Re: my 222 fisherman
fishkey said:
Yes it does have trim tabs..... I have tried trimming them but not down all the way,It's just puzzling,,,, It is at idle speeds.. that s the most frustrating....... I never had a boat that never would not track straight at these low speeds.... it does seem to have some torque steer hardens at higher speeds to????
I realy do appreciate your reply... any other sugesstions would be appreciated....
Love my Grady,
Bill :lol:
Ok, first off... don't use your trim tabs at slow, no wake speeds. It does nothing but make it difficult to hold a straight course.
Second... you will feel steering torque, especially at idle speeds. Not much you can do about it... it's normal. The prop is trying to "chop" it's way in one direction and your steering has to counter that.
On plane, at higher speeds the prop torgue is pretty much out of the picture, (depending on the boat). This is where the "torque tab" or"steering tab" comes into play. Your steering should feel equal in both directions. You adjust the tab one way or the other to balance that feel. At low speeds, the tab has no effect.
Anyway, what you describe sounds familiar.
Got some questions for you.
Does your steering "skip"?...
By that I mean... if your crawling along, (no wake speed) and your slowly turning the wheel, does the wheel ever slip, or "skip" without moving the motor?
Putting it another way... do you sometimes have to keep turning the wheel in the same direction to hold a course, (again... slow speed)?
If you drift fish, and set the steering straight ahead, do you find the motor moving off center, on it's own?
If yes, you might have "bleed through" in the steering cylinder. You have a balanced cylinder, with seals in the center, (on a carrier). When those internal seals start to leak, the fluid, (under pressure) bleeds through from one side to the other. The pressure loss allows the prop torque, (or sea forces) to turn the motor, forcing you to keep making steering ajustments.
Here's something you can try. Do this in a slip or on your trailer. Tilt the motor all the way up, with the steering dead center. Slowly steer a little bit to the port, (off center) and stop. This will put weight, (pressure) on the steering cylinder. Watch the cylinder shaft and see if the motor continues to fall, (turn) to port on it's own. Repeat this in the other direction. The motor should stay in place. Over time, (even with healthy seals) it will eventually drift over, say over a few hours or overnight, but it shouldn't drift so fast that you could see it moving.
If your steering has these symptoms, you need to replace the entire steering cylinder. Teleflex will not sell you any center seals, (liability bs). End seals, (glands) yes... but not the center seals or carrier. And if it is the center seals, the steering could and probably will get worse. Don't want to scare you, but this can get serious. You could eventually end up momentarily losing your steering under high speed. I've seen it happen.
The bottom line is, imo, when it comes to something as serius as steering, I would get your boat to a good repair shop and have it checked out.
