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Steering - Pull to the right


oldfooter

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The slight tolerances in the rack and pinion will cause enough slop in an unloaded steering system to cause the boat to hunt requiring constant steering corrections while trying to go straight. The boat will go straight, but require constant correction at the helm.

Thanks....that makes sense. I will shave enough off to leave a slight pull and not be completly neutral. What I have right now seems dangerous to me as the boat will make a drastic and hard turn to the right immediately upon releasing or losing grip on the wheel. Thus this could cause someone to lose their balance and fall.

Does anyone have a photo of their rudder showing where they have done this before? I am still trying to determine what is a "small amount"...... 1/32 of an inch, 1/16 of an inch....etc...what is it? No one has addressed/explained yet what they mean by a small or little bit of trimming. :unsure:

I have not done this but I would caution to take off the smallest amount possible per attempt. It is for easier to take more off than put some back on after you ground too much off.

Measure twice, cut once.

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The slight tolerances in the rack and pinion will cause enough slop in an unloaded steering system to cause the boat to hunt requiring constant steering corrections while trying to go straight. The boat will go straight, but require constant correction at the helm.

Thanks....that makes sense. I will shave enough off to leave a slight pull and not be completly neutral. What I have right now seems dangerous to me as the boat will make a drastic and hard turn to the right immediately upon releasing or losing grip on the wheel. Thus this could cause someone to lose their balance and fall.

Does anyone have a photo of their rudder showing where they have done this before? I am still trying to determine what is a "small amount"...... 1/32 of an inch, 1/16 of an inch....etc...what is it? No one has addressed/explained yet what they mean by a small or little bit of trimming. :unsure:

I have not done this but I would caution to take off the smallest amount possible per attempt. It is for easier to take more off than put some back on after you ground too much off.

Measure twice, cut once.

No doubt.....I will definitely go in small increments. However I just searched the old threads (should have done this earlier) and noticed that this is a topic that has been brought up many times before. One of the threads stated that they had drilled and tapped two small holes in the rudder and installed two SS screws in them and used them for adjustment. Thus, he could remove the screws and end up with close to what he had to start with. Anyone else performed this trick? If so, where did you locate the screws, what size were they, etc.? :unsure: Still looking for some photos of anyones rudder that they have trimmed or made any kinds of adjustments.

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You can grind the rudder as described to adjust the pull to your liking. I would suggest finding another boat and testing that to see the difference and how you like it if you are concerned about grinding the prop. The way you use the boat also dictates really how much pull you want to have. Shortline slalom boats tend to add pull to the boat to allow the driver to control a straight path in the course when the skier is pulling the boat sideways with quite a bit of force. The torque allows the driver to keep some torque on the wheel in one direction and the boat will go straight instead of having to "steer" left and right when the skier pulls on one side then the other. The torque makes driving the boat much easier. I can't address the wakeboard situation only shortline slalom.

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My VLX pulled right and I couldn't stand it. To"tune" the rudder you grind the trailing edge(rear) of the rudder on the side which you want it to pull towards(Left/Port). Basically grind/sand the back edge as it angles forward. It took about three times to get it just where I like it. I took material off at about a 45 degree angle and then smoothed it off to match the starboard ® edge.........

Thanks......did you grind evenly from the top to the bottom or just a portion of the way up the rudder? How much did you have to end up grinding away.....1/16 of an inch or more?

I would start with a 1/16" of an inch and go from there. Take it off on the back edge, port side where it starts to round and smooth it in so it looks uniform. All the way from top to bottom. My boat steers perfect, no slop. It drives/steers nicer than either of the other two newer boats I regularly ride on. I'll say I was a bit nervous before I did mine but it was easy and turned out great..........

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