Took my TI out for the first time yesterday and found the steering was impossible. Extremely stiff and I couldn't get full range. Worked on it some there on the boat ramp, talked with my dealer, and he called Hobie. I sent some videos to him but went on out, having gotten things sorta-working.
Initially, the problems were:
- VERY stiff steering
- Could turn right okay (but had to apply considerable pressure to keep it there), but turning left the rudder wouldn't even go halfway. The rear steer knob was much worse than the front. I couldn't sail from the rear seat at all.
In troubleshooting, I loosened the screws on the rudder and centered it on the range of motion the handle had as-is. That let me go sailing but with limited steering.
While on the water a Hobie rep called me (sorry, don't remember his name!) and we discussed the issue. He gave me the info needed to fix the problem this morning.
First, the stiff steering was probably just tight lines. He said they've been shipping with overly tight lines for some reason. That got fixed inadvertently while I was adjusting the rudder.
But the limited range of motion was a range-limiter they put on the rear steer handle. There is a third piece of Spectra from the steer handle to the right side of the rear seat. It is supposed to keep you from turning the rear handle too far to the left.
In my case the line was too short - 23" end-to-end (including loops) - so I could only get about half the range I should. When I removed it I was able to steer fully, however it's then possible to push too far left, as the arm goes past straight-ahead. I don't know if that's a problem, the Hobie rep said it would be fine to remove it, but I figured I had enough line to lengthen it.
Untying Spectra knots is a bugger!
But I got the loop that goes around the right end of the seat untied and made the line as long as possible - got about 24.5". This was much better, but still a little shy of full-left. There were two knots tied in the middle of the line, I presume just to shorten it, so I removed one of those and got just a bit over 25" long and the steering is perfect! Feels like it goes just a hair past "full left" if I push hard but it doesn't start turning back the other way like it will without the line at all.
A couple of pictures, excuse the lousy webcam quality!
This is the tie point on the right side of the seat:
And this is the steer handle. Hobie has the crossover line on top (first connected) so I had to remove the other two lines first. I've left this on bottom now in case I need to work on it more. The droopy line is the limiter.
Another note, you see the line crosses the black line very close to the turning block, the Hobie rep mentioned that's another potential issue, the line can hang up on the block or knots causing difficulty turning RIGHT. It operates just fine for me, if I do have issues I'll try sleeving things with tubing or something. There is some snagging when pulling / releasing the rudder UP handle but nothing really hangs.
Perhaps that'll help someone else...!
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