastic composite, which are also cheaper than the stainless steel model....Can't wait to install them and hit the water, my younger daughter almost flew off the boat last time we went out! So this is going to be a great modification! If anybody has any pics of the trim tabs installed, please pass them along so I could give myself an idea on where to start.....It's been an incredible thread with lots of info...thx guys!!!!:cheers:
 
All right, I just got my brand new set of Nauticus Smart Trim Tabs and I can't wait to install them. Im going to include a picture of the package so maybe you guys could get an idea.. ...
 
Maybe they already have this but what I would like to see is a video of the SAME boat from a dead stop to WOT and full speed before you install the tabs and after. The guy recording would do best to be on a dock, that way you can actually "see" the difference.
 
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