UFlex steering Sucks!!!

[home made tunnel]

So I’ve bled and bled and bled.... I can’t win. I’m pissed.
I have the cheesy bay star steering on my red boat and it’s worked flawlessly. Hasn’t had to be bled in 3 years and it’s right as ever.
HOWEVER, This more “performance” uflex thing sucks!

When I’m talking Gallons bled through this system, I mean it! Completely bubble free for gallons—- and the ram is tight for 5 minutes. After resting for 5 minutes, it has almost 1/4” travel when pushing back and forth on the motor. On top of the 115proXS spongy motor mounts—- it makes a scary sloppy steering ride.

Who else had uflex problems?!

[89LASER]

I have it on my 22 Activator and love it, never had a problem bleeding it when I changed the hoses.

[V-bottom]

IMO the problem is with their helm not the cylinder. The check valves in the helm have too much "play" or "slop" to use in a high performance application. I took a video of the play and sent it to their engineering dept. Once he saw the issues I had described they told me to take it out of my boat and DO NOT use it in high performance applications....I have the emailed response somewhere. I took the steering out and put my seastar back in. I put the whole silvertar system in our ski boat so it is nice and easy to steer....almost as easy as power steering. But definitely not rated for anything over 60-70 mph. To give them the benefit of the doubt my Silverstar system was 2 or 3 years ago. Maybe they have improved it since then??

[Euroski]

The 2 systems(sea-star) on my past boats always had slight play but never had any control issues. One way to look at it the engine always has some torque loading the cylinder to one side. That's my 2 cents.

[XstreamVking]

I have several sea star pro systems in my boats. Newest one in my Stream, is 5 yrs old. Never touched. They are as tight as cable steering. They might have 1/16'' movement at center. I keep repeating that you need to fill the hoses BEFORE installing them in the boat. I learned that trick overseeing the rigging of one boat per day for years at a boat factory. Steering problems when arriving at the dealer went to zero. Most problems not mechanical in nature, are caused by a small amount of air in the hoses.

[home made tunnel]

Hmm. Helm issue aye? I think I bought this steering system about 2 years ago. It’s been a while until I got the boat out together.
I can say the effort to turn it is way less than the baystar/seastar systems.

[Greg G]

My U-flex has been perfect. Just my .02

[Fullthrottleguy]

My U-flex has been perfect. Just my .02

Same experience here - I put it on my 'stream in 2013 and it's been perfect all along, zero slop or need to re-bleed. You can let go of the wheel at +100 and it tracks dead straight. I have a seastar on my current boat and if anything it has more play.

[stokernick]

I have Uflex silverstar and love it, no issues!

[Radiant]

I have Uflex silver steer on my boat and no issues. I can let go of the week at Wot if I wanted to. I will say there is a tiny amount of play. 1/8" total. Haven't noticed any chine walking or handling issues because of it

[home made tunnel]

Looks like I'm part of the minority here then. It was well over a year ago that I purchased this, before the boat was done... I don't think returning it is an option at this point haha.

[checkmate45]

We have had a bleed issue on one Uflex hydraulic, I believe it was the system under silversteer.

It took about 6 times re-bleeding the steering before it took. We had to take the fill plug out of another system to fix the air leak issue

[home made tunnel]

We have had a bleed issue on one Uflex hydraulic, I believe it was the system under silversteer.

It took about 6 times re-bleeding the steering before it took. We had to take the fill plug out of another system to fix the air leak issue

I cant imagine the full plug is my issue. It was oozing a little fluid out the top right after reinstalling the filler cap. Like there was a teaspoon too much fluid.

[olboatman]

I cant imagine the full plug is my issue. It was oozing a little fluid out the top right after reinstalling the filler cap. Like there was a teaspoon too much fluid.

Hey HMT....why don't you try removing the hoses and filling them before reinstalling as XtremeVking has said. It makes since to me as you may have an air bubble trapped in a high spot. JMO
Gary

[Greg G]

Another thought is to take the boat on the trailer and push it up on a pair of ramps, then drop the tongue overnight. The trapped air might make it's way to the end.