Gear reducer. Steering system. BOAT
Hello all! New to the page here and in hopes of getting some help/ ideas of a project of mine!
Last weekend while out on my small 1974 flat bottom aluminum 14’ boat with the family, my arm became really tired steering my old tiller handle 1969 25hp Johnson. Thing runs like a top and is well greased.. anyways, I have decided to install a steering system on her. As you can imagine on a 14’ boat room is a valued commodity. Instead of a steering wheel/ helm I want to install a “stick steer” system. The first commercial stick steer has been around since the 70’s but for some reason only 1 company offers a system today, with no used systems on the market (new is $500). The easy glide system basically starts with an 18” lever with almost 120 degrees of travel driving a small gear box, with operates a push/ pull cable system going to a hard telescoping tube at the end, under the outboard, which is attached to a steering arm to the center of the outboard. Giving you probably about 120 degrees of turn. Normal wheel/ helm mechanical single cable steering systems are based around this except the wheel operates a small gear box wrapping the cable around a drum. Usually 3 rotations lock to lock.
Well, I’m a cheap ass and think I can make my own stick steering system with a basic lever driving a 10:1 (maybe higher) gearbox driving either a cable drum or helm system (which ever is cheaper) to a traditional used and cheap push pull cable system to offer me my turn without a hurt back at the end of the day.
Sounds like my gear reducer will actually be a gear speeder. I’d want the 120 degrees of my basic lever driving the gears/ drum set up to push or pull about 18” of cable I think.....
Is this possible? Am I stupid?
Ps I know about the real old school push pull system of pulleys and rope. That also takes up lots of room. Thank you for any info on my dumb quest!!!