Mid Range Tillers Steering

[Mark R.]

I am contemplating buying a Lund 1700 Angler. Believe I prefer tiller but wonder about the difficulty steering tiller at 4,000 to 5,000 rpms. Does torque generated by prop mean you have to wrestle the handle???

[Mark R.]

Sorry. Should have said w/80 h.p. Yamaha

[Scott]

I have a 75HP Tiller. If you have power trim, you will have no difficulty with steering. With the motor fully down, mine can be tough to turn, but not hold, at high speed. Just a couple bumps up with the trim button and it gets very easy. Adjustment with the torque tab on the cavitation plate helped mine in the down position, but still, when I bump the trim up a bit, it gets very easy. It's as easy as my 30 HP was.

[s.f.]

Steering tillers, no doubt can be more stressful than a wheel but...

There is no difference between the steering stress between a 40hp and 150hp. tiller. The small motor on a smaller boat is the same as a big one on big boat. The key to easier steering is two fold.
1. once the boat is up on plane, simply trim the engine to the SWEET SPOT, meaning the steering stress will be almost non-existent. Play with that as the conditions will vary that trim position. (waves might merit more or less bow height)
2. when going into the wind, dead on, or down wind, dead on, make sure weight in the boat is distributed so there is no listing of the hull either way. BUT, always shift the weight to MAKE the boat list away from the up wind side when quartering waves or paralelling the waves. This not only eases steering stress, but also makes things drier. AND, also make sure the little, adjustable fin under the cavitation plate is not one way or the other. The least little ajustment can make a huge difference.
ALL boats will generally benifit from the above theories. Even when
Kavajecz is driving. lol

#49
steve fellegy

[walter]

s.f.

Have you ever tried a torque tab that attaches to the skeg? I read an article in Bass & Walleye Boats about this and wondered if it would help tiller stering. I think it is a Bobs Machine Shop product.

I drive a 1775 Pro-V with 75 Merc tiller. Torque in usually not a problem if the motor is trimmed properly untill your driving at about half throttle into heavy seas. Under those conditions it doesn't seem to matter what you do with the trim, just hang on.

[clancy]

I've got a '01 1775 with a Yamaha 80 4-stroke. I believe the '02 Angler has the same hull dimension-wise. This boat steers like a dream, even at higher rpms, but had to try some different props before I could make that statement. Started with a Michigan Rapture with an aggressive pitch; lifted the bow right now, but the handle torque was significant and tiller handle wanted to pull away from me the faster I went. This was especially true in a cross wind, where you would definitely get your bicept workout for the day. Ended up with a Yamaha black stainless, which I can literally steer by tapping the handle left or right with my thumb and index finger. You can also alleviate some of the torque with the steering arm adjustment screw if necessary.

BTW, on a related note, can anyone tell me why this steering arm adjustment feature consists of a bolt and .10 stainless wingnut to regulate tension on a 386lb motor? With what you pay for one of these buggers, you would think Yamaha could devise a better system. Why not something like on the T-8? Great motor otherwise.

[Eyez]

I run a 60 hp tiller. My experience matches up pretty well with what others have said. Tourqe can almost always be worked out with trim, except when I'm quartering into a strong wind, or I have a strong crosswind, where the wind is pushing the bow around, and I have to fight it to keep the boat going straight. Even at that, the tourqe reduces as I speed up. I'm not a real strong guy, and I've never had any real complaints about tourqe.


Eyez

[Eric_WI]

Mark,
I run a 2001 1700 Angler with an Evinrude 70 4-stroke. When I picked it up from the dealer, the trim tab on the lower unit was heavily angled to the left. It would drive the tiller handle into me at higher speeds to the point where my arm got sore from holding it back. Since then, I've made several adjustments to it and I've found a position where the motor runs with very little steering torque at full throttle. However, at lower speeds, it has a tendancy to pull the handle away from me slightly.

There is usually also a steering tension adjustment on the motor somewhere. I find myself loosening it up when running at lower speeds and tightening it when running at higher speeds to further reduce steering torque.

There's my 2 cents. Hope it was helpful

Eric

[figkms]

Trim tab on the motor is the key to alleviate torque issues. Making adjustments to this will take all the torque from the tiller motor. I ran a 125HP tiller for a year, strong tension, torque, to starboard, after I had completed adjustments to the trim tab, I could run for miles without having to even hold on to the tiller handle. I certainly wouldn't recommend not having control over the tiller handle to anyone, but you should have no concern or fear of the tiller motor posing any handling problems. The other posts involving motor trim, ect. also help as well, but largest reduction in tension, torque comes from adjustments made to the trim tab.

[final thought]

Power T/T is the key and is absolutely a must.

Torque on 125 becomes a problem, only when you back off Full Throttle to idle position. Regardless trim position, you will feel it and you will be unable to trim down fast enough. Hang on.

[Scott]

There is one other product that might help you. Land and Sea and some other companies used to make a little strip of aluminmum that riveted to your skeg to reduce torque. It worked on the same principle as the torque tab, except it was always in the water. At some point of trim, your torque tab on the cavitation plate becomes irrelevantbecause it's not seeing as much water as it is when the motor is trimmed completely in. The skeg tab worked great on bass boats prior to hyd. steering days.