Wandering heading at slow speed

[sopicki]

Hi all,
Purchased my 1986 Cobia 189Xl Monte Carlo with OMC 3.0L 400 stringer September 23rd last year in Harrisburg PA and brought it home to Massillon OH. After much work with the help of those on this forum I got her in the water yesterday, I haven't been boating in over 5 years.....so nice to be back. I took her to the Portage Lakes State Park which is basically 7 lakes joined together with channels. There are two speed lakes but pretty much everything else is a no wake zone. The engine idled very nice and I ran her up to about 4000 rpm in one of the speed lakes. Aside from the speedometer not working I really have nothing mechanically (with the boat) to dig into. However at idle speeds the boat oscillates perhaps 5 degrees left and right when I hold the wheel steady. The drive unit is pretty darn solid so I don't know if this is a characteristic of this boat or a result of my removing the planes/wings? from the lower gear box. I've not done any research on the wings but assume they just help the boat get on plane faster but shouldn't affect the lateral stability of the boat. She was rock steady at just about any speed that would create a wake. Any ideas?
Oh and my trailer broke in half...

 

[racerone]

Think you need a new trailer.------If you repair that it will just fail somewhere else next month.

 

[1960 Starflite]

My Century does the wander thing too. Trim all the way down will help some. I think it's the nature of V-bottom boats. I changed out the prop to a 4 blade, cut half the chasing effect and improved hole shot.

 

[sopicki]

Oh yes.....
I had a feeling that might generate some feedback.....Hahaha
I started looking for a trailer as soon as I got it home last year. I got a solid trailer a couple of months ago but it could use some paint to look as nice as the boat.
Since the trailer made the 5 hour drive from Harrisburg to Massillon no problem I was reasonably confident that it would make the 5 mile drive to the lake.....WRONG
I'll be looking for trailer restoration advice (for the new-to-me trailer) in another thread.

 

[sopicki]

I had a 1978 Crestliner 16' with a 1969 Johnson 55hp outboard for 20 years but never experienced the slow speed wandering with that boat. On that one you always had to hold on the the wheel with both hands at any kind of speed to keep the motor from trying to run off to one side or the other. It did sit a lot flatter in the water though, I noticed that the Cobia sits pretty low at the stern and I'm not sitting much forward of the center of gravity to get the bow down.

 

[Bondo]

Ayuh,.... You were seein' V-hull wander,.....
Most do it, in varyin' degrees,....
Just let it go, 'n don't fight it,....

 

[Lou C]

Agreed my later model OMC with the Cobra system does the same thing pretty much.
As for the trailer, I wouldn't buy anything BUT a galvanized steel trailer here, mine is a '94 still in good shape, just upgraded the axle (to 6000 lbs) and brakes (12" surge) last year. It has a very long tongue so I don't have to put my Jeep's rear tires in the salt water.

 

[poconojoe]

Wandering at idle speed is normal for most V hulls, as others have noted.

The motor is pushing the boat, so at low speed the bow tends to wander as it tries to cut through the water. At higher speeds it has more force which allows it to cut straight through the water.

That's why it's preferable to mount a trolling motor at the bow rather than at the stern. This way the trolling motor is pulling the boat as verses pushing it. By pulling the boat it will steer straight.

 

[harringtondav]

Same response as several others above. Vee hull wander is common. My previous and current boat do it, as well as others I've driven. I'll adjust the steering a bit to get an average heading where I want to go. ....you'll wear your arms out trying to correct. I've read here that duo prop drives track straight.

 

[flashback]

The boat is 30+ so what you have is V+ wander. There's several places that get slack in the steering which can add to the natural wander..

 

[Renken2000Classic]

Very noticeable to me with my first (and current) boat; like, when you were correcting you were already behind. Even practiced slow speed some, aiming at a target, since trailering or docking is where it's a problem, but barely even think about it now, so must have gotten some motor memory or something on how to do it.

 

[xrdan]

I put smart tabs on mine to help it get on plane and they also helped a lot with wander. It's an 18' four winns with a V8 so it's stern heavy and with people in the back seats it took forever to plane out. Huge improvement in this. Putting it on the trailer I would pull it back into neutral when it was lined up and coast in.

Dan

 

[Prophammer]

I put smart tabs on mine to help it get on plane and they also helped a lot with wander. It's an 18' four winns with a V8 so it's stern heavy and with people in the back seats it took forever to plane out. Huge improvement in this. Putting it on the trailer I would pull it back into neutral when it was lined up and coast in.

Dan

Great Answer ! I was looking for answer like this in another thread I started - Happy New Year - God Bless!

 

[Earl Cordova]

...... I've read here that duo prop drives track straight.

Ours still wanders, but a lot less than our last boat which had a 1986 OMC stringer mount, which even did it when new.

 

[Scott Danforth]

All single motor V-hull boats have bow wander

 

[Prophammer]

my 16 ft boat: wanders but if I can catch the center of the wander it will continue in a straight line, but it is about 3⁰ to port going straight sideways up the channel, which is a little tricky when passing other boats in a narrow channel, I am going try Bennett Self Leveling trim tabs on it, too late I already ordered them