Brand new Pontoon hard steering

[r&s20]

the problem maybe your prop, i replaced my motor this year and tried 5 or 6 different props to get what i was looking for. 2 of the props i tried the steering was very hard, 1 one those i changed on the water it was that bad.

[drandle]

So I wanted to quantify the amount of force i'm having to use to turn the wheel which I feel is excessive. Not having any fancy dancy instruments for that I decided to take my digital fish scale and use it to turn the wheel and get an approximate force in lbs. We went on the boat and i hooked one of the steering wheel forks out at the edge, i know, not very scientific but close enough. At idle and low throttle settings it's taking 2-3 pounds of force to turn the wheel in both directions, i consider that average and not too bad.

As soon as you throttle up, even to half throttle the force to turn right goes up to 4-5 pounds and to turn left it goes up to 15-17 pounds!, which I consider quite excessive. I live on a smaller lake and it has counter-clockwise traffic so I'm having to make a lot of left-hand turns. It doesn't sound like much but i can tell you that my arm gets sore after an hour or so on the water.

[willy13]

Can you visually follow the steering cable to the helm to see if there are any unnecessary sharp bends?

[drandle]

i'm going to be taking it out of the water tonight and I'll look at it.

[wwind3]

Does the boat try to turn right by itself? If so adusting trim tab may help...

No boat steers straight as an arrow. It is easier to turn to the right than the left though

Definitely torque steer---adjust the trim tab to the left a little and try it again.

[drandle]

[/quote]
Definitely torque steer---adjust the trim tab to the left a little and try it again.
[/quote]

left relative to what, standing behind the boat or looking towards the motor from inside the boat? i know on airplanes the trim tab works opposite the control surface it's attached to.

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking torque or something like that but not sure how to deal with it.

[wwind3]

Definitely torque steer---adjust the trim tab to the left a little and try it again.
[/quote]

left relative to what, standing behind the boat or looking towards the motor from inside the boat? i know on airplanes the trim tab works opposite the control surface it's attached to.

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking torque or something like that but not sure how to deal with it.
[/quote]
Standing behind the boat--turn the trim tab clockwise.

[drandle]

Ok, took the boat back to the dealership (70 miles away) for the 10-hour oil change. I told them about the hard steering and the mechanic that did the oil changes also looked at the steering. He found that the large nut that attaches the cable to the steering bracket was loose so he tightened. He said that under power it could be moving just enough to cause the bracket to move thereby making the steering difficult. I didn't have time to drive it past idle yesterday so I'll take her out and see if there's any difference and report back.

I can see what he's saying, but in my mind, if the transom/mount is moving that much then I have a bigger problem than just hard steering...?