Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

[dcg1026]

I have a 14' tracker v hull jon boat with a 20hp mercury stick steer on it. The boat is extremly hard to turn to the left. Faster the boat is going the harder it is to turn. The stick moves forward easy witch turns it to the right, but is almost impossable to pull the stick back witch turns it to the left.

I recentkly converted this motor from tiller steer to stick steer, but it was doing it with the tiller as well. Its just harder to steer now with the stick if you have to turn left.

Any sugestions?

 

[ziggy]

Re: Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

i don't know if smaller o/b's have a trim tab. but if they do, guess i'll assume they do. adj. the tab in the direction that steers easy to. starboard in your case.
also, on my boat, when i'm trimmed in/down, putting the bow in the water more, my steering gets heavier too. so ya might wanna trim up/out some.. if ya got the pin adjustment. move the pin into the next out ward hole.

 

[Kaplooi]

Re: Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

The prop's torque steer is transferring into your steering cable to your stick. It wants to turn to starboard due to the clockwise prop rotation. If you don't have a trim tab on your cavitation plate you can angle to port to help counteract the prop torque the only thing you can do is replace your steering with a 'no-feedback' type that holds the steering position in place without having to fight it. It also has a higher gear reduction which makes steering easier. If you have a friction nut you can adjust that sets the stiffness of the steering tube you can try tightening that to hold the motor in position at speed, but you'll have the same problem steering to port. If you don't want to spend a few hundred on a new steering system you could attempt retrofitting a trim tab onto your cavitation plate if you have the room to clear the prop.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Re: Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

Before going too far with replacing parts, try different trim settings. Most outboards pull hard if trimmed down to far. Try bumping up the trim to find a happy medium between ease of turning and cavitating.

 

[dcg1026]

Re: Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

Ok, I just went and looked at it. I do have a trim tap on my motor. Right now it is pointingg directly back or is postioned in the dead center.

I will try to move it some to the right and try the motor out in the next few days.

I do not have a power tilt and trim though on my boat. I have to mannualy release and raise my motor.

How do you tell if the motor is sitting too low or high on the transom? By just looking at the bottom of the boat and where the motor is it looks to low to me, but I have no clue where it is technically supposed to be.

 

[ziggy]

Re: Boat pulling hard right and hard to turn left

I do not have a power tilt and trim though on my boat. I have to mannualy release and raise my motor.

ya can still trim it up/out. ya just do it manually + the setting is stationary. no method to adj. while in operation. that's fine. still raise it up a hole and try it. the movable pin is what the ob rests against when ya put it down.

How do you tell if the motor is sitting too low or high on the transom?

general speaking terms i believe the anti cavitation plate should be about 1'' above the keel of the boat.

hopefully you'll find that adj. the trim tab helps. keep in mind. the trim tab setting is for one speed, one load and one trim setting. ya set the tab so steering is equal at them settings. obviously load, trim and speed change. so steering will not be perfect during these times.

 

[piazzadriver]

my boat did this all i had to do was raise motor up a little.

 

[smokeonthewater]

This is an old thread from 2011.... Please do not reply to threads older than 90 days

 

[jbcurt00]

Thanks Kevin, but I choose to let this 1 go.

Piazza was brief, it didn't generate additional replies and was to the point.

You've also posted in several other inactive topics that are well past the 90day mark, Piazza.

Please check the last activity date, when searching thru the forum, before posting.

It should also be noted that Piazza's boat is a pontoon.

Please let this go back into the archives, else I'll close it.

Thank you