[Guest]

I just got a 2000 Monterey 26' and can't seem to get the steering down. I am relatively new to boats so I am not sure if this is something I am doing wrong or a problem with the boat. The boat has a bennett auto tab system and when its activated, I can hear the hydraulics for the tabs firing. When I use the manual tabs, there is no hydraulic noise and it appears the tabs do not move at all. Many times when I punch it to get the boat up and on plane, it will pull severely to the right and the tabs do nothing. Even at cruising speeds, the boat tends to lean right. It has the bravo 3 dualprop so it should not be pulling like this. It also tracks left to right all over the place coming out of the dock and its all i can do to keep the boat going straight.

Anybody have any ideas? Am I not doing something right here? Should I bring it back to the dealer to have it looked at?

 

[damn yankee]

adjennin,

I've never been ain a boat with auot tabs, but I can't speak to them. But, I do know that tabs will not affect the boat's direction like yours is doing. Most boats do wander a bit at no - wake speeds, but as severe as you say, I would check the out drive to see how much 'play' there is when you move it (by hand motor OFF!!) Your gimble bearing might be loose, or gone bad.

 

[Guest]

Thanks I will have a look at the outdrive. I was watching it and steering and it appeared to respond, but once the boat gets moving that might not be the case. I phoned the service department and they blew me off, insisting I was doing something wrong and I need to mess with the tabs and the up/down on the outdrive to get the boat level.

 

[Guest]

By the way, the same thing happened during the sea trial. Once we were on plane we were tilted and couldnt level the boat out unless we slowed it down. The manual tabs did not respond at all.

 

[damn yankee]

One way to check your tabs is to get in the water and have someone work the switches and move the planes up and down. (ENGINE OFF!! key on) My guesss is that your left plane is in the down position, which causes the boat to lean to the right. From my experience, 2 things have prevented my tabs from working: 1. Low hydraulic fluid level. 2. Low voltage, meaning either a bad battery or a bad alternator. I know my battery is low when the tabs quit working.

Oh, BTW, my tabs take a full 10 sec to traverse full up to full down.

Here's the link on how to operate the auto trim tabs from bennett:

Auto tab operators manual