Sidewinder Steering Stabilizer
 

Hi

does anybody have some expierience with the Sidewinder Steering Stabilizer. Does it work with about 75 mls.

Thanks for your answers

Hans

I am familier with the Sidewinder system, what boat do you run and how fast is it? is the sidewinder a dual system or single? What is 75 mls?

I have a 28 Scarab Excel with 502 EFI / Bravo drive bravo Prop 26" BBlades labfinished. it runs around 68 miles per hour.
I want to install a Procharger over the Winter. I will keep the boost down an it will maybe run i the mid to upper 70`s.
I have no hydraulik steering and no tabs, but it runs good. It feels like the faster the better/more stabil. My concern is to get the cruisespeed at 3000 to 3500 Rpm into the 50 mile range, now it´s in theupper 30´s to lower 40´s. It could be that after converting to the Procharger the Scarab runs 80miles but this is not what i´m looking for. I´ve heard that it is better to make the steering more stabil. For that i thought about the Sidewinder Stabilizer. But for around 600,- USD it´s looks a little expensive to me. ( it looks like a simple "gaspressuredamper")
At the moment i have no problems with my steering. But with more torque and a bigger prop ?

Thanks Hans

( mls as a short version off miles)

Hi Hans,
There seems to be a concensus around here that once your boat reachs 70 MPH you should be looking at better steering systems, perhaps full hydraulic. Of course there are other factors and every hull and motor combination is different as are the conditions in which you use your boat and how you drive it. There were some threads on OSO about stabilizers and people seemed to think that they were not that great and may give people a false sense of security. My 377 Scarab tops out under 70MPH but I'm seriously thinking of full hydraulic external steering just for safety and peace of mind. - Good luck to you. - Jeff

i put them on scarab 22, and they work great at any speed , if i had to do it again i would go with hyd steering. the side winders are a lot cheaper and they do work scott

i did it also years ago on my old 27 eliminator daytona twin 454 mag/bravo 1's it worked good

Thanks to all for answer so fast.
We boat on a river (Rhine) for about 20 to 25 hours a year ( not realy much) i think i try the sidewinder.

Thanks again

Hans

I installed them this year,made a big improvement!!
boat handles better and I could take my hands off the steering wheel and the boat now goes straight.

Go full hydraulic - Don't mess with anything less at your hull size\speed combo.

I was out in my 292 last week running at 55 knots in 3'-4' seas with a cross wind, and anything less than full-hydraulic steering would have been scary.

Of course, my passengers may testify it was still scary :evilb: but if I had cable-steering only the slop would have made it outright dangerous.