Lenco trim tab question

thill

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I had a set of Lenco trim tabs that I salvaged from an old boat. I've never used Lenco tabs in the past, but have installed plenty of Bennetts and Boat Levelers.

So I installed the Lencos last night, with the "normal" amount of relief angle when fully retracted. Everything installed, I hit the buttons, and heard them going down. After maybe 10 seconds, I figured they were fully deployed, but when I looked down, they seemed like they were maybe half-way deployed. I pushed the buttons again, but they didn't go any lower.

Were they stuck? No, it turned out there simply isn't much travel distance in the pistons. So they go from up about 1-1/2" up to maybe 2" down. That will be enough to help level the boat, but will not be enough to push the nose of the boat down in nasty weather.

So to fix the problem, I drilled the piston mounting holes closer to the middle. Pushing closer to the middle adds more swing, which should help. That way, I don't have to re-drill the transom to get the control I have been looking for.

What is the normal amount of travel for a Lenco piston? Just curious.

-Tony
 
I installed a couple of pairs of them last year. 3-1/2" of travel sounds about right. From the manual:

"In order to properly position the upper mounting bracket against the transom, you must lift the trim tab so that the trailing edge is approximately, 5/8" (1.59 cm) for a 9" trim tab and 3/4" (1.9 cm) for a 12" trim tab, above the straight edge when held to the hull "

http://www.lencomarine.com/home/download/TT_manual.pdf

Maybe your retracted position it set too high?