I just bought the boat, my first. I hate not knowing where they are, both the drives and tabs. I had to rebuild the trim cylinders when boat arrived. They seem to raise at different speeds/levels no matter how I press buttons. It affects steering and control. I don't understand why the 2 drives are not locked together. Why would i want to run them in different positions? The tabs I know you want them separate. I just want to see their positions. I am an electrician so I don't mind doing the work myself-other than getting into that crowded engine bay. I have the gen set too. Nobody has accurate, working trim gauges??

Luba, I understand your concerns with not knowing the actual position of your outdrives and trim tabs especially with the 298 being your first boat. If I may, I'd suggest you use your boat this season as is and then decide over the winter months if needing to know by gauge where your outdrives and trim tabs are is worth the cost to you.

For this season, just always make sure when starting to get up on plane that you trim your outdrives fully in, after your boat climbs over its bow wake while getting up on plane just trim both outdrives up about 1 - 2 seconds at a time when your at your cruising RPM and you should be fine. If you trim up too far your bow may "bob" up and down or you may hear your props "Cavitate", if so, just trim outdrives back in a bit.

For the trim tabs, if you feel you need them to help get on plane then, just start with them both fully extended up, so you know they are equal and then trim them both down in equal time amounts. I'd then get up on plane and fully raise them, so you know there equal and then just simply adjust them individually for balancing boat (port to starboard) and for wave conditions if you think you need the trim tabs to help your ride. Personally, I don't need to use our trim tabs to get on plane or run our boat in light wind and wave conditions, but I sure use them when it gets rougher out on the lake. I'll bet by the end of this season you'll have a much better feel of where your outdrives and trim tabs actually are without gauges.

I just bought the boat, my first. I hate not knowing where they are, both the drives and tabs. I had to rebuild the trim cylinders when boat arrived. They seem to raise at different speeds/levels no matter how I press buttons. It affects steering and control. I don't understand why the 2 drives are not locked together. Why would i want to run them in different positions? The tabs I know you want them separate. I just want to see their positions. I am an electrician so I don't mind doing the work myself-other than getting into that crowded engine bay. I have the gen set too. Nobody has accurate, working trim guages??

I hate not knowing position of trim tabs.

In rough water, I am working my trim tabs constantly to keep the boat balanced and with time, you will get the feel of your boat and not think twice about it. If you think not having trim tab gauges is bad, just wait until your trim sender gauges go out.

One of my trim sender gauges doesn't work now, and the other one seems slow and inaccurate. It sucks.