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boat doesn't pull straight in water


midwestmike

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The last time I had my boat out it ran into some shallow water (real shallow). Bent prop. I had prop rebuilt and re installed but now when driving boat it want to vere off to the side. What would cause it to not track straight..?

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If you bent the prop, I'm assuming you probably hit the rudder or one of the tracking fins if you have them. May not be noticeable to your eye but just enough to not drive straight.

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All boats will pull to one side. Are you sure you aren't just being nervously aware of it now. The rutter is offset just slightly from the prop shaft, this is incase you get tossed from the drivers seat, the boat will circle instead of running straight.

I hope this is the case.

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When I let go of steering wheel it will immediatly start to turn. It never did that before. How do I fix anyof the above...

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This is by design so that the boat will track straight. You can adjust it if you have the adjustable rudder though. You'll see a small tab on the back, loosen the screw underneath it & move the tab either way to adjust.

performance1.jpg

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All boats will pull to one side. Are you sure you aren't just being nervously aware of it now. The rutter is offset just slightly from the prop shaft, this is incase you get tossed from the drivers seat, the boat will circle instead of running straight.

I hope this is the case.

Strange. Maybe different boats track differently.:unsure:

I can drive my boat and take my hand off the steering wheel and it goes straight as an arrow. I don't have one of the new rutters with the offset.

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This is interesting.The rotation of the prop will tend to make a boat turn nicer in one direction than the other and not track straight, this can be really felt in smaller boats. I am not sure when but eventually people started shaping rudders so they would pull to one direction on purpose then the driver would hold against it to make driving strait easier. Your boat is old enough that I do not think the rudder would be shaped unless it was done after the fact. Since they started shaping rudders to make it pull to a side it makes me think the prop does not have a very big effect on these boats and based on what mike is saying it kinda confirms it. areamike, I figure because your boat is driving strait your rudder would not be shaped to pull more to one side.

midwestmike, which side is it pulling too? If it pulls right I suspect you might have a problem somewhere, if it pulls left then it is a little up in the air(as that is the way they were designed to pull later on) and unless you are sure maybe it always did it.

Edited by Wakes
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Yea, their hand made boats, so I'm sure they are each a little different. In the past I've seen a number of boats that people said tracked straight as an arrow, but if they tried to run the course, they would zig zag thru the bouys. I believe thats why the adjustable rudders were done. If your not running a course, then it's tough to notice any problem.

Google "rudder tuning" & you'll find a number of threads on it.

Heres an article from WS Mag: http://waterskimag.com/how-to/2001/06/14/torqued-out/

Heres a good one from the other TMC site, that has a great pic of the old method of rudder tuning where you just lightly file one edge of the rudder: http://mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showpost.php?p=107070&postcount=10

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All boats will pull to one side. Are you sure you aren't just being nervously aware of it now. The rutter is offset just slightly from the prop shaft, this is incase you get tossed from the drivers seat, the boat will circle instead of running straight.

I hope this is the case.

So it can come around and run the driver down??? Uhm...I don't think so. :Doh:

Inboard boats boats naturally turn one way or the other due to prop rotation.

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So it can come around and run the driver down??? Uhm...I don't think so. :Doh:

Inboard boats boats naturally turn one way or the other due to prop rotation.

I could be wrong but that was the explanation I got when I worked for a Mastercraft while I was in high school,several years ago. I have looked at this a little more and it seems like from what I can tell Mastercraft in the mid 90s definetly offset the rudder and prop. Not sure about other brands.

As to the pull. In my manual there is a notice that the boat will pull to the right under normal driving circumstances. Once there is skier in tow the boat should drive straight. Bottom line is this is normal in a inboard boat.

Edited by Sullivan
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I see your boat listed is a Euro f3. If this is the boat in question, when it was new it definately pulled to the right. (let me clarify that - brand new, things tight, slight pull..after things loosen up more pull) Now, some years later as age, cable corrosion, rudder box wears, there was likely enough friction to hold the boat straight. Now your dealer installed a brand new system, with wonderful smooth acting operation, and we're back to having prop torque pull again. Normal. Often people mention it with simply a new steering cable.

If you have the new tunable rudder (which I doubt), you can adjust the trim tab to offset the rudder. If you have the original style rudder, you need to grind down the trailing edge on the left side to lessen the pull to the right. The trailing edge of the rudder has a point on the aft edge, about 3/4's of the way up. This is where you need grind the heaviest, and then work your way down to the bottom, only grinding the left side. This is a trial an error method - grind, water test, grind, water test, grind, water test. If you are getting close to neutral steering at a specific speed, stop there. Let's not go past and have to grind the other side.

If you grind your rudder, determine an amount of pull at a set speed, and always check it to that baseline. A boat with completely neutral steering at 30 mph may have LEFT pull at 19, and right pull at 40. (along with the fact that you can't maintain a straight path) You need to have _some_ pull to the right to take any slack/slop/etc out of the system and provide that wonderful precision steering. If you take it all out you'll find entering or exiting turns will cause the pull to "go-over-center" and suddenly pull the opposite way for a moment. Makes it quite hard to provide a smooth ride.

Hope that helps -

Peter

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