I have an 2008 288 Sunsation with a single whippled 496HO that I installed IMCO hyd steering on last season. It took a lot of getting used to manuvering at idle around the docks with it's very slow reaction time and it has seemed to get worse this season. It is very hard to turn the wheel sometimes 2 hands or I have to increase the idle while in neutral between forward & reverse shifts to get the hydrolics flowing again.I was told about possibliy drilling out some of the valves in the arms for more flow ???

Also this season I have encountered alot of what I call " drive steer " where the steering wheel is sometimes yanked out of my hands. In rough water at speed requires 2 hands on the wheel which obviously make it difficult to work the stick. I was under the impression that this was one of the main reasons to install Hyd. steering to have better control in these situations.

Any input to these problems would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Kevin.

I

Something is really wrong. I've had both single and dual ram Latham systems and loved them! Call IMCO.

you got air in the system

Air is what i am thinking as well.

Ok that sound like a possible problem for the " drive steer " issue but will removing the air help with the low rpm manuvering ???

And briefly what is involved in removing the air from the system ? Is it a quick fix like bleeding brakes on a car ?

Thanks again
Kevin

YES,YES and YES !!!!!!!

Thanks ,Thanks, and Thanks... After fighting it during the NYC run yesterday I was up most of night thinking it might be a bigger problem .Ill sleep much better tonight .

Dude , fix it now before you hurt some one or yourself....get the air out now!

Plan on taking care of it this week

This may sound odd but you may want to check the high pressure and low pressure lines from the helm to the pump. If you reverse them, the system works but has issues like you are discussing. I had a friend install them backwards on his boat and it had very similar issues.