Maxi-Marine Lifters (Trim tabs for dinghy)

Two Peas

Member
Jun 24, 2008
914
Niagara River, ON
Boat Info
360DA 2002, Raymarine C80, SR50 Weather, Radome, DSC, Baltik 9'6" with 6hp Tohatsu
Engines
8.1 Horizons w/V-Drives
On the recommendation of a fellow CSR'er, I invested about a hundred bucks in a set of Lifters from Maxi-Marine. You can get them on ebay as well as their website.

The verdict? They work. They work very well.

Performance on my 9.6 Baltik dink with Tohatsu 6hp four stroke was significantly improved. Without them I couldn't plane with anything in the dink but me. No trim setting on the motor would let me plane with one of my kids in the bow.

With them? We plane almost instantly. I'm very impressed and very pleased. The top speed with two of us (plus a full can of gas and probably 15 pounds of safety gear) was 15.7 mph on the Garmin GPS. Probably north of 300 pounds of people and gear, plus 55 lbs for the motor and 85 for the dink. Not bad for 6hp.

Here's a video shot from my Droid:
[youtube]4vndJZkfPOs[/youtube]

And here are a few pics:
2010-04-18%2016.06.08.jpg


2010-04-18%2015.32.46.jpg


2010-04-18%2015.33.02.jpg
 
It looks to me like if you tilted the motor up high (to idle into the beach in shallow water) that the prop would be able to contact the edge of the tabs on a hard turn? One of the pictures on their web site makes it look like it is actually touching. (the one with the transom view of a 15hp Yamaha. They look interesting, but if they get chewed up or chew up a prop, that would not be good.
 
I am just curious, what were your numbers before you added the tabs? can you still cruise without being at WOT?
 
I can, but only alone. They make the most diffence with more than me. But, with just me, it goes fastEr, planes quicker, and turns much better.
 
Another testimonial to these lifters.

Dink is a Mercury 310 fibreglass bottom RIB (pretty heavy and has some deadrise) with an 8 horse Yamaha 2 stroke. I have been playing with the tab angle and ended up moving the lower mount on the tabs by drilling new holes so they lift less than the stock holes. Then I trimmed the motor out further each time and now I have it pretty well dialed in. It pops on plane quick and easy. Before the install, It was slow to get on plane with two people, now its not an issue at all. 17mph with two people is not bad.

[video=youtube;Zjhc4T7kExw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjhc4T7kExw[/video]
 
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On the recommendation of a fellow CSR'er, I invested about a hundred bucks in a set of Lifters from Maxi-Marine. You can get them on ebay as well as their website.

The verdict? They work. They work very well.

Performance on my 9.6 Baltik dink with Tohatsu 6hp four stroke was significantly improved. Without them I couldn't plane with anything in the dink but me. No trim setting on the motor would let me plane with one of my kids in the bow.

With them? We plane almost instantly. I'm very impressed and very pleased. The top speed with two of us (plus a full can of gas and probably 15 pounds of safety gear) was 15.7 mph on the Garmin GPS. Probably north of 300 pounds of people and gear, plus 55 lbs for the motor and 85 for the dink. Not bad for 6hp.

Here's a video shot from my Droid:
[youtube]4vndJZkfPOs[/youtube]

And here are a few pics:
2010-04-18%2016.06.08.jpg


2010-04-18%2015.32.46.jpg


2010-04-18%2015.33.02.jpg

Hi There.

can I ask about Maxi Marine Lifter? I am thinking buying this so that I can plane with my son on board with me. I have 11ft, 5hp setup which I can plane with tiller extender at about full throttle (speed around 8-10mph). but with only me with some fishing gear.

I read some review of the lifter and this seems perfect solution for my problem. only concern I have is that, I have inflatable boat transom wheel installed. do you know whether the lifter can be used side by side with the wheel installed? can you post some more pics on how this is installed and how it would attach/detach from the transom?

thank you!
- heejae
 
The top picture shows about as good a view as you can get of the location for the install. The lifter attaches at the bottom by clipping onto L-shaped brackets (one on each side) that are about 3 inches wide and are mounted on the transom with the sticking out part level/parallel to the hull bottom. Then there is a sort of plastic clip on the tab that clips onto a hole in the L-bracket. So in the end the tabs are flush with the hull bottom and cover most of the space from tubes to the motor (as you see in the picture).

In terms of clearance, they don't hit the motor if it is trimmed down, but I tip the motor up to the shallow running setting, the prop just "dings" the tabs on full turns to the side. If you look at the top picture you can see how that would happen if the motor was tipped up (I run an 8hp Yamaha but the clearance would be the same).

If you posted a picture of your wheel setup, I could probably tell you if it looked like it would clear.
 
This is brilliant; wish I knew about these lifters two years ago when I was going nuts trying to plane a 8ft Merc RIB with a 4 and 6hp motor with more than one person. This looks like it would solve that
 
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I used the same lifters on my last dingy and removed them before upgrading to an aluminum RIB. They were great for my last soft bottom dingy with a 6 hp 2 stroke. Only problem is that fitting the lifters on the replacement RIB's hull won't work without modification. The "V" hull is enough of an angle that the support struts land where the motor mount is located. Current outboard is a Tohatsu 9.8 4 stroke.

The only solution I can come up with is to bend the support strut so it can be attached to a clear section of the transom…
 
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I used the same lifters on my last dingy and removed them before upgrading to an aluminum RIB. They were great for my last soft bottom dingy with a 6 hp 2 stroke. Only problem is that fitting the lifters on the replacement RIB's hull won't work without modification. The "V" hull is enough of an angle that the support struts land where the motor mount is located. Current outboard is a Tohatsu 9.8 4 stroke.

The only solution I can come up with is to bend the support strut so it can be attached to a clear section of the transom…

I've got them on my Highfeild Aluminum Hull Rib...The fit was tight and I may still need to drill another hole in the tab to reduce the down angle but they did fit....

What make Rib?
 
I used the same lifters on my last dingy and removed them before upgrading to an aluminum RIB. They were great for my last soft bottom dingy with a 6 hp 2 stroke. Only problem is that fitting the lifters on the replacement RIB's hull won't work without modification. The "V" hull is enough of an angle that the support struts land where the motor mount is located. Current outboard is a Tohatsu 9.8 4 stroke.

The only solution I can come up with is to bend the support strut so it can be attached to a clear section of the transom…

I I drilled new holes in the mount on the tabs to allow my struts to be lower on be transom. There is enough room to move them a lot. You might be able to get a couple of new shorter struts made by a canvas top maker from stainless or aluminium pipe too.
 
I've got them on my Highfeild Aluminum Hull Rib...The fit was tight and I may still need to drill another hole in the tab to reduce the down angle but they did fit....

What make Rib?

It's a 8.5' Titan and has quite a deep hull. Shorter hulls like this are more difficult to get on plane unless the people on board shift towards the bow. Once on plane though, it tracks like it's on rails and handles larger waves much better than a flatter hull ever would!

I know the "Lifters" would solve my on-plane or low speed issues. Just not crazy about drilling holes in the aluminum transom until I'm sure they're in the right place for it to work well.

Thanks for the help!
 
I think the support struts are made of high strength plastic too, so they may not bend without breaking. My Mercury fibreglass RIB is pretty deep V too but the struts fit properly once I drilled mount holes on the tabs about 2 inches past the last one to allow the tabs to be more parallel to the hull bottom.
 
This is brilliant; wish I knew about these lifters two years ago when I was going nuts trying to plane a 8ft Merc RIB with a 4 and 6hp motor with more than one person. This looks like it would solve that
With a 6HP motor, my 8 ft dinghy planes with 2 people without an issue with these. Money well spent.
 
Then there is a sort of plastic clip on the tab that clips onto a hole in the L-bracket. So in the end the tabs are flush with the hull bottom and cover most of the space from tubes to the motor (as you see in the picture).

Fella's, just after some confirmation re installing these in the light of Creekwoods above comments.

These are going on a 9.5ft Achilles with a Yamaha 6hp 2 stroke. I received a template with the lifters and using the recommended mounting hole position for my size boat/motor, the planing surface of the leading edge of the tabs would end up about 1 inch higher than the bottom of the hull like a step. Is this correct or are people mounting them so the planing surface of the leading edge is flush with the bottom of the hull? I only ask this based on my interpretation of Creekwoods above comments with suggest the tabs are flush with the hull bottom and not raised/stepped as per the template holes.
 
Fella's, just after some confirmation re installing these in the light of Creekwoods above comments.

These are going on a 9.5ft Achilles with a Yamaha 6hp 2 stroke. I received a template with the lifters and using the recommended mounting hole position for my size boat/motor, the planing surface of the leading edge of the tabs would end up about 1 inch higher than the bottom of the hull like a step. Is this correct or are people mounting them so the planing surface of the leading edge is flush with the bottom of the hull? I only ask this based on my interpretation of Creekwoods above comments with suggest the tabs are flush with the hull bottom and not raised/stepped as per the template holes.

I am going to the boat later today and will take a few pictures. I believe that mine are mounted close to flush to the bottom, but slightly higher. Its definitely not an inch on mine, but might be a 1/2 inch. Looking at their website it makes it clear that they intend there to be a step, so I would follow their template regardless of how mine are installed. I don't recall that information from when I installed so its possible that they changed their installation instructions later on.
 
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Thanks Creekwood, photos of your install would be great as would comments from anyone else that has recently installed them.
 
I wonder if these would work for me as well. With my wife and two boys we struggle to get up on plane in a WM 310 RIB and a 2 stroke 15hp. With 4 adults we basically just plow through the water but that would be expected I guess.

I'm tempted to put a 20hp on the boat but when my 11 year old is driving it he is already running at 21KTS. Yesterday he outran me during a WOT run of my 420AC.
 

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