TAPS 21 v2.0

[UNSTUCK]

You guys may remember my attempt at building a TAPS3 system for my old 21v a couple years ago. See the thread here if you want a quick refresh:

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...hlight=taps+21

Never really figured out why it didn't work well. Maybe I just didn't play with it enough. Anyways I ripped it off the boat and sold the system and never looked back. My next boat was an MB F24 that wouldn't get out of it's own way at our elevation. I didn't even bother messing with that boat too much. We ran a surf shaper and was happy enough.

Fast forward to today. We have a boat we love and one that is finally a keeper. I started hearing a few rumors about how well GSA tabs were doing on the RZX boats in place of the TAPS3 tabs. So I decided to build my own version. Basically the same with a few tweeks.

Cole (bsreid) was nice enough to send me a few measurements of the GSA tabs he just picked up and installed on his RZX3. He tells me he is more and more impressed with them each time he gets his boat out. With those measurements I was able to start drawing up what I thought I wanted. I ended up making a few changes down the road.
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I then printed everything out and mocked them up on the boat. This way I can check sizing and make sure I drew everything up right. This was a lot harder to do this time because of the 3D shape. So far so good.
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I knew that I wanted to use the existing screw holes from the TAPS3 tabs to mount the new tabs. So I took careful measurements...and what goofy measurements they are! Also worth noting is that they are not the same on each side of the boat. They actually mirror each other. In all my work on these boats I have come to conclude that a lot of stuff seems to be kind of eyeballed when placed. Not very exact. So any time you're working on stuff, never assume a measurement or symmetry between sides.
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With the screw holes measurements I was able to draw out a template for the hinge. I just cut these papers out and taped them to the hing. Then center punched and drilled them out.
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[UNSTUCK]

With all the drawing done, it was time to find the material.

I was about to order a cut when I ran across this in the remnant pile. It was less than half the cost of the sheet I was going to buy!
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This is a "mill" cut which means it wasn't pre polished. So that left the task up to me. This is where I really went wrong on this project. I watched a few youtube videos about sanding and moving up in grits and polishes. In the end I just put a 6" buff wheel on an angle grinder and used a white polishing block. Wish I would have just started off with that. Would have saved me more than 10 hours and I would have no swirl marks like I do now.
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After I polished the sheet I started in on the cutting and bending. I was going full speed and didn't think to take any pictures of this process. The sheet was cut on a CNC plasma cutter and then the parts were bent in a brake. I got all the parts cleaned up and did a bit more polishing on them. I knew it would be way harder to polish them after they were welded together so I did as much as I could before that. I then started fitting parts together to weld. Then my welder decided to blow up! That set me back two weeks while it was being repaired.
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[UNSTUCK]

I'm a certified mig welder, but have almost no time tig welding. I have never tig welded stainless before. Only stick welded it once a long time ago. So I got some advice from better welders than me and went to work. SS hold heat big time so you have to use cooling bars to help prevent warping. Along with that, you need to backpurg the bottom side of the welds with argon so they don't oxidize. Oxidation leads to rust. We don't want that on this project. So after I got all that set up, I went to work. I got the first tab all welded up and the actuator mounting brackets, and then of course I ran out of argon. Good luck getting another bottle on a Saturday. The next Monday I was able to get everything finished up with the welding.
Wasn't my best work by any means, but it was much better than I thought it would be. I tried using a few different techniques and really had fun with it.

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With the welding all done, I just needed to touch up the polish and then get everything mounted.

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The big thing here is getting the tabs up high out of the way when they are stowed. They don't go as far down into the water when deployed as TAPS3 does. My overall angles are about 16* down and 32* up when stowed. I have room to come up even further if need be. I would just have to redo the actuator mounting brackets I made, which would be okay with me because I don't like how they turned out. Using the stock screw holes in the transom, I was able to get the tabs to mount 3" inboard. I think the ideal number is supposed to be 4". And that's to get the water to not hit the stowed tab so it doesn't scar the wave. Hopefully these tabs are up high enough that it won't be an issue. So once the tabs are in place you have to move the actuator down on the transom. So I removed the transom mount and covered those 4 holes with a polished cover I made. I wanted to be able to return everything to stock if I need to. Otherwise I would have filled and gel coated the holes. The actuator is supposed to mount about an inch above the hinge. Mined worked out to be a little less than that, but I think the hinge I used is taller than GSA's hinge. This gave me the stroke travel I wanted.
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I then put the boat in demo mode to test the functions. While doing that I took note of the tab angles at the 10 different TAPS settings. There is a bit of slop in the tabs so when measuring these angles I pulled up on the tab to simulate water being forced against the tab. I think GSA says the tabs have to go down to at least 12*. I guess that is the ideal number while surfing. If that is the case than I'll still be using the same TAPS numbers I was using last summer. I was wondering how that might change. Thought maybe I'd be on TAPS 1 or 2, which I've never used before.
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Anyways, that's my little project I've been working on, well one of them. Thanks to the guys that have lended a hand or knowledge. You're awesome. We hope to be on the water this Saturday for the first time this year so I'll be reporting on this soon.

[NICKYPOO]

Neato!

[JohnnieMo]

I remember TAPS 21... I followed that extensively. I'm really curious how this works out. You certainly don't tackle simple projects.

[dakota4ce]

Out of curiosity why would you copy the GSA plates pretty much exactly but tweak the width of the thruster channels? Why not go with a 100% carbon copy?

[Germaine Marine]

Gsa runs ideally at 9-12 degrees. Your plates might be significantly different. We have played around with changing different things and always end up back to his design. He spent all the dough with guys much smarter than us.

Good luck, they sure do look pretty.

[Chugh2o]

Can’t wait to see the wave pictures


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[UNSTUCK]

Out of curiosity why would you copy the GSA plates pretty much exactly but tweak the width of the thruster channels? Why not go with a 100% carbon copy?

I didn't have a GSA tab on hand to copy and couldn't find one locally to go look at. I reached out to a few guys who I knew had them and asked for measurements. So between their measurements and looking at every picture I could find online this is what I came up with. If you had asked me, I'd have said the width of the thruster channels were the same. I guess you see they are obviously different?

[dakota4ce]

I didn't have a GSA tab on hand to copy and couldn't find one locally to go look at. I reached out to a few guys who I knew had them and asked for measurements. So between their measurements and looking at every picture I could find online this is what I came up with. If you had asked me, I'd have said the width of the thruster channels were the same. I guess you see they are obviously different?

Height of thruster channels perhaps is the more accurate descriptor, not width. Either way just curious. Looks like you spent some serious time fabbing. Good luck with the wave!

[UNSTUCK]

They should be the same, or close to the same height as well. Fabbing was the fast, easy part. Polishing that dang plate was the brutal part! Now I have to keep it clean too. Still thinking about powder coating everything back there black.

[Zackdogg]

Dude, you’re a stud! Those turned out killer! I wish you had held back on writing that part, because the anticipation of wondering how they’re going to work. Thats awesome brotha!

Did someone do a write-up on the advantages of the GSA plates over taps? I must have missed it. I didn’t realize Cole had switched to them, either.


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[UNSTUCK]

I'm not sure anyone has done a write up on them. I was turned on to them when Jason was running them on his RZX2 two reunions ago. There's been chatter here and there that I've picked up on ever since. I like messing with this kind of stuff and when I can build them myself for next to nothing compared to buying them, why not? Cole has been my main contact for information and has been great working with me. He is finding more and more success with them. Maybe we need to get him to put up some before and after pictures.
We were hoping to get on the water tomorrow. We've had some other stuff pop up so I'm not for sure that that will happen. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I'm sure it will take several trips to really learn these and dial them in. Heck, I'm not sure if I ever got TAPS3 dialed.

[UNSTUCK]

Gsa runs ideally at 9-12 degrees. Your plates might be significantly different. We have played around with changing different things and always end up back to his design. He spent all the dough with guys much smarter than us.

Good luck, they sure do look pretty.

Jason, can you tell me if the list and attitude of the boat should still be what it was with TAPS3? I assume that would be the case. Still a list of 4-5 degrees and bow high at 10 degrees. Or should I shoot for different numbers now?
Thanks.