Does Catastrophic Steering Loss Happen?
 

On a full hydraulic dual ram system? A recent issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine had a story about a stepped hull go-fast type boat that was cruising at 30 mph when the driver started to make a turn the steering suddenly went to full lock turn and spun out and ejected everyone in the boat. He blamed a cracked plastic washer on the helm. Is this even possible? If a hose bursts can the steering suddenly go to full turn? This is kind of scary. I suspect the driver in the story was going over 30 but what if he were going 80 and a steering hose bursts. What will happen?

Edit: Here is the story.
http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...psbdmv81bt.jpg

YES, the steering can "blow out" and cause an issue. I had my steering go out at around 70 in rough water while testing (race boat) and the boat cartwheeled. This is NOT common and nothing to worry about in typical conditions with a pleasure boat. I would guess its similar to a tire blowing out. I can happen, but not very often.

Yes. I have burst a hose and lost steering. Fortunately was able to feel the pressure loss before it was too late. Ultimately lost all steering. It is rare, but I do pay attention to my steering hoses now!

That's what I was thinking is that you would get some warning as you lost steering fluid and pressure. Not a sudden loss of all steering control.

I subscribe to the magazine but can't find the article online. Here it is. Doesn't sound possible to me.
http://i763.photobucket.com/albums/x...psbdmv81bt.jpg

Were all these boat single engines? Wonder if the counter actiing force of the other one would slow the want to slam to lock

When a hydraulic helm loses fluid there is no "lock"

I heard that was caused by a blown hydraulic hose

Scary.

That wiĺl buff out...

I'm trying to make sense of this video. If you freeze it at 45 seconds it shows the bow already smashed and it looks like an overturned boat in front of it. What the hell happened in that video??

Is that the run that Richard Branson was on? British Virgin Islands?

I dont buy that story, all the high pressure connections are pipe thread except for the back of the PS pump.There should not be any plastic washers on the pressure side.
Even a leaking hose can be counter steered until all the fluid is gone. Catastrophic failure of a hose (as in parting) could be a more immediate problem.

You see the boat that smashed the bow off go up the starboard side of the camera looks like just as it gets passed the camera boat something in the steering goes wrong and it shoots to port and hits the red cc in the side. Yes that was the one with Richard Branson. Did some digging around the net back when I first saw the vid and a couple sites said it was due to hydrolic line failure. Every thing I read said all survived with some injuries.

I was racing a 36 outlaw thru downtown port huron running 96 mph in my 272 baja, idler bearing failed and shredded power steering belt, was in 3 footers and steering took everything i could do to keep boat straight (full hyd to helm) , backed her down without bow steering or losing it . Put spare belt on and limped it back. Was in lk huron another time in 3 to 5's, cheap power steering cooler split a line, steering got mushy but was only going 35 mph, all i could do once i stopped was drive in circles, luckily a friend was tagging along and ran to harbor at bois blanc island, he got the general store to sell him some snow plow oil and i bypassed cooler and drove back. I used to give hoses a quick inspection before going out everytime just in case, stuff does happen!! Was the second power steering cooler i had leak, permanently bypassed it at home and never replaced it, ran that way for 5 more years without ever having a issue fwiw.

Catastrophic steering loss is definitely real. My eye opening experience happened about 3 years after I re-powered my scarab with custom 540s. One of the only pieces of equipment I carried over from my previous stock 454 engines was the pulley system. On this particular day I was running about 75 MPH and the stock GM Stamp steel pulley on the crank ripped its center out (sending the pulley bouncing around the engine compartment), but that wasn't the real problem. That pulley drove the belt operating my power steering pump and external hydraulic steering. With the sudden and immediate loss of power steering, the boat Instantly made a dramatic turn to port. We were amazed to have not been ejected from the boat. Crazy **** can always happen in a boat at anytime. We have to always be prepared for it as best we can. I was so thankful that day we were not running near any other boat, otherwise I could have ended up like the boat in that video with my bow ripped off.

The story seems fishy to me....how could he have possibly known that he "flipped 3 times" in the dark when it happened that suddenly? He had time to grab neutral in a wreck that was violent enough to eject everybody from the boat? Sure. Ejected from the boat at 30 mph....flies thru the air, splashes in the water, comes back up, wipes the water from his face, and is still able to see his boat "skidding another 50 yards"...in the dark.

I think somebody missed their calling as a fiction writer.

I see now what happened in that video. I bet the guy in the red boat was pissed! That whole run looks like some madness that I wouldn't want any part of. Yes, I think the story I pasted here is fishy but the real life stories coming out are pretty scary. Now I will always be worried about this. How does losing a belt make the boat turn? I still have steering with the engine off. Full hydraulic, dual ram Zeiger.

I lost a belt at high rpm, dual rams, hyd helm, single engine , the steering just got very heavy but still worked, I was able to drive it back, docking was a chore however.

I turn a 550lb outboard off a single ram and wingplate without power steering from idle into the 60s without much effort. You girls need to harden the phuk up. Lol, but seriously, is an outdrive harder to turn on a hydraulic setup, or is it just the "oh crap" factor of going from power assist to no power assist?

you have to collapse one cylinder whilst expanding the other, much more effort than steering a car that lost it's PS

For my issue when I lost the power steering, it was more than just the "oh crap" factor going from power to no-power assist. I was just traveling in a straight line with just a minimal amount of light wind chop and the boat still wanted to make that abrupt turn. At that time I had the dual hydraulic ram set up on deep TRS drives, although it was just external hydraulic steering and NOT the full hydraulic to the helm set up. That day as soon as I got back to shore I did call up IMCO to order a new full hydraulic to the helm system. I would like to believe that would make a difference under those circumstances.

I wasn't going too fast but somehow I lost pressure in the hydraulic system and my steering wheel just spun freely. The boat kept going straight and without much effort I was able to bring the boat to a stop. I put ~ 30lb of pressure back in the system and I was back in business. I still don't know what cause the pressure drop but I suspect it had dropped slowly over time. Since then it has not been an issue beyond being one more thing to check before heading out and I now carry a bike pump onboard :-)

I had air in the system that got trapped in the helm that resulted in a spinning steering wheel. The boat stayed on course but I was unable to turn any direction. A little scary at 150.