I am restoring a inboard twin engine boat. Will I need to use both steering rams with a tie bar or will one be strong enough to steer it?<br /><br />Thanks for your help so far
depends on the size of the boat,the horsepower used, the speed attained and the make of the cylinder.<br />best case is twin cyl's with a tie bar, next best is twin cylinders with an alignment valve next is a single cyl with a tie bar as long as the cyl is rated for the HP and speed.
The boat is 30', I'm putting 350's with hopefully about 330 hp. my guess is 50 - 60 mph.<br />I saw a steering system on e-bay for twin engines but is only had one cable from the helm and one cylinder with a tie bar. This is why I asked. The system came off of another larger sonic power boat. Does it make a difference if the helm is for inboard out outboard?
yes<br /> most inboard cylinders are unbalanced and most inboard rudder systems are balanced.<br /> you really really either need to edumakate yourself on the various systems and what they do or contact teleflex with all the info on the hull,with or without powersteering and how the cylinder will be mounted to the transom or stringer and tiller arm lenth as measured from the center of the rudder post to the cyl mounting point.<br /> there is a lot more to it than buying junk off ebay.<br /> not knocking ebay but steering a 30 ft hull at 40+ mph steering failure is NOT an option. some pics of how and where they mount on the hull may help.<br /> and there must be 50 different rudder/port combinations.
ok, so its goint to be an engine driven pump system, is the cylinder going to be actuated by a slave from the enine pump or by a cable from the helm. there are at least 6 versions of both and it depends on how many steering stations your looking at.<br /> the simplest set up is a hynautic type system with no power steering, its just not needed. or you can use a cable actuated power steering or like some hulls you can use a hydraulicly actuated engine driven power steering system. <br /> but I dont reccomend a direct cable system at all even though a lot of smaller boats use it.<br /> what make engines are you using and do they already have power steering pumps? and only one pump will be used.
Each 350 motor has a power steering pump. The direction I was going is a cable actuated steering using the engine mounted pumps for power steering. It is a single station boat. In this situation, do you think I need to use both port and starbord steering rams.
while its possible I dont see why to complicate it further. but if you already have the steering cylinders ya may as well use them. but if it were me rigging it I would scrap the power steering and go with a single cylinder with a tie bar. seastar makes some good systems that will do what your attempting. the dual cyl with a centering valve has issues. the best thing on a boat is the simpler the better.<br /> by ditching the power steering you eliminate a 1300 PSI line, a troublesome actuator, an oil cooler and an extra drive belt not to mention less points of leakage. you gotta remember most of those boats tend to stay wet in the aft bilge area and between the engines and most the power steering stuff is steel.<br /> rodbolt likes simple.
