Looking For Advice On Hydraulic Steering!
 

Looking to put hydraulic steering on my 89 baja 240 sport. I get chine walking bad around 63 m.p.h. An as you climb it does get worse. As far as hydraulic steering i'm working on a budget. When i was looking into them im not sure as to what length ram i would need an all the measurements. Any suggestions?

I have a set of rebuilt Marine Machine Rams and ram mounts. All you would need is a bunch of hoses and a helm pump and you could be full hydraulic. Pm me if you are interested.

I am not a fan of the cable to hydraulic systems, better than just cable but still retains the cable. Hydraulic from helm back is the best way to go but be ready to get your wallet out.

keep your eyes open facebook swapshop etc.... a 24 can probably get by single ram full hydraulic. ram length can vary depending on where you mount the mounts. type of mounts etc. If you check out imco's sight (the pdf catalogues) there is a full listing of ram length, mounting cap and mounting width, then you just need to think about it. THere are different systems for dif things.

The system I just got has a wider rear cap and shorter dual rams for a narrower transom. found it on FB swapshop in damn near new condition for $1100 so the deals are out there.

Remember to check the drive steering pivots for wear too. Adding even the best hydraulic steering to a worn out drive won't help you much. Just grab the drive and see how much you can wiggle it back and forth. That might be pert of your problem too.

Is there one location better then the other for the Rams?

Its more determined by room, though the longer the throw the more precise you can get, but precise and offshore.... Room wise, my rig has a 7 foot at the most beam throw some k planes back there and mounting room starts becoming scarce.

Make sure you gimble and outdrive are not sloppy. Your hull may have a lot of hook. Also different props can help as well, what are you running now. 63 seems low for bad chine walking, something is causing it

It's not real bad at 63. When it's bad is over 65. I've hit 72 an instantly pulled out because of violent chine walking. That's when I was playing around with props to see if any of them would help. I'm running a bravo 1 4 blade 28p. I've tried a three blade also an several other 4's. None of them seemed to really help. The best overall was the 28 I have on there now.

What kind of power are you running, Im sure that hull wasn't designed to run into mid 70's and up, but I guess if ya got the sack for it go a head.

I have a 509 in it. She runs pretty good. I'm not so much worried about running 75. I just want it to handle good still at 60-65. It gets extremely loose feeling.

are you over trimming it ?? what drive.. B-1 ?

I pieced a kit together.
Bought the external gear here in the swap shop for a grand. Had 200 into new seals for the Rams.
I completed it with an inside to the helm kit from CP performance.

It wasn't cheap, but I wanted to stay in the boat at speed. :cool-smiley-011:

Yea I'm running a bravo 1 but actually just smoked it at the end of the season. I had a spare that I finished the year off with. I'm currently looking at a bravo X. An yea I have k planes on it.

anything short of a full dual ram setup will be a bandaid deal, you really need the support on both side of the drive, if you ever seen what happens when it breaks a gimble housing, you will understand, then the cable from the helm is iffy at best, and as said before those boats were never designed to run that fast, not a great hull, some have done it, many have tried.

Hey Chevy, Im abit confused. I understand the boat chine walks and how scary and a pain in the but it can be. Somewhere along the line you decided to put hydraulic steering in to the equation I believe to help with the chine walk. What is your intended end result by doing the steering. Is it that it will Eliminate the chine walk at those higher speeds? Im curious because the steering alone may no end the problem. What have you been told adding the steering will do. There are a lot of boats with Hydraulic steering that still chine walk all over the place. Would hate to see you spend the money and be right back where you started,

You are 200% correct. It will still chine walk. Just have to man up and drive the boat.

If his steering is worn it can help tremendously....

Hey Phrag , you are correct. Ive been thru it. I was just trying to find out what his original problem was and what he is trying to accomplish. Don't want to see him spend a lot of money and not get the results he is hoping for. There are a few things that may lessen the chine walk situation. Tightening up the steering will let you control it better but does not fix it. It may never be fixed cause nothing is broken. Would be a shame if he spent all kinds of money expecting it to be gone from installing The hydraulic steering and it still does the chine walk. Steve

I bet the hull has a pretty strong hook in it, along with some worn parts. Since you blew the Bravo you can check the gimbal and pins while you are in there.
Get a long straight edge and hold it to the bottom and see how straight it is

I've got dual full hydro on my 25' Eliminator Eagle and it still chine walks in the 90s. Just gotta drive through it. Not sure this helps lol...