Steering

[Rmattajr]

No real play in the rudder but I just changed the steering cable at the start of the season last year and was dealing with this issue at the end of the season. Changing the rudder packing looks to be a fairly easy and cheap job so I might just try it and see what happens.

[Baddog]

No real play in the rudder but I just changed the steering cable at the start of the season last year and was dealing with this issue at the end of the season. Changing the rudder packing looks to be a fairly easy and cheap job so I might just try it and see what happens.

I haven't had to change a steering cable yet so not completely up to speed, but are you 100% certain you connected the linkage properly from the new cable to the tiller arm? Is it possible to turn something over and it moves smoothly through the whole range of motion?

[Rmattajr]

Well another update on this. Quick background again... my steering started to get a really stiff at certain points under load mid season last year and i replaced the the steering cable two months before that so I knew the cable wasn't the issue. Took the advice of others here to grease the rudder while the boat was in storage with hopes the grease would help the situation. Got the boat in 2 weeks ago to start the season and was bummed when the steering was actually worse under load. I had planed to take it out in a week or two and take apart the rudder and have it redone. So this weekend was fairly hot out and i jumped in to cool off in the cove we like to hang out in. Then decided to swim under the boat to give the rudder another shake to see if there was just too much movement. Well before i could even get to the rudder i noticed my wedge was DOWN! I leave it down in storage because the space is limited and i forgot to bring it back up. When i put the boat in i am thinking plugs, plugs plugs and then check again, the last thing on my mind is the wedge. The last two weekends i have been cruising the lake with the wedge down and my wife at one point even said to me the boat sounds very loud this year, do you hear that? Must be because the wedge pushes away a lot of the water near the exhausts. Anyways when i noticed the wedge was down i felt like a complete idiot, locked it back up and then prayed that the steering was better. We took off, the boat wasn't as loud anymore and the steering was worlds better. So the grease actually helped because the steering improved over last year. Cue the jokes.

[racer808]

Well another update on this. Quick background again... my steering started to get a really stiff at certain points under load mid season last year and i replaced the the steering cable two months before that so I knew the cable wasn't the issue. Took the advice of others here to grease the rudder while the boat was in storage with hopes the grease would help the situation. Got the boat in 2 weeks ago to start the season and was bummed when the steering was actually worse under load. I had planed to take it out in a week or two and take apart the rudder and have it redone. So this weekend was fairly hot out and i jumped in to cool off in the cove we like to hang out in. Then decided to swim under the boat to give the rudder another shake to see if there was just too much movement. Well before i could even get to the rudder i noticed my wedge was DOWN! I leave it down in storage because the space is limited and i forgot to bring it back up. When i put the boat in i am thinking plugs, plugs plugs and then check again, the last thing on my mind is the wedge. The last two weekends i have been cruising the lake with the wedge down and my wife at one point even said to me the boat sounds very loud this year, do you hear that? Must be because the wedge pushes away a lot of the water near the exhausts. Anyways when i noticed the wedge was down i felt like a complete idiot, locked it back up and then prayed that the steering was better. We took off, the boat wasn't as loud anymore and the steering was worlds better. So the grease actually helped because the steering improved over last year. Cue the jokes.

That's awesome!

[Baddog]

Well another update on this. Quick background again... my steering started to get a really stiff at certain points under load mid season last year and i replaced the the steering cable two months before that so I knew the cable wasn't the issue. Took the advice of others here to grease the rudder while the boat was in storage with hopes the grease would help the situation. Got the boat in 2 weeks ago to start the season and was bummed when the steering was actually worse under load. I had planed to take it out in a week or two and take apart the rudder and have it redone. So this weekend was fairly hot out and i jumped in to cool off in the cove we like to hang out in. Then decided to swim under the boat to give the rudder another shake to see if there was just too much movement. Well before i could even get to the rudder i noticed my wedge was DOWN! I leave it down in storage because the space is limited and i forgot to bring it back up. When i put the boat in i am thinking plugs, plugs plugs and then check again, the last thing on my mind is the wedge. The last two weekends i have been cruising the lake with the wedge down and my wife at one point even said to me the boat sounds very loud this year, do you hear that? Must be because the wedge pushes away a lot of the water near the exhausts. Anyways when i noticed the wedge was down i felt like a complete idiot, locked it back up and then prayed that the steering was better. We took off, the boat wasn't as loud anymore and the steering was worlds better. So the grease actually helped because the steering improved over last year. Cue the jokes.

Ummmm, believe it or not, I will choose the high road on this one because it is easy to do silly things. At least you remembered to separate the trailer from the boat before taking off, so you have that going for you.