Wandering 2120 dv Parker

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J

Jday

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Location
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I am new to Parkers, mine is a 2004 2120 sc with a deep vee, and have read the 2120 ph will ride bow high. My 2120 rides bow high and in anything but a flat sea the boat wanders, especially in a quartering sea.

I have a 200hp Optimax (512 lbs.), set second hole down from top which is even with the lowest part of the boat, 15x15 enertia prop and running great. When up on plane I cannot see the AV plate.

So myself and a 15 year old boy went out for the first time with minimal gear and about 40 gallons of gas. Winds were about 15mph and waves 2'+. While on plane, either going into the waves or having a following sea, it was very difficult to keep control of the boat. The boat would go from one side to the other, waves would catch it and I'd have to turn the wheel a lot to maintain course. Factory tabs were down. Steering has been bled and is tight.

So, if I raise the outboard so I can see the AV plate will this help with the wandering and will it help bring the bow down. I've read where raising the outboard does help with bringing the bow down, just seems counter intuitive.

Any ideas or comments are very welcomed.
 
A Permatrim will help your problem greatly and then the next step would be to raise your motor. Also never lower your trim tabs in a following sea.
 
Thanks for the replies,

Banjo, I plan on the permatrim and will lift tabs in a following sea

Shawnee & Antidote, on plane and into the oncoming waves tabs were down
How would that cause bow steer with the bow well in the air? Just asking

Brent, the raising of the motor is next and then a permatrim.
 
Jday":1lut5p2p said:
Thanks for the replies,

Banjo, I plan on the permatrim and will lift tabs in a following sea

Shawnee & Antidote, on plane and into the oncoming waves tabs were down
How would that cause bow steer with the bow well in the air? Just asking

Brent, the raising of the motor is next and then a permatrim.
Click to expand...

What was your RPM and speed when this was going on?
Is that a 4 Blade Prop?
What’s your Max RPM at WOT?
The Permatrim will help for sure.
Was thinking bow steer depending on your speed and RPM’s.
 
Jday":yjvt2386 said:
Thanks for the replies.

Shawnee & Antidote, on plane and into the oncoming waves tabs were down
How would that cause bow steer with the bow well in the air? Just asking
Click to expand...

So the bow is in the air with the tabs down? Seems like the bow is rolling over on the waves. If you are having to see saw the wheel the waves are controlling the boat not you.
 
Shawnee, I don't remember exactly but in the neighborhood of 3400 rpm and doing 27 mph +/-. The prop is a 3 blade 15x15 enertia. I'm not sure about WOT, I did run it up once but don't recall. The boat will be on land for a week or so, I painting the bottom and raising the motor.

Antidote, the waves were definitely controlling the boat.

Windknot, I just added my location. Good Point

Thanks
 
Another consideration I had was speeding up a little bit. You were running @ 27 MPH. My 2520 deep V handles much different @ 30+ MPH than she does below. I know we are talking about two different hulls; however, It's worth a try. At 30+ MPH everything is more effective with respect to the engine trim and trim tabs. I am able to run full tabs down if needed for ride quality
 
I want to update this post. I couldn't get the motor raised, mechanic to busy to do it right now. So I flushed the hydraulic steering and that seemed to help a little.
A real change happened when I trimmed the motor up. With the motor down and turning to starboard, I would have to turn the steering wheel almost a full turn before I got any reaction. Going to the port the steering worked great. But once I trimmed the motor up steering was tight going both directions and no wandering.
When I had the problem with the waves the motor was always trimmed down and I assume what I was considering wandering was just incorrect trim. Never realized having the motor down would cause a steering problem like that.
The bow also reacts to the trim tabs much better. Still going to raise the motor and then probably a prematrim.
Thanks for your help.
John
 
With boats that have outboards and trim tabs there are different ways to operate them. I have found, for me, the best way is to trim the engines for efficiency and use the trim tabs for ride. That means trim the engines so they are parallel to the running surface. I then use the trim tabs to balance port to starboard, bow up or bow down. This way works best with speed. Now that being said there are times I will run the engines buried and the trims tabs all the way down also. If the conditions are rough and going slow is a must running this way lifts the transom a little and gets the bow down which lets me stay on plane very slow. By adding 4 blade props I reduced my planning speed below 16 MPH.

This past weekend I ran to Charleston from HHI and back. The trip up was a little bumpy so I used more trim tabs to lower the bow. Coming back the ride was a lot smoother and we were running between 30 and 40 mph the whole way (except no wake zones) on the ICW. It took about 2:45 to get back. I set the engines to 4-5 bars of trim and used the tabs to balance port to starboard. Other than the no wake zones, the only time we had to slow down was passing a pair of barges and a few times we had multiple boats running the opposite way so I slowed for the ride over their wakes.
 
My boat now handles the way a boat should. Thanks to the help on this forum.

This is what I did to correct the bow running high and the wandering steering.

Purged the hydraulic steering

Raised the motor three holes

When I pulled the boat to have the motor raised, I noticed the plastic part at the bottom of the trim tab rod had come out of the crimped stainless end of the actuator rod. So the tab was not connected and I only had one tab working causing steering problems. Repaired this.

Installed a permatrim

I can now get up on plane and not have the bow in the air like a bass boat. When running with no tabs down, the boat runs at a nice attitude and takes waves fairly well. There is no prop cavitation in hard turns while on plane, good bite.

With one person, slight chop and about 30 gallons of gas, boat runs just above 40 mph (gps) and 5600 rpm.

Each step showed improvement, the biggest being the permatrim.

Thanks again for your help
 
Curious as to why no trim tab in following seas? I have a 2320 w/300 and have not seen an issue. I don't use a lot of trim normally, but the trip back from Catalina is almost always a following sea.
 
djam said:
Curious as to why no trim tab in following seas? I have a 2320 w/300 and have not seen an issue. I don't use a lot of trim normally, but the trip back from Catalina is almost always a following sea.
Click to expand...

You don't want to stuff the bow into the back of the next wave. Let the bow stay up and will "surf" the waves in a following sea.
 
Antidote said:
You don't want to stuff the bow into the back of the next wave. Let the bow stay up and will "surf" the waves in a following sea.
Click to expand...
Beware, running with trim tabs down in a following sea can cause a broach, that can result in a very undesirable and dangerous situation!
Also much safer to run with autopilot turned off in heavy following seas for same reason.
 
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