Offshoreonly.com - Tug of speed :)

Hi Kurt,

When I am 3 people in the boat the boat is easier to drive than me alone since the extra weight settles the boat more. The topspeed is only 1-2 mph less than me alone. The combination of the big lower unit and the steering system demands for some extra efforts, than my former SeaStar Pro and Torquemaster gearcase (Promax 300).

I do not use much positive trim at WOT, just a tad more than neutral. So the balance of the boat is better than before. There is no torque in my wheel at WOT. There is no slack in the steering sylinder either, but this summer I could not get the wheel to be as precise as it was the year before. And I need to work the wheel much more than to keep the boat running straight. And it steals speed. I have also learned that the helm itself has a leak rate that causes the wheel to need to be rotated left constantly to go straight. But if its rocked back and forth gently, it does not leak as much. I did not know that.

Maybe a weird question, but would be be possible to replace the helm with SeaStar Pro hydraulic pump (1,500 psi), skip the Merc electrical pump aft in the boat - but keep the steering sylinder on the engine? The SeaStar Pro is strong. Maybe I get torque in my wheel, but if I remember correctly I beleive this pump to be more precise.

Cheeers, Toffen

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurt Hamilton (Post 4240453)

Hi Toffen
I have several mates with the 350sci on 21' deep v ski racing boat applications.
They are certainly a handful compared to a 300xs and cable/bat wing steering systems. I can't say I noticed a huge amount of play in the helm however I noted that on all of them you had to walk the wheel left to keep the boat going straight when running full trim. This annoys the sh!t out of me! Makes it very hard to drive at speed in large choppy water.
I personally think it's probably not designed to handle the torque loads on the steering in our application and is having to go over relief when at full trim.
I would try peterunwin on here. He designs and builds his own hydraulic steering set ups and is one smart dude.