Wire with pulley cable steering vs Hydraulic steering on race boats

**powerabout** · 01-18-2018, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by BarryStrawn

Rotary pumps with the designed in leak and moving center for the steering wheel is not the only way to design a hydraulic helm. But it works great to remove feedback and is first rate for a heavy rigs like offshore. Race or pleasure. Rugged. And cheap for the bassboats.

Why cant a helm be a linear actuator, rack and pinion with a cylinder on each end?
Full electric will make a rotary hydraulic helm look like DC 3 technology IMHO

**powerabout** · 01-18-2018, 06:17 AM

Its the lock valves that hold the oil back not the rotary pump.
I know some racers that run without tbe lock valves to try to get some feel back.
Yes single engine boats

**powerabout** · 01-18-2018, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Onetime

The Capilano helm was specifically design for boats. The new hydraulic steering system packages are specifically designed for boats.

can you point out the part in the helm that is specially designed for boats thats not 60+ year old hydraulics?

**Onetime** · 01-18-2018, 09:21 AM

The helms are specifically designed for boats.

With your logic an outboard motor isn’t designed for boats because it uses over 100 year old internal combustion engine technology components.

Enough derailing of the thread, I’m done.

**H2OPERF** · 01-18-2018, 10:32 AM

This thread is going allover the place, I agree The basic pump.. seastar anyway is a swashplate piston pump been around for ever but also agree that the steering wheel shaft, oversize housing, (reservoir), amount of tilt on the swash bearings(output volume) and valving are designed for the application. String/cable steering is mainly for light 100+++ mph boats that are not driven for miles on-end unless you have forearms of steel. . Other string advantages of having the wheel in the same place all the time is you can mount trim /starts witches on the wheel without slip ring crt type wheel and in an instant tell exactly where your motor is.. crab angle etc..by wheel position. Also nothing really to fail if all the components up to standard. Aircraft have been using cables for ever due to safety (nothing to fail) it took decades to get fly by wire in commercial aircraft.. Boeing started slowly with fly by wire spoilers on 757/767 with cable to actuator on everything else. 737 were all cable with moving body actuator assist up until most recent versions . Now you have all fly by wire but it has multiple redundancy separate hydraulic systems and separate power systems with the hyd tubing and wiring running in different pathways, small generators and hydraulic pumps that deploy driven by propellers for total power failures etc , way off course but big boat hyd.. little seat of the pants boat string LOL..Dave

**Capt.Insane-o** · 01-18-2018, 11:29 AM

String steering requires very frequent inspection and some maintenance and can be a pain if you require full tilt range. If you've ever experienced the cable jumping on the drum or a sheave cracking while hauling along. Never thought I'd like seastar on a pad boat but wrist and a shoulder problem kind of forced me into it and other than having to queef it occasionally it's very nice.

**patchesII** · 01-18-2018, 02:12 PM

If it weren't for the slight weight advantage of cable I would've put hydraulic in my 1/4 Master

**H2OPERF** · 01-18-2018, 03:33 PM

Yea agree..also tilt issues with cables on lake boats, hard to get the geometry right and keep the cables from slacking too much..

**90 5.0** · 01-18-2018, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by H2OPERF

Yea agree..also tilt issues with cables on lake boats, hard to get the geometry right and keep the cables from slacking too much..

On my xr to get it tight enough at full running trim, it’s so tight all the way down it won’t steer.

Get boat straight, trim down and punch it.

Pain in the rear, needs geometry fixed.

Also had a cable pop off the roller and almost roll the boat. Water came inside it was up on its side so high but didn’t flip thankfully.

**90 5.0** · 01-18-2018, 08:44 PM

Originally Posted by patchesII

If it weren't for the slight weight advantage of cable I would've put hydraulic in my 1/4 Master

What about in an xr? Would you still then?

Ive thought about it in my xr and not sure, love it in my bass boat though.

**H2OPERF** · 01-18-2018, 09:36 PM

I see a lot of systems with no cable guards on the pulleys.. put them in my latest project cable can't come off and get caught, did same on fwd pulleys too

**Krazymaan** · 01-18-2018, 10:29 PM

It'll all go away one day and like everything else and probably become electric stepper motors and worm gears and all you will need is two 20' 12 gauge wires running back to your relay. If cars have electric steering, then boats will too, eventually

**H2OPERF** · 01-19-2018, 06:53 AM

Agree something diff will be in the future but cars have steering even with out elect/hyd power, pure hydraulic like we have in boats is illegal on the street , some of the off-road truck guys use it but its not legal by dot ..