super cat 34" turning help

[steveo]

having trouble with this boat turning, the rudder is 1.25 wide and 2.75 from bottom of the hull which seems like plenty. the servo has 106oz torque and no play or bending of the steering rod unless held by hand and its minimal.

when driving the boat the steering feels faint and makes wide turns, i also have plenty of steering throw, now what to do?

also i cut down the rudder and had the same issues when it was longer is it my servo?

[Jesse J]

Try running 6 volts through your servo-and don't skimp on wire gauge. Also be sure your servo rod is not flexing. Grab it with your hand and turn the steering, see how much it resists your hand.

[steveo]

i have a castle bec connected to my t180 i believe you can adjust the voltage through the castle link, i guess i will purchase the link and give it a try

[mm123521]

My boat would not turn when using the BEC from the T180 ESC.
The current is limited comming from the speed control.
When I ran the servo/radio off a seperate 6 volt battery the turning improved dramaticaly.

The BEC in the speed control cant supply enough current to allow the servo to generate full foece.

Mark

[Fluid]

First, the rudder may be too short. The rudder on my much smaller MeanMachine is over 3" below the sponson bottoms, and the rudder on my 34.5" SprintCat is almost 4" below. The correct length is whatever it takes to turn the boat.

That servo is questionable if, as you say, the longer rudder didn't turn either. What brand and model is it? A cheap Chinese servo may not deliver the torque that the box says it should. I always run 5.5 to 6 volts to power my servos, and like Jesse said use switches and servo extensions with heavy wire, not the tiny 'park flyer' wires. My Castle ICE controllers' BECs deliver 5 amps, plenty for even digital servos.

If the linkage bends in your hand, make it so it does not. Use heavier linkage wire, 4-40 size minimum.


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[steveo]

ok i will go one step at a time, i have another servo i can try this one is a tower hobbies servo i am sure its a known brand with different label, i will double check the linkage for flex its not very long it might be fine

thanks for all your help

[Rumdog]

I'd bet you need a longer rudder standoff. You're not getting great leverage with it being ahead of the props.

[martin]

I think Rundog is spot on with the rudder needing to be moved back further. Martin.

[steveo]

I'd bet you need a longer rudder standoff. You're not getting great leverage with it being ahead of the props.

i think your right i've been looking at standoff brakets can you recommend something i can go with a 4" bracket from ebay where i got it but mounting it is the difficult part there is not much to mount to on these. i am not scared of a challenge though

[martin]

Make a bracket that comes off of the strut brackets to mount the rudder further back as they do on cats when they have an inline rudder that is behind the prop & want to move the rudder to an off set rudder.

[steveo]

thats what i have now i did alittle custom work to get it to mount to the strut the entire rudder bracket and rudder are very versitle i was able to flip flop a few parts to get where it is now, with i could just get a 4" standoff but i will hae to mount it like normal

[tiqueman]

I had an almost identical set up on a 32" cat. I longer rudder solved the issue. Keep us posted on you mods.

[steveo]

did you extend the rudder or just get a longer one, my rudder was longer i cut it down i thought it had to much drag i still had the problem at speed its faint but slow speed works ok

[tiqueman]

I got a longer one from OSE. Geez my grammer/ spelling was spot on in my last post.