Steering

[Steve Gibson2]

I have another Newbie question. How hard is it supposed to be to turn my 185 Sport? My brother-in-law says he can steer his ski boat with two fingers. It takes two hands and a fair amount of muscle to turn my boat, my wife really has trouble with it. Is this normal?

 

[Ken Neeley]

Does the boat pull one way or the other at higher speeds?

 

[Steve Gibson2]

Does not seem to pull except, when the motor is all the way down it pulls right. Once I trim it a little that goes away. It has a CMC Manual Transom Jack on it too if that matters.

 

[Mark Hofman]

Some of it depends on if the steering is hydraulic or cable driven. The cables will have more resistance to turning.



I dated a girl whose family had a true ski boat (Ski Nautique, I think), which had hydraulic steering. You could turn with two fingers.



On my boat, which has cables, it does take more effort to turn the wheel.

 

[Steve Gibson2]

Both times I have had the boat out it was heavy, probably overloaded, would that cause it to be hard to steer?

 

[Ron Perry]

your boat steers rather stiffly because as it has been said , it has cable steering. My 188 sport is the same way, it is normal. As long as it steers nuetrally when on plane and trimmed properly, meaning that it is not pulling one way or the other, your boat is fine. You should however be able to spend some money and make it easier to steer, contact your local dealer.

 

[Roger Chambers]

To know how hard is hard you need to turn the wheel of a boat and motor comparable to yours. Like MOfish said, your brother-in-laws ski boat probably has hydraulic steering and will turn very easy. If you compare yours to another boat and yours turns cosideralbly harder you may have a cable problem. My boat was very hard to turn. I have a dual cable system and one cable runs through the tilt tube of the motor. This cannot be greased unless you pull the cable. Over the years the grease will solidify and bind the cable end. If this is the case you will have to pull the cable and replace or clean the tilt tube.

 

[Mark Hofman]

The other thing to consider is that you don't want cable steering to be too loose. If the outboard is out of trim, you'll wear your arm out counteracting the torque pull. My boat is advertised as having a "no feeback" steering system. It pulls and is difficult to turn when its out of trim, but is neutral when I hit the sweet zone. At that point, I don't have to do anything unless I want to change course. A system that is set up and too loose may cause you to lose control.

 

[Jim Walden]

My 2001 185 Sport came with the Teleflex no feedback steering system. The steering mechanism has an internal clutch that locks out the torque forces from the outboard (as MOFish said) when you stop moving the wheel. It does have a very stiff feel compared to conventional steering systems, but I've gotten used to it.