Chine walking

[WILDMAN]

I f the motor is high or trimmed up alot, the prop torque will make it hard to turn the wheel to the left. If the motor is at least 3" below the pad and not over trimmed, it will turn pretty easily.

 

[boatman4021]

Mine has so much steering torque at wot, it's all I can do to control the boat with 1 hand. To keep the boat balanced on the pad takes light bumps to the left, the right bumps are easy. At 50, feels like power steering. to actually turn the boat to the left, I have to back off the throttle a bit.

 

[WILDMAN]

Yup, driving thru a chinewalk with one hand sucks. Much easier with a foot throttle.

 

[TheNerd]

Seat time will make it go away. Suck it up and drive through it.

 

[WILDMAN]

The term "drive thru it" is misleading. It sounds like if you stay into it, the chinewalking will stop. That could'nt be furthur from the truth and can end up very badly. Sometimes a person can get it under control after a few seconds, but if it gets worse, you definitely need to back off the throttle. Always try and trim down before backing off. Chopping the throttle during chinewalk while trimmed up can cause the boat to hook sharply.

 

[nickhedstrom]

I think you got hidden wings on that Bigred. LOL

 

[nickhedstrom]

IDK what kind of hydro steering is on it but i know it takes 2 hands and some serious strength to turn the wheel at 70mph.

 

[nickhedstrom]

Its hard to turn to either left or right.

 

[WILDMAN]

Does it turn easily when sitting on the trailer?

 

[ndaniels]

My old omc gearcase musta been designed pretty well then, cuz I droe it one handed easily.. and im not arnold. The skeg had a built in torque tab and prop torque was never an issue. Boat steered easily at upper70s.

 

[boatman4021]

I put a Bob's torque tab on mine and it steered like a dream at any speed, but it scrubbed off 5mph so I took it off!

 

[ndaniels]

I don't blame you there.. the lightning gearcase's skeg actually had a bit of a curve on my old 225h.o.- figured it acted like a torque tab of sorts. Boat was plenty fast, but who knows- maybe I left a couple mph on the table with that lower??

I don't think his steering should be hard both ways at speed.. one way ok, but both?? I've never expercienced hard steering with a hyd setup since I installed hyd steering along with the 225.

 

[nickhedstrom]

Yes it turns easy on trailer.

 

[nickhedstrom]

It also steered hard when i had that 95 Merc 200 on it at speeds above 60mph.

 

[boatman4021]

I didn't take the time to go back through this thread to see how high you are running the engine on the transom, but the only time I have felt steering torque both ways, was when the prop was burried in the water. The reason for having a hard time turning left is because the prop is high enough that the blades don't much much bite from about 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock. So the blades regaining there bite as they hit the water will naturally push the engine to the right. Unless you have a left hand rotation and it would be hard to turn right.

 

[nickhedstrom]

Doesnt matter what the engine height is, ive tried it from 1" to 3" below the V, its always hard steer.

 

[boatman4021]

It's hard to help on something like this when you can't actually see it or drive it, but it just shouldn't be that hard to steer. Maybe 1 of the experts on here is close enough to to have a look and help you find a fix.

 

[Mark]

A Starflite will chine walk much worse when the engine is low and the trim is high. You can calm it right down if you run the engine high with neutral trim. At 3.5" below the V my walks like a drunken sailor. At 2.5" it almost completely disappears. Oh... and that is without changing the driver.

 

[nickhedstrom]

I was running it at 2" below the vee and it would start walking when i got to 70mph. I tried an 1" below the vee but it seemed the prop was slipping cause i had more rpm but wasnt getting much past 63mph acording to my GPS.

 

[atc250r]

I think that generally speaking you can't run the prop that high on a Flite or Liner. The prop needs to be deeper so it can bite the water and lift the bow.