Trim tab failure

[barbeque2]

Had two inside actuators fail with the springs sticking out the bottom. The outside actuators had the plastic pin separate from the bottom . Bennett spokesperson said it was caused by the stern thruster. Nonsense. The starboard side, well away from the thruster suffered the same demise. He had no explanation. I don't want this to happen again. Any ideas?
John Grill
BAR-B-Q
2014 RANGER Tug 31 CB

 

[Cutwater28GG]

I’ve had one fail

I think some of the failure cause is corrosion growth on the ram and then the growth damages the housing

The guidance was to always retract when not in use.

I forget though.

 

[BB marine]

I would have to disagree with Bennett too. I believe the main cause of this is having the tabs fully deployed (down position) and using hard reverse. The water pressure is designed to push up against the bottom of the planes when the water pressure pushes hard against the top of the planes they break.

 

[Diatom]

Another reason to consider automatic trim. I use the Mente unit with drop-fin modified 12" Bennett hydraulic tabs - simple drop-in installation and an attractive improvement to the old 1960s style switches. By default tabs retract as velocity drops. Automatic levelling on the fly is remarkably responsive without interfering with banking on turns, and important now that my tabs are a bit overpowered for the C26. Not sure what the response would be if one approached a crab trap at 20 knots and slammed into reverse - but in realistic docking scenarios, I know my tabs are 100% retracted any time I touch reverse.

/tmm