thataway":22u0xea2 said:
Many trim tab controls have an option of LED lights to show position. It is a fairly expensive option, depending on brand. I had it on one boat. It was nice. Also these usually have "auto retract" when you turn the tabs off.
Some "beginner-tab-user" comments:
I recently purchased a set of Bennett Sport 120 trim tabs for my 22. I considered the switch with the LED lights but ruled it out for a couple of reasons. One is that it was expensive (~$300 if I am remembering correctly), and the other was something about the way they work that I decided wouldn't please me, but darned if I can remember what it was :blush
I had a chance to use a non-lit-switch set of Lencos on someone else's boat at Lake Powell (same switch as comes "free" with the Bennetts), and although maybe I would have liked the lights, I actually forgot about them even being an option while I was using the tabs - I never looked at the switches. I just kept my eye on bow trim, on where the spray was coming up from the chine on starboard side (how far back on the window was it), and on the speed and fuel usage displayed on the main instruments, and went by those factors. I did sometimes run them all the way one way or the other at the beginning, so I would "know where I was."
I understand that adding the LED-lit switches is less expensive on the Lenco tabs than on the Bennetts, because they don't automatically include either one, so you are just choosing A or B, and B (lit) costs a bit more. With the Bennetts, they come with the non-LED switch included, so to get the LED one you are "buying it from scratch" but you have
also paid for the standard switch because it comes with them "for free." So it ends up being more out of pocket to get it on the Bennett Sports.
I wanted the Bennett tabs (for other reasons), so didn't go with the Lencos. Given what I perceived as the excellent functionality:cost ratio of the basic Bennett Sport trim-tab kit vs. the functionality:cost ratio for the lit switches (didn't seem as favorable), I decided against the lit switches. But I would still have gotten them if they were really important to me (as it is I'll be spending that money on
other things for the boat

)
Again, just a "rank beginner" trim-tab report, so take it with that sort of grain of salt vs. the folks who have used them extensively.
Sunbeam