looking to upgrade to hydraulic steering

Mikem8560 · #1 11-03-2013, 05:54 PM

ive got the old cable steering on my boat but id like to upgrade to hydraulic ive got a 2001 200hp mercury has anyone already found the best kit to do this?

wattaway2 · #2 11-03-2013, 08:54 PM

Not an expert but from what I've seen seastar/teleflex is the popular choice and with a 200 the cheaper bay star unit will not work . Had the option of getting a compaction or std. Seastar unit for my evenrude but was advised by there tech line I would be much happier with the std. Unit . You would have thought the would like to recommend the slightly more expensive unit but said with more slow speed docking maneuvers the std unit was superior. Look around price are all over the board

Blue_Heron · #3 11-03-2013, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikem8560

...id like to upgrade to hydraulic...

You'll be glad you did. Seastar and Ultraflex are the only mfgrs I know of. There used to be hynautic, but I think Seastar/teleflex bought them out. All three are good.
Dave

flyingfrizzle · #4 11-05-2013, 01:53 PM

You will love the difference, I had a 78 21' Continental CC and It had a 2001 Mercury 200 hp with a cable. It would work me to death and if you needed to let go of the wheel for a quick moment dont even think about it. It was a constant fight. Once I went o sea star hyd. it was a night and day difference. I was able to steer with on finger vs. both hands. I needed one for my 20' project and found a hydrasport with a sea star set up on it and bought the boat just for the steering. It came with a nice set of outriggers too (lees). Already got my $ back and would love to find a home for the hull now... Look around I saw a ram on the tht the other day for $50 and a Helm for $100. You would still need hoses so a turn key kit would be best way to go. Make sure the cylinder dose not leak and you hoses are long enough. Lots of guys sell them once the seals start to leak into the boat and get new ones. Dont cost much to rebuild if you can get a deal on a leaky one.

dandub20 · #5 11-09-2013, 10:55 AM

I found used seastar with tilt helm on florida sportsmen forum. Paid 450. Highly recomend it

Bushwacker · #6 11-09-2013, 12:45 PM

The Seastar helm pump comes in 3 different displacements. If you get the smallest one, your steering will probably be much slower than your cable system, like about 5.5 turns lock-to-lock. I got the medium size helm pump, which gives me about 4.5 turns lock-to-lock. The trade off with the bigger pumps is higher effort, which is why I didn't go with the largest one. However the steering effort turned out to be very low, so I wouldn't hesitate to go with the largest pump, which would probably get the ratio down to about 3.5 turns.

My only complaint with the Seastar system is that the stroke of the cylinder (length of the rod and brackets) is about 1.5" too short! It only allows the motor to rotate through about 75% of it's full travel! If I disconnect the hydraulic cylinder from the tiller bar, the tiller attachment hole will move about 3/4" beyond the hydraulic cylinder stop on either side. Don't know if this is unique to the BRP/OMC geometry (like a greater distance from pivot point to tiller bar attachment) or if it's common to all makes, but the point is that it will significantly reduce your low speed maneuverability! I checked out other brands of cylinders but they all had the same stroke.

Before I repowered and added the bracket, I had a Hynautic-based system I built myself, and I designed it with enough travel to put the motor on the stops in both directions. When I started running the boat with the bracket, new motor and steering, I was amazed that I couldn't turn it around in the 80' wide canal across the street from my house by just putting the helm hard over, when that was easy with the old motor hanging on the transom! At first I chalked it up to the "longer boat syndrome" due to the bracket, until I discovered that the new system wasn't turning the motor as far as it used to! Before you jump into it, I'd suggest you compare the amount of travel of the old and new steering systems to avoid a surprising reduction in maneuverability!

Mikem8560 · #7 11-10-2013, 01:04 AM

thanks for all the things to think on

Entourage · #8 11-10-2013, 09:45 PM

Get out your wallet your going to spend at least g note by the time everything is said and done. It is worth the money in the end though.

strick · #9 11-10-2013, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Entourage

Get out your wallet your going to spend at least g note by the time everything is said and done. It is worth the money in the end though.

What he said.

strick

gofastsandman · #10 11-10-2013, 10:40 PM

Traded for a set of riggers. Nice Hynautic in return. Bores look sweet.

Do not be afraid of hyd. Hang fish on your walls.

Sometimes you ride the bull, and sometimes a clown is your best friend.

Ya just never know,
GFS