255xd Neutral Steering Assist

[crmcar]

Good morning. I took delivery of a 255XD this April and am having troubles with the neutral steering assist feature. When under thrust turning the wheel to the right turns the boat to the right and vice versa. As soon as I go to neutral, the boat turns the opposite direction of the wheel. Sitting still in calm water in neutral - turn wheel to right, boat pivots to left. This can't be the way it is supposed to work. Every time you release the paddles to go to neutral while docking, the boat turns the opposite way of the wheel. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[TommyMcK]

I have a 222XD that I keep in Maryland and a 255XD that I keep in Southwest Florida. I find the paddles to be a gimmick on both boats, but on the 222XD, which has a rudder, at least when you release the paddles, you have a bit of steering authority. On the rudderless 255XD, you don't. I haven't performed the experiment that you describe (just sitting still in neutral and turning the wheel), but I don't necessarily find it surprising that with no forward velocity and no rudder, that this would happen. Assuming that you are saying that the bow moves right when the wheel is turned left, that would mean that the gates are slightly biased towards reverse while in neutral (there will always be some slight bias towards one or the other).

I get much better results doing what I do with any boat, which is bumping the throttle to provide puffs of power as necessary in either forward or reverse while using steering as I would with any boat. Even without the rudder and steering authority in neutral, I find that the 255 does pretty much as good at the 222.

I haven't heard of the term "neutral steering assist" with respect to these boats by the way. It's not (to the best of my knowledge) described in the owner's manual.

Only somewhat related (and I mentioned this in another thread), I can spin either boat in place using throttle and steering in a very controlled manner and way better than I can with the spin mode on the 255.

 

[crmcar]

Mine is a 2024 and has an option in the DriveX menu to turn "Neutral Steering Assist" on or off. I've disabled it becuase it seems backwards.

 

[TommyMcK]

Huh. Mine is 2024 also, but I guess I haven't fully explored the menu. I guess it's an undocumented feature. I'll have to try it out.

 

[flyingnugget]

@crmcar

good post… I’ve got 24 255XD also and noticed that issue but just thought it was me doing something with the new boat. But, seems there could be something else going on. I’ve been though the menu and options but don’t remember seeing a neutral steering assist. I’ll check it later this week and 100% will be tiring that off!

Thanks for that info @TommyMcK

 

[crmcar]

I think high idle and neutral steering assistance are the only two options under the DriveX menu. No mention of it in the manual though. My dealer mentioned it to me, but didn't say how it worked and can't figure out why it would steer the opposite.