The 190TT I bought last October was used by a trick skier . . never used for slalom except of its first year as promo boat. The steering bias is light at 20mph but heavy at 34 . . . and the boat goes into a death spiral in 2 seconds if you lose grip on the wheel. (we don't do that much).
Anything I should know about decreasing the trim ? Any issues with the fasteners after 18 years ?
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Separate subject . . Safety. . after I posted this question I tested what actually happens if you let go of the ProStar 190 wheel at speed. The actual time for the boat to turn near full-lock-right is less than 2 seconds. I know some can make a joke about someone else talking about safety but this could be catastrophic. If driver loses all control, the front seat passengers would be pinned to the port side of the boat and not be able to help anytime soon. I wouldn't want to be the skier . . I had a friend whose child was killed by a boat she was driving . . . she was thrown out of a Boston Whaler with a 40hp engine when it hit a large wave. It turned by itself circling her several times before it hit her.
Are the current model ski boats the same ? I am into having all risks being calculated . . like teaching your kids its better to jump out the side of a boat at speed than jumping out the front. When our parents weren't around, we would jump out the side of our Ski Nautique at 40mph. We calculated to make sure our entry angle into the water wouldn't hurt much.
Then back to ProStar steering . . this seems to border on a risk that hasn't been well considered. I am not a big sissy . . I stopped racing cars last year so I could afford to buy a boat. It obvious no land vehicle designed to act like that would ever happen.
My boat is almost exclusively used in the course, the only time it's not pulling a skier is going to and from the course and boat launch. Thus I prefer a strong rudder load.
If my boat was an open water family ski boat I'd prefer it setup much different. I agree, the strong rudder load could be dangerous for newer or less focused drivers.
I think the amount of rudder torque you want is just enough for you to not need to constantly move the wheel from side to side and not enough that you feel tired from resisting the wheel for a few slalom sets. If you are constantly moving the wheel each way a lot to keep the boat straight, it is too neutral. If you get tired of holding the wheel and resisting that force or otherwise think it is substantial effort for you to do so, there is too much torque on the rudder.
I thought rudder torque was to keep the steering up against 1 side of the "free-play" in the steering components, so in effect there is no free play from the steering wheel to the rudder. The high torque on my boat is way beyond that.
But I have the impression from some comments that rudder torque serves some other function beyond killing the free-play in the steering components. Is that so ?
Should be able to back off the tab bolts and reposition the tab slightly toward the drivers/port direction to reduce the pull to port.
Do all the boats now turn the prop the same way ? Back in the day I had left and right screw boats switching from Correct Craft to Master Craft. From @MISkier 's description, a tournament driver would have to learn 2 ways to drive slalom if there were both Left and Right screw boats in use.