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Lifting Strakes

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Guys, I need some advice on lifting strakes, I understand what they are but specifically do not understand the difference between placing them on the inside versus the outside of the logs on a toon.

Here is my situation; I have a 2012 RL with two 25' toons [not eleptical] without any strakes at all . Because I like to carry a number of friends while cruising [really never pull tubes or skiers, just 15mph going straight] I am seriously considering adding a full length 25" center tube and underdeck wave shield. Would it be wise to order the center tube with strakes on each side of that tube and not worry about straking the two outside existing toons [this would the least expense] or would you advise something else?

Please advise and comment, Thanks
 
The more strakes you have the more lift it will provide at slower speeds. It takes less power to get up to speed for plane also the more strakes you have, I think that you can steer and manuver easier without them on the outside of the outer tubes but since you don't tube or ski it wouldn't matter.

By adding the center tube with strakes is going to make a huge differenc from what you have already, I would start there and if more is need in the future then you could add strakes to the other tubes.
 
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Link,

I would go with the third tube and lifting strakes on the center to get more speed & load capacity. You didn't state which engine you have so it's hard to estimate any performance improvements.

This is what we have:

2012 Bennington 22 SSI

New XL 3 tube performance package

Lifting Strakes center tube & foils on the inside of the outer tubes & under deck wave shields

Mercury 150 four stroke

Runs 40mph + with 6 adults onboard, crusing at 26 mhp 3600rpm. Very smooth and dry ride!

Riverbill
 
I agree with the center tube w/strakes and you could always add them to the inside of the outer tubes at a later time (maybe a bigger motor also). B)
 
I too have a 115 HP outboard and 2 25" toons with no existing strakes. Adding strakes to the outside of the existing logs is the least cost alternative. I'm told that aside from planning at slower speeds, and a dryer ride, one may see top end increases of up to 4 mph. A new center toon with lifting strakes is more costly, but will impact boat ride and handling at all speeds including no wake. Another big advantage of going this route is the strakes will be welded to the brand new center toon at the factory - new metal to new metal. Any crud on a used toon can impair the welding of the new strakes, although cleaning and sanding the weld area can mitigate this somewhat. So even although I have a pair of lifting strakes on order, and am having them installed to the outside of my existing toons, I would recommend that you go for the center toon with strakes. Do what I say, not what I do! :lol:
 
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I agree with adding the center tube option if you can. I can tell you that our old boat (2575rli/0) 3 tubes with lifting strakes on inside and out side of all 3 logs dosent handle or get on plane as fast as our current boat 2575Qcw both have the same power plant only diff is Alpha 3 on the new boat and Alpha 1 on the old. Our new boat has 3 logs with lifting strakes on the inside logs only. Our new boat handles 100 times better than the old boat.

The outside lifting strakes on the old boat don't allow the boat to lean. They keep the boat some what straight up and down when turning. The dry'er ride comments I don't think that's accurate. Because our new boat with out OUTside lifting strakes is just as dry as our old boat with inside and outside strakes. IMO get the center 32 elliptical it's awesome
 
The dryer ride comment I made was based on information provided to me in comparison to having no strakes, not in comparison to a center tube. ;)
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, tomorrow I am going to ask my dealer to price out the 25" center tube with lifting strakes and the underdeck wave shield
 
Link - If that's what you end up doing (center tube with 2 strakes), I would be interested in hearing if your boat leans in at all in a turn. I also have a 115, but with 6 strakes on the three tubes (express), the boat turns like my old Supra did. Totally flat with no lean (good for car, bad for boat). I've cranked the wheel hard with near full throttle while tubing (which is some work without power steering) but the boat stays totally flat with the horizon in a turn. No inward lean at all. But, there's no roll outward either (which I assume 2 pontoon boats do). Our boat turns pretty quickly (even though it's a flat turn) and I can get back to a fallen tuber in an amount of time I'm comfortable with, so I'm good with the full strakes we have. There are a few cheesy jet skis that I can keep even with by having 6 strakes, and I get a kick out of the double takes!

Many old posts here say strakes on the inside of the outer tubes helps handling. Strakes on the outside are worse for handling. I believe that to be true, but I also believe that to be moderated by HP. With smaller motors like you and I have, my guess is the difference in lean would be small, and the top speed improvement outweighs it, but again I would be very curious to see your results to see if I'm all wet or not. That's been a question on my mind for a long time.
 
I will let you know but this is a winter project if the numbers work. As I have written we really are crusiers 10 - 15mph and never pull tubes or skiers. My purpose with the center tubes is due to the fact that we often load the boat with 10 people for a sunset crusie cocktail hour.

I will say that I am surprised by the difference in speed between our boats. Right now my top is 25mph compared to your 35 it must be a combination of your express tube package and lifting strakes. Even though I say that I am a cruiser I must admit that if I did reach 30+ I would be thrilled. Also wouldn't mind some improved mph as well
 
One of the other manufactures has a promo video of a high powered tri toon with 6 strakes. In a high speed turn it stays flat and almost hooks the turn like a GT race boat. There is a point were the strakes really effect your high speed turning.
 
We just added the full center tube w/strakes to my brothers RL w/Yamaha F115. No strakes on the outer tubes. He wanted the extra load carrying abilities, since he typically has quite a load of people with him. His speed went from 27-28 mph to a consistent 33-34 mph with 2 aboard. I have seen 35 mph. With an average load of people, he can still run 28 mph or so. He is much happier with the boat overall.

We have basically identical boats with the exception of mine being fully straked and more hp. He now wants that too (more hp....suprise, suprise!!) There is one difference. My boat is slightly more stable. His boat tends to rock from side to side a bit more than mine while going slow through the rough water. He swears that it's because the water flow gets interrupted by the outer strakes. Makes sense I guess. Either way, it's still WAY better than a 2 tuber.

My thoughts........

Buy a center tube w/strakes and call it good. I would only add lifting strakes to the outer tubes if it's in your budget. I don't believe that you'll see enough improvement to justify the money with a 115 hp motor anyhow.
 
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Remediation said:
One of the other manufactures has a promo video of a high powered tri toon with 6 strakes. In a high speed turn it stays flat and almost hooks the turn like a GT race boat. There is a point were the strakes really effect your high speed turning.
Click to expand...
Turning at speed with 150 hp on a std. 3 tuber w/strakes is unnerving to say the least and certainly not like any GT race boat that I've been in. This guy learned the hard way.

288wcvo.jpg
 
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There isn't a scuff or watermark on those tubes or outboard. Was that a brand new Bennington? How very sad!
 
If they got it flipped back over without damage, I'm thinking couple days drying out and it's probably fine. After all, it' is a boat ......
 
SEMPERFI8387 said:
If they got it flipped back over without damage, I'm thinking couple days drying out and it's probably fine. After all, it' is a boat ......
Click to expand...
And here I'm thinking nearly a complete rebuild from the deck up... seems worthy of a new thread. I know I'd like to learn more. Like, would the driver have the nerve to try it again?
 
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I did say "almost" like a GT Boat. It is flat in the turn which for a high C/G boat is not good as seen in your picture.
 
Folks, I posted this pic as a note of awareness. There are "real" dangers with all boats, and yes, this includes our beloved Benningtons. This particular accident was caused by a inexperienced driver with an unbalanced load on his boat. Most of his passengers chose to sit on the right side of the boat. The driver decided to make an aggressive turn to the left at speed, the outside strake caught the water and over she went. This accident was not the fault of poor design, but rather a result of very poor judgement and inexperience on the drivers behalf.

Know your boat and always exercise caution.
 
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Wow!!!! I truly hope no one was badly hurt. That is one of the down falls of outside strakes.

That is one advantage of the ESP package. No outside strakes and the inside foils grab the water on the inside side of the turn. I have had mine loaded pretty heavy to one side and am still able to turn pretty hard the opposite direction and the boat will still bank in the turn.
 
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