Hi, everybody, my next board will be a quad!!, I found a lot of info about the placement of the fins in this forum, and before I talk to my shaper, I want to know the differences between this two quad fins setup.
Quad Setup 1:
Quad Setup 2:
Thanks a lot for the info
Antonio
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1027491
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1028984
have you read these threads? there's been TONS of discussion about this very topic... IMO, the fin setup in the first pic will go MUCH better than the 2nd pic. since i started surfing, i only rode thrusters. started trying out the quad thing a few years ago. it took me a while to get it sussed out but, i learned that i like the fins: on the rail (1 1/4" off the rail or less), single foiled, and with lot's of cant (8 degrees is the highest i've gone but am interested to try more). YMMV... tell us more about the shape of the board???
Thanks for your reply Chris, the shape of the board, will be concave to double concave, a 6.0 x 21 x 2 13/16
I read the posts, but the discussions are very wide !!, Im not an expert or shaper! but I need to know wich quad fin placement will work better for me, the waves here are small (2-6ft) my level is intermediate.
thanks for the help
My eye likes the first one…closer to the rail is the go I believe. Think like a sailboat’s “engine” and the relationship between main and jib-the jib feeding the main and working together …seems the second set up would be stiff and kinda lost in its effectiveness…have fun…
Why not have the boxes set up like the pictures, and try all the setups? 
That said - I have a 5’11" x 20.25 x 2.5 Quadvertible with the edge finned quad setup. I’ve surfed it a couple times as a thruster, but have really become addicted to the edge finned quad setup. MUCH Faster (haven’t found top speed yet at lined up SoCal pointbreak), MUCH Looser, better hold in steep faces & barrels. There was an adjustment period, going vertical requires a different touch, and the setup seems less forgiving overall than a thruster, but the advantages outweigh the drawbacks.
Try as many setups as you can get your hands on - it’s tougher to dial in fins IMHO, but well worth the effort!
And give McKee’s site a thorough read:
I'm thinking of going quad on my next board also - or at the very least, on an upcoming board soon - so I appreciate these threads, even 'tho they may seem repetitious to some. It just takes awhile to sink in!
You hear a lot of conflicting info - great for tuberiding, doesn't do late takeoffs well, faster in turns, slower in trim, yadayadaya...
Only way to know, as Gene said in another thread, is get one under your feet! So I keep reading and digesting, reading and digesting - hopefully something good will come of it!
I surf quad for 3 years now (6 boards). It’s go well for my light foot frontfoot style (fast beachbreak waves). I test many setup, i think :
First photo: easy to put on rails and to go on trim line of fast waves, easy to cut back, hard to go vertical for me.
Second photo: better for bottom turn and surf top to bottom, more like a thruster.
I start with second photo setup (mckee style) then i go to first photo style and now i return to second photo setup with narrower tail because i found it’s more polyvalent: It’s ride like thruster with just a touch of quad feeling that’s allow me to go faster and surf better.
Sorry for my frenglish
I’ve found canting front out 8* and back 6* helps go more vertical and snap off the lip - but not as well as a high performance thruster.
Mostly use FCS aqualine, which has 6* off the tabs, and which I run to 12* for the front. That really helps it go rail to rail fast and surf more vertically.
howdy guys,
so far consensus here points to the first option as more preferable. i’ve long been thinking of building a quad fish HWS with bonzer channels-- as to why i want my first fish configured that way, i’ve no words for it yet except the fish + quad + HWS + bonzer concaves concept combination compels me to pursue it. now given your experience of both quad setups, would tail shape be a factor significant enough to affect performance adversely / positively? put another way, would the first quad option above work far better with swallow (fish) tails rather than with other tail shapes?
I set mine up like chrisp stated,front and rear
1 1/4" from the rail.I run fcs stretch quads and prefer 4-5 degrees cant front and back.I use the mckee placement for the distance up from the tail to place the fins,and use 1/8" to 1/4" of toe in depending on the style of the board.
I like to use the setup in the second photo, with the rear fins vertical, no cant, no tow in. I found that this has a lot of bite and yet it feels nice and loose. I use larger single foiled fins up front, and will often use smaller double foiled fins for the rear. I never use the same size fins for the front and rear.
I have one board with the fins more like the first photo, and I liked it, but I popped the front fin boxes loose on the first session, and I haven’t fixed it yet.
I agree with Lemat, I think the first photo would be looser, and the second photo more bite, maybe a little more drive. The nice thing in the photos is that with the Proboxes, you can change the cant, and that makes for all kinds of variations as well.
Carribbean,
I’ve read so many posts too and can’t figure which way to go either. Some love all fins on the rail, some swear by the McKee setup, others like what Rusty describes. Like you said, wide discussions, many different style boards, old school fish, modern fish, shortboard quad, different tails, on and on.
Sorry to add to your confusion, but this is what I came up with, three different quad setups for a 6-6 x 21 with a 15-1/2 tail.
The RED in how Rusty suggests, Black (front fins are under the RED) is the rear fins set half the distance of the fronts 1-1/8" off rail. BLUE is the McKee style. The McKee formula lists many different lengths, tail widths and tails to dial in your specific board. The Rusty setup just looks weird to me, seems like it would ride much stiffer. All that said I haven’t taken fin cant into consideration yet.
to the guys who swear by the McKee setup:
- do you like your quad better than your thruster at least in some occasions? in other words, does it do things better than your thruster?
- have you tried a rail finned board? and, if so, did the rail finned board you tried have flat inside foils or???
Too much area between the trailing edge of the forward fin and the lead edge of the rear fin.
i really like the mckee fin setup. and since i have tried one till now i never switched back.
compared to a thruster the board is faster and you can surf more fluid.
i also surfed a rail finned quad. not bad but it wasn’t better. (but this depends on a lot of things…) for me mckee makes lot of sence. keeping the power of the backfins under your foot.
klaus
right on Klausw...
do you remember what kind of foils you used on the rail finned quad?
were they flat insides?
no flat fins. has been gx q rears (80/20 foil) and pc3 fronts.
on my boards im surfing most the time am2 fronts and gx-q rears. somtimes pg3 fronts…
klaus
McKee seems to be faster, have more drive and holds a higher line than a thruster, particularly on wider tailed boards. Makes a thruster feel “mushy” to me in comparison, but I’m not doing 360 tail slides, either.
I just did a quad/thruster option on a board for myself that I’ve ridden as a thruster a few times, and I’m waiting for a swell to try it as a rail-finned quad. Will report back.
On quad with fin near rail, i use both 80/20 small fin or standard lateral fin. Th board go well for speed down the line in barrel waves but i can’t go vertical, i am a front foot driver. Mckee style is better for this i find and still speed down the line. My first quad have 5 fins plug (mckee), when i go fast i turn better with quad than with thruster. for this time I never ride thruster.
When i want pivot i put small 80/20 little cant, when i want speed down the line i put standard lateral with same cant as front (=more lift)
Sorry for my frenglish
Thanks for the reply guys, Im more confused rigth now!!!, this is the board of a friend, is made from a local shaper, Im planning to have the same board, so what do you think of this fin placement? [img_assist|nid=1054796|title=quad fin new|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=800|height=6000]
[img_assist|nid=1054797|title=quad fin new 2|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=8000|height=600]