Supra Wakeplate / Trim Plate

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

What effect does the trim / wake plate have on the wake for wakeboarding and surfing. I'm thinking about whether I want to adjust it on my 1989 Sunsport. Thoughts?

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

Okie Boarder, a fair bit. You'll have to do a few test runs. You'll want it more up than anything. But if you raise it too much, you'll start porpoising (bow bounces up and down) all the time when you are at cruising speed. The only reason you would want it down, is to minimize the wake for skiing. But then your bow is lower in the water which will give you a rougher ride in chop.

Adjust it up, run it for a minute, adjust it again as needed. You can do it out on the water.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I'll have to play around with it once the water is warm enough to get in Mr. Green

What does it actually do to the wake by lifting it?

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

Okie Boarder, bigger wake when the plate is up. It allows the stern to dip deeper into the water. Be mindful. You may have to find middle ground. Not all the way up or down. With weight in that boat, if you don't weight the bow right your trim plate will have to do alot of the work trying to get your nose down. If you have it up too much, the boat will have a hard time planing off with a ton of weight in the back.

fish6942 · Addict Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 603

Can this plate be converted to be controlled via actuators? I have the Bennett plate on my Centurion with a pair of hydraulic actuators. There isn't a huge difference between full up and full down but it is noticeable. It is nice to put it all the way down when pulling kids as slower speeds to keep the bow down and make the wake a little narrower. With my boat, it needs to be about 3/4 of the way down to keep it from porpoising at higher speeds. At normal boarding speeds I put it full up.

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

fish6942, yep.

These may not be the fit you need, but you get the idea of the product. They are Bennett Hydraulic trim tabs. You can call Bennett, have the dimensions of your plate handy, and they will tell you what they have.
http://www.bennetttrimtabs.com/

They aren't cheap though.

vette74 · Posted: Feb 16, 2009 2:37 pm Post subject:

fish6942, It can but the cost is about $800. IMO you can spend money in better places. I moved mine up a little bit and will move it more when I get a better prop but running so much weight has actually bent mine in the middle Laughing

Commodore · Ladies Man Joined: 20 Jun 2005 Posts: 11636

Here's prices on some Bennetts:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/14664?&cid=chanintel&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=14664

WakeMikey · Addict Joined: 29 Mar 2008 Posts: 640 City: Fridley

On your other thread I wrote:

<<As for the wakeplate if you put it down just a tiny bit (like 1/2" - 1") it makes the wakes steeper and higher. Good thing. Any more and they just get flat. Really flat, really fast. I am lucky in the my 87 SS has a hydrolic wakeplate. >>

I use it either all the way up or just a touch down from all the way up. It adds a little to the wake but I wouldn't say it makes a big difference.

Sometimes it is pretty useful but usually not; it would be nice to have the new Supra auto plate but I wouldn't really pay extra for it. If we're weighted you get better holeshot with the plate down more. Note that you can't put it all the way down or the bow rides dangerously low. Haugy is also right that when it is up all the way and you're cruisin at high speed sometimes the bow slaps up and down, but lowering the plate a bit fixes that.

If you aren't wakeboarding I would say it's safe to put the plate down 2" or so. Have you read the manual about the plate? It says never put all the way down, don't put more than a couple inches down from all the way up.

This is a pic from when I pulled off my exhaust baffles to size them up to add Fresh Air Exhaust. Prev owner had a small rudder leak but he couldn't find it so put some epoxy around the baffles which we peeled off.