Stiff steering?

[Matt Phillips]

Hey all,

I've finished day 1 of a long weekend on Lake Shasta this weekend. The boat has been running great been exploring the lake and pulling boarders all day.

However this afternoon I noticed that when a boarder falls and I circle-back around to them, the steering gets really stiff. The general routine is the boarder will fall and I'll circle around to the starboard to pick them up. When bringing the steering back to center, it still pullsto the right.

As soon as I reduce thrust back to idle, the steering goes back to normal.

The nozzles seem to be in alignment and boat responds normally at idle speed, docking situations and general lake cruising.

I've checked the clean out ports , visually inspected the clean out ports and felt around the nozzles for loose parts and both engines appear to be the same.

Anyone experience this or have a thought about this?

 

[buckbuck]

I experience the same. (provided you mean STIFF steering and not stuff steering). We are considering removing the fins.

 

[justason]

I noticed this change when i upgraded to larger fins. I try and make my arcs a bit wider now. I've been trying diff speeds as well

 

[Bruce]

If you have big fins that are spring loaded so that they are up when you are going fast and catch a lot of water when you are going slow. My experience is that when decelerating when they first come down they have a lot of resistance to steering due to the amount of water they are catching and the speed the boat is moving at. The resistance decreases as the boat slows down.

 

[Matt Phillips]

Thanks all. I do have TV XLs. I'll experiment more today with some wider arcs.

I did notice the powder coating on one of the fin cross members did come off yesterday. My guess is more vibration is causing this to come off.

 

[Todd]

I Had the same problem when I installed my TVXL. The install video says to set spring tension at the 2 o'clock position. Very hard to steer at just below plaining speed. I loosened up tension to 1 o'clock so TV are very easy to push up. Big improvement. Took away heavy steering.

 

[jetboater4life]

I Had the same problem when I installed my TVXL. The install video says to set spring tension at the 2 o'clock position. Very hard to steer at just below plaining speed. I loosened up tension to 1 o'clock so TV are very easy to push up. Big improvement. Took away heavy steering.

I did this too and it seems to work well.

 

[Williamsone46]

The outer shell of the steering cable could have came dislodged therefore letting the cable bend and not push/pull like it supposed to. This would make it hard steer.

 

[MNdrifter]

I Had the same problem when I installed my TVXL. The install video says to set spring tension at the 2 o'clock position. Very hard to steer at just below plaining speed. I loosened up tension to 1 o'clock so TV are very easy to push up. Big improvement. Took away heavy steering.

Thanks for the tip. I'll be doing this next time the boat is on the trailer.