Correcting for Torque pull to one side

[FSH 210 Sport]

So, a while back I checked the alignment of the buckets and they were good, perfectly straight using a aluminum straight edge.

While I was at it I decided to mess with the articulating keel adjustment since it looked off. This is one of those situations where I did something that I wish I would have done differently. Before I started I should have checked the center to center measurement of the bolts that hold the tie rod, but I didn’t. So the next time on the water after I had “fixed“ the keel adjustment I had a decent pull to the right while cruising, nice going dumb ass. Now, in my defense, the manual states to make it straight with the keel of the boat. By the way, big shout out to @Dixemon for getting the measurement off of his tie rod 12 & 7/16”. So my friend and I used a couple of squares and got the articulating keel perfectly straight with the keel of the boat with the jet pumps set perfectly parallel, and the tie rod measurement was 12&1/2” center to center on the bolts.

So, I got to looking at it and decided to shorten the tie rod by 1/4” to 12&1/4” which brought the articulating keel to the starboard quite a bit since the rod attaches close to the pivot point, which in theory would get pushed straight while underway, causing the buckets to get pulled to the port thereby inducing a turn to the left. Yesterday I tested it and Wa La! It goes almost perfectly straight at cruise, just the slightest drift to the right so I’m thinking I’ll take another 1/8” out of the tie rod. The boat also goes straight at WOT.



And FWIW, the port side rpm’s came up 150-200 as well. The previous day the port side was down almost 200-300 rpms at WOT, but now its within maybe 100-150 rpm of the starboard engine which is running at 8000 rpm.

If these engines were contra rotating you could set everything up straight, this wanting to pull to the right is the torque of the two engines together, that’s why our boats turn easier to one side, I think it is the starboard sitting here typing.

 

[YoDaddy292]

That is great info and something I will be looking into as I start getting ready for boating this week (we are having a false spring up in the PNW this week so she's coming out of the garage for prep.).

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Epilogue; While I was still at Lake Mohave I was cruising on the lake and the boat was still slowly tracking to the right while cruising, I happened to step onto the right side of the CC and the boat tracked straight. So I stopped and moved the down rigger weights to the right aft compartment and started cruising again, the boat went arrow straight.

After I got back home I re centered the articulating keel and I finally remembered to check the track while cruising steering last time out. The boat tracked perfectly straight. So in my case it was a matter of re distributing roughly 40# from the port aft storage compartment to the starboard aft compartment to correct the pull to the starboard.

 

[JSchneider]

I recently made some adjustments to the nozzles and articulating keel on our boat, and it now pulls to the right at speeds between 20 and about 30 to the point I have to hold the steering wheel about 90 degrees to the left. At speeds below 20 and above 30 it tracks straight. Could it be that between 20-30 mph the boats higher bow angle is subjecting the articulating keel to more water flow causing a pull to the right? Below 20 there probably isn't much undisturbed water flowing across the keel and above 30 I would guess that the majority of the keel is out of the water. I am thinking of adjusting the keel to the starboard slightly to counter act the right pull between 20-30. Everything on the back of the boat is perfectly lined up and centered. Any ideas?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I recently made some adjustments to the nozzles and articulating keel on our boat, and it now pulls to the right at speeds between 20 and about 30 to the point I have to hold the steering wheel about 90 degrees to the left. At speeds below 20 and above 30 it tracks straight. Could it be that between 20-30 mph the boats higher bow angle is subjecting the articulating keel to more water flow causing a pull to the right? Below 20 there probably isn't much undisturbed water flowing across the keel and above 30 I would guess that the majority of the keel is out of the water. I am thinking of adjusting the keel to the starboard slightly to counter act the right pull between 20-30. Everything on the back of the boat is perfectly lined up and centered. Any ideas?

If the nozzles are square to each other and the keel is straight then make sure the cargo weght in the boat is even.

 

[CastawayRK]

I have a random issue which may or may not be related. on launch, with trim tabs full down the boat will pull hard to starboard and it seems like no amount of helm to port will straighten it out. In fact it feels like the more I steer to port the harder it pulls to starboard twice leading me to feel like it was going to run aground. i urgently shut down the throttles, cuss, launch again and everything is fine. It is really disconcerting. Any ideas?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I have a random issue which may or may not be related. on launch, with trim tabs full down the boat will pull hard to starboard and it seems like no amount of helm to port will straighten it out. In fact it feels like the more I steer to port the harder it pulls to starboard twice leading me to feel like it was going to run aground. i urgently shut down the throttles, cuss, launch again and everything is fine. It is really disconcerting. Any ideas?

Does it do that with the trim tabs up?

 

[1WetBoat]

I have a random issue which may or may not be related. on launch, with trim tabs full down the boat will pull hard to starboard and it seems like no amount of helm to port will straighten it out. In fact it feels like the more I steer to port the harder it pulls to starboard twice leading me to feel like it was going to run aground. i urgently shut down the throttles, cuss, launch again and everything is fine. It is really disconcerting. Any ideas?

Are you sure both tabs are coming down and both are staying down?
Almost sounds as if the one side is staying down and the other isn't.

 

[CastawayRK]

Does it do that with the trim tabs up?

Good question. It did it before I got trim tabs but I haven't tried launching for a day without the tabs. What's really weird is I may go 2-3 trips and it doesn't happen and then boom I'm veering out of control. So if I launch without tabs for a day that wouldn't be conclusive. But I should try - if it does happen I guess that would rule out the trim tabs.

Are you sure both tabs are coming down and both are staying down?
Almost sounds as if the one side is staying down and the other isn't.

No I'm not sure. The control has all LEDs lit indicating it's down, but I guess there could be an issue there But the fact I just stop, don't touch the controls and re-launch and everything is fine ruled this out in my mind.

It does only seem to happen if I launch with wheel turned, is it a characteristic that we have to launch with wheel perfectly straight?

Thanks for the feedback

 

[1WetBoat]

Good question. It did it before I got trim tabs but I haven't tried launching for a day without the tabs. What's really weird is I may go 2-3 trips and it doesn't happen and then boom I'm veering out of control. So if I launch without tabs for a day that wouldn't be conclusive. But I should try - if it does happen I guess that would rule out the trim tabs.


No I'm not sure. The control has all LEDs lit indicating it's down, but I guess there could be an issue there But the fact I just stop, don't touch the controls and re-launch and everything is fine ruled this out in my mind.

It does only seem to happen if I launch with wheel turned, is it a characteristic that we have to launch with wheel perfectly straight?

Thanks for the feedback

It shouldnt matter if you launch with the wheel turned. I would also check for some sort of obstruction around the pump area.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

It does only seem to happen if I launch with wheel turned, is it a characteristic that we have to launch with wheel perfectly straight?

Ummmm can you explain that statement above please?

 

[CastawayRK]

Ummmm can you explain that statement above please?

simply that if I in a cove and pointed towards the exit and I launch with wheel straight I’ve never noticed it happening. If I’m sideways and turn wheel to port at launch that seems to trigger it. So let’s say knob is at 9 oclock and I hit the gas it veers unexpectedly to starboard. I reflexively put in more steering to port, let’s say now knob is 6 o’clock. It seems to make things worse and i go harder the other way. The I kill throttle, idle until I’m pointed where I want to go, punch it and all is good. I’ve tried a couple times to make it happen and it won’t.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

simply that if I in a cove and pointed towards the exit and I launch with wheel straight I’ve never noticed it happening. If I’m sideways and turn wheel to port at launch that seems to trigger it. So let’s say knob is at 9 oclock and I hit the gas it veers unexpectedly to starboard. I reflexively put in more steering to port, let’s say now knob is 6 o’clock. It seems to make things worse and i go harder the other way. The I kill throttle, idle until I’m pointed where I want to go, punch it and all is good. I’ve tried a couple times to make it happen and it won’t.

I see…. well that is VERY odd indeed…. When you say launch, are you punching it? Or slowly applying the throttles?

 

[CastawayRK]

When I launch I typically just throw throttle straight to almost WOT. Somewhere past 3/4 throttle anyway.
So this weekend I could not duplicate the issue in any setting. I hit the "all down" button on the tab controller and looked before dropping into water and they looked identical on both sides. Launched several time with tabs retracted and shut off and wheel turned and not turned. My family thought I was a little goofy, but oh well...I'll continue to experiment see I can can cause it to happen.
Thanks for replies

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

When I launch I typically just throw throttle straight to almost WOT. Somewhere past 3/4 throttle anyway.
So this weekend I could not duplicate the issue in any setting. I hit the "all down" button on the tab controller and looked before dropping into water and they looked identical on both sides. Launched several time with tabs retracted and shut off and wheel turned and not turned. My family thought I was a little goofy, but oh well...I'll continue to experiment see I can can cause it to happen.
Thanks for replies

Okay, so how many times has this happened to you? I‘m thinking perhaps you might have had something in the starboard jet pump so that only the port engine was making thrust? Dunno…seems like you’d want to take off with the tabs fully retracted to get going then deploy them to bring the bow down, otherwise thats a lot of drag to overcome? While I do enjoy slamming the throttles forward, most of the time I walk them up to 5000-6000 rpm then push them on up, this takes about three seconds, as boat gets up on plane and starts to really accelerate I pull the throttles back down to 6000-6500 rpm, sync the engines then use cruise assist to adjust the throttle from there on out.

 

[CastawayRK]

It's happened at least half a dozen times. Last time left me broadside in rush hour traffic on a choke point on Lanier which triggered me to post about it.
My tab auto-controller has "launch Mode" where tabs are fully down and then as you get up to speed it reverts to the auto-mode you chose. Yesterday instead of doing that I just launched in auto mode and sort of eased throttle forward for a couple seconds, about the same amount of time as it takes the tabs to auto-extend on launch. It did seem like a nice smoother takeoff and will probably keep doing it that way. I also switched to using the single throttle auto-sync mode just to ensure I wasn't inadvertently pushing the left one further than the right when I launch.
I guess for now I will park the pulling issue unless/until I see it more or figure out how to make it happen.

Thanks

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I was just looking for another thread I did and saw this one and wanted close the loop on this one, well I kinda did above. Just wanted to reiterate for anyone doing a search that I found that it was weight distribution and not the jet pump or articulating keel that was causing my issue. I made sure the jet pumps were parallel with each other and that the articulating keel was parallel with the centerline of the boat.

Now any time I get a pull one way or another in calm wind conditions I just move some weight around and the boat tracks straight.