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Rudder tuning


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Does anyone know how to remove positive rudder tuning from a rudder. This is something often used by tournament slalom drivers. The boat turns to the right when the wheel is released. I hear that the right (starboard) side of the rudder is sanded to resemble an aircraft's wing cross section. Looking at mine; I can't tell for sure which side has been sanded.

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Take it to your dealer, they can help out. My rudder was ground also and if you let go of the wheel it would instantly head for the shore. I had the dealer grind the rudder to correct and we never could get it married up right. I ended up replacing the rudder to fix my situation.

You may want to search on wakesiderides, I know we had a lengthy discussion on MBO about this about a 12-18 months ago.

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Grind on the trailing edge of the side you want it to favor (more).. in your case, the left

Also understood that you should concentrate on the top of the trailing edge (vs the bottom)

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At what speeds does it pull? Mine pulls a little bit at 20mph but at 34 it is pretty even. Is it drastic or slow turn of the wheel? If it want's to go right it could have been ground for course skiing or it may be another issue.

Grind the port side if the boat wants to go right. Go slow at the grinding and test in between grinds.

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Go slow at the grinding and test in between grinds.

Great point Rod! My dealer said the same thing and was very careful, but it went from hard to starboard to hard to port in one small grinsing session.

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Well, grinsing takes off a lot more material than regular grinding.

And for those that want steering pull and don't want to grind I made some nice little rudder attachments out of starboard. You can go from mild to wild depending on the thickness and length of the rudder wedge.

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BTW Steve,

I agree with your dog lines. I have had 4 Goldens in the past and currently have a 9 year old used model that I got 5 months ago.

My saying would be that there are no bad dogs...only bad owners. It all comes down to training...either the owner, dog or both.

Same with kids. How come parents these days don't know how to raise children?

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:lol: Took a second. :lol:

That rudder wedge is held on with duct tape and bailing wire, right?

Mostly bailing wire...I can't afford luxuries like duct tape. Crazy.gif

Actually, I tapped two small holes into the rudder. I run 2 SS screw/allenbolts/whatever and it works nice with no effect if you just remove it and leave the holes.

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I was looking for reversable solutions for rudder torque. I didn't want to go the non reversable route of grinsing or grinding my rudder.

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Rod, definitely your solution is cool - not knockin on that.. but didn't want to loose site of shortline's issues with his steering pulling. If he just wants it to pull less... grind on it a bit, and all will be good

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I haven't been on the site for a while. Thanks all for the input!

Rod S, What about those attachments? I was thinking after I remove the torque. I could take the rudder down to a machine shop and have a pocket machined in the rudder. In that pocket I could attach a brass block with a taper and one without. hmmmm. More s*** to fiddle with.

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IMO you don't want to eliminate the rudder pull and create a neutral situation. There is going to be some slop in your steering system from the rack assembly to the rudder/cable connections. The pull from the rudder hydrodynamics helps the boat track better by taking that slop or play out of the equation.

Two of my ski buddies just bought new MC 197s and they are both completely neutral. They track very poorly in the course and I don't like the way they handle in open water either. Both are grinding their rudders.

FWIW.

Rip

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My Sporster pulls right. The faster you go the quicker it pulls. Dealer says that's the way it's supposed to be and that you definately don't want it to be nuetral. As long as you drive with 2 fingers on the wheel it's fine.

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I haven't been on the site for a while. Thanks all for the input!

Rod S, What about those attachments? I was thinking after I remove the torque. I could take the rudder down to a machine shop and have a pocket machined in the rudder. In that pocket I could attach a brass block with a taper and one without. hmmmm. More s*** to fiddle with.

I wouldn't mess with machining a pocket myself. It's too much work for what you need. I have a picture of my rudder wedge over on MBO. I'll try to find it and link it or post it here.

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The pull is made to help compensate for the added weight of the judge and observer and does help tracking while sking the course. The adjustable rudder is great and simple. I didn't think it would work as well as it does.

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Maybe we could have a how-to on "grinsing" our rudders. Beer.gif

I'm not as thunk as drinkle may peep I are.

Edited by brazosvet
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