Ok, here is the deal.


in order to keep the boat going straight, you have to constantly move the stick, holding the stick so that the fan stays in one position will not work, you constantly have to rotate it a little in opposite directions to keep it tracking straight.

as far as how hard is it to turn, well if you let go of the stick and it turns by its self, then thats about as easy as you can ask for. It takes some getting used to, kinda like walking and chewing gum at the same time....


with practice, you will get a much better feel for what you are doing.

 

Practice practice. Ull have it down b4 long

 

If you have an outboard, trim it down where its in the water a little, like a rudder..that will help some.

 

yep takes some getting used to. Someone (maybe impaled) once posted on here a very good annology about learning to drive a fan boat. You have to drive it with your feet, and let your feet point you in the right direction, and then learn to use the throttle to adjust how fast you need the back end of the boat to turn around. When Im driving the boat and I shoot a fish, I just let off the throttle and make the boat turn a slow circle away from the bank until i get the fish in and then start back driving.

 

As mentioned you have to figure out how much lower unit to leave in the water to act as a rudder or else the stern of the boat will wag back and forth and you will spend all night turning the fan back and forth as well trying to correct it. Also if you fan motor/shroud/prop is not centered and balanced properly on the fan shaft it will want to swing to the heavy side and as you move and change boat positioning the fan will continue to swing around as the boat level changes.
Typical twist turn cable driven fan steering systems are very easy to turn and you will have a heck of a time in the wind trying to keep it under control and straight as well as if the fan is not balanced you are constantly fighting that as well. With a push-pull system there is more effort required to turn the fan but is eliminates alot of feed back and is alot easier to drive in the wind and control the fan thrust and when you let go of the stick the fan normally stays in position.
With big, heavy fan systems you may need to add additional steering support as in hydraulics or electric actuators, but I still feel the push-pull system is the best system for a fan and works very well with almost no maintenance!

 

Let off of the throttle before making hard turns. Trying to armstrong a fast spinning prop will kill your arm in a hurry especially if you're running a big prop. I use my hip and forearm to steer quite a bit when the heat is on so I can lock, load, drive and shoot without to much trouble.

 

Practice Practice Practice. Lowering the outboard unit definitely helps but I find that I am in water so shallow sometimes that I cant lower the outboard. So I keep my unit up out of the water 90% of the time. I can keep my boat straight with no problem. It didn't happen overnight though. When I let another shooter on the boat grab the steering stick they almost go in circles. You tend to over correct on one side then over correct on the other side which will keep you wagging. Once again, practice. Getting the right feel for the right amount of throttle as you correct only comes with time. Some tend to throttle way too much or not enough when correcting for turns while going in a straight line.

 

Yep forgot that point as well, I use to let off, make my turn and hit the throttle again. 1 nice thing about my actuator system is the turning is effortless whether I am under full throttle or not, no wind or 30mph, does not matter same thumb pressure effort!! :tu:
One nice thing about float pods and tunnel hull is my outboard skeg is still in the water but not hitting the bottom and if it does I am hitting the boat bottom as well.

 

I don't want my outboard in the water at all either. None whatsoever because all that does is causes problems if you know how to drive.

 

Yup, leaving the skeg in the water is for beginners, kinda like training wheels. Not so bad for open water, but once you get the hang of the chit, you will find that you can turn much quicker and steer more precise without the outboard in the water...

 

How your boat is balanced makes a big difference too.

 

I'm telling ya if you balance the fan motor/shroud/prop, etc. over of the center of the fan shaft you will eliminate alot of fan movement no matter what the attitude of the boat is, you can rock the boat side to side and the fan will not or hardly move at all.
I used some metal rods under my fan mounting plate and rolled them side to side and front to back to balance the weight directly over the fan shaft center and made a ton of different in the handling of my fan.

 

thanks for the help, been out a few times since and it has gotten a lot better, markland- could you elaborate on the leveling out the fan thing, I think that would also help because if the boat is not completely level left to right the fan wants to turn to the lower side, ( if that makes any sense) I know the weight on the fan stand isn't level now because of the shroud weighing down a side.

 

Mine when its not windy I can drive with 2 fingers, but in 8mph wind or better its a death grip on that sucker to steer.

 

it takes some getting use to, you need to start turning before your really need to and also in time you will learn how much throttle to use for the amount of turn you need. IF your spinning the boat, turn the fan before the boat gets all the way to where you want it, swing it back the other way for a second then come back straight. clear as mudd? lol, just get in it at drive with out trying to fish...

 

Definitely practice steering with your hip or butt (once you figure out how to do it with your hand). Save a ton of time and effort. I steer with my hip/butt anytime I am hauling in a fish just so I can stay on track or even chase down other fish that didn't scatter.

Also, I leave my outboard skeg down when there is a fair amount of wind. Keeps the wind from making you correct or over correct constantly. No reason to fight the wind any more than you have to.

 

Yessir Poorshot, that is what I was referring to and you will notice this alot more on a smaller boat as they tend to rock back and forth much more so then a larger boat. If the fan weight is not centered and the boat rocks back and forth, the heavy side of the fan will want to follow and will spin and turn as the boat moves side to side, etc.
With my setup I use 2 mounting plates, 1 is welded to the fan shaft and the other is bolted to my engine. That way I can take out 4 bolts and take my whole fan mount off and set it down in the boat if I need to get under something really low or need to take the whole fan off the boat.
I used 2 steel rollers placed under my mounting plate for the fan.I placed the rollers under my engine mounting plate front to back and side to side and rolled and leveled the weight of the fan directly over the center of the fan mounting shaft, then marked my holes and drilled and bolted the engine mounting plate on the fan shaft mounting plate.
You can rock the boat side to side or front to back and the fan does not move much at all even with the steering system not attached.

 

Steering straight with a fan boat

My fan steers with a joy stick with the actuator and I continue to struggle with always over correcting and driving straight. I am considering attaching a rudder / skeg to the outside of the pods that is round on the bottom and attached to a rod that will raise up and down in the channel when hitting the bottom, then attached to the pod. The left side will swivel out when turning left and and remain solid against the pod when turning right. The right pod would be just opposite in a turn. I'm hoping this will help the boat to more easily track straight and still be able to turn. What do you think?

 

I use my outboard to keep me going straight and cut out the tail wag you get, just leave enough in the water to keep you going straight you can always adjust for changing weight in the boat and get use to where it needs to be. Fortunately with mine and the jack plate I just run it all the way up and it usually tracks well. By having my actuator switch on my push/pull stick I can tell fan direction by stick position and always keep my hand on the throttle and actuator switch as well.

 

Do you think my adjustable "fin" will work so I don't have to leave the outdrive down and help improve "tracking"?

 

A fin would help with tracking but could get you stuck as you would not be able to back up if it caught on something, which it will. With the lower unit you just trip it up if it get's hung up.

 

I was contemplating making the fin in a half circle and attached to a rod that would move up and down in a channel so it would simply rise as you bump up against the bottom or logs?

 

Weedless front rudder don,t try to steer with the fan!!

 

Pressure against it will cause it to not rise up but good luck and hope you figure something out.

 

I was contemplating making the fin in a half circle and attached to a rod that would move up and down in a channel so it would simply rise as you bump up against the bottom or logs?

 

should work but imagine that consept in a front rudder that your knee will work and your hands are free or my son suggested have a electric controller with a foot mounted switch like some trollers use might take a troller and turn it into a front rudder would need to be beefed up some only turn fan when need to back up or get out of a tight.

 

Yea, I think it might be a concern. Can you think of a way to help resolve that issue?