Hydraulic Steering?

[rb85]

Anyone upgraded their outboard from cable to hydraulic?
How hard is it to do?

[repspec]

its not that hard if you know what you are doing...

fairly involved, motor might have to come off, choosing the right ram/set up to suit the engine well is a big deal. Get flexible hoses, dont get ridgid nylon hoses, they are crap.

full set up would be anywhere up to $1500 plus fitting...

[smile0784]

I got quoted 1200 for the trailcraft

[blacklab99]

RB, Hi,
Depending on your out board and set up, shouldn't be to hard for a bloke like you.
There's a guy that was selling brand new old stock sea star hydraulic units( around $500) i saw recently somewhere, I'll try and find him.
Will be a great upgrade from cable, you'll luv it.
What sort of motor have you got ?.
Like everything, a bit of mounting, few holes, routing of hoses etc, but nothing out of the ordinary, justanother typical installation on a boat.
I removed mine and will now have to re install at some stage, no problem I'm sure......

Col

[Kimtown]

Worth doing rb

I'll never own another boat without hydraulic steering and electric winch.... and I'm young and fit.

[rb85]

Cheers for the replies it’s going to get done just weighing up whether I have the time to complete myself of if it’s more a specialist task with specific tools required.

Will check ou YouTube for tutorials etc.

Col I have a 115 etec

[frozenpod]

Not hard to do, takes about 1 day.

Whilst doing the job rerun the lines and cables to the outboard ie higher and further away from water and plug up the previous hole where the cables went through.

Hydro drive is great Seastar is cheap. Get the hydro drive system if you can afford it or stick with cable.

[blacklab99]

RB, Sorry, Couldn't find where I'd seen the new old stock that was being advertised.
The Bluestar/Seastar versions, are budget hydraulic systems, but I had that on mine for near 30 year and it was running perfectly, no comparison to cable. Most out their are those models, they have really improved over the journey and will be fine for runabouts like ours.
The reason I asked what motor you had, I believe the Bluestar/Seastar don't fit etec's, I may stand corrected there but.
I will be swapping out my old unit, I mean it's near 30 year old, didn't have an issue with it at all, still performed, didn't leak.
There's a south Australian manufacturer, Hydrive who have been manufacturing for decades who from feedback I've had has been good. They make budget models and higher end products. Just looked them up and Whitworths actually stock them !
Any up grade to any Hydraulic system will be a definite improvement RB,
As Kimtown said, that and an electric winch, best upgrades you can have,
Well, Them and the new Simrad evo 3's, 3D transducers, Then there's the electric down riggers, then LED lighting, the damn list goes on and on !.

Col

[rb85]

Cheers Frozenpod and Col.
I’ll be making sure they are compatible to my motor 1st got the winch upgrading the led lighting.

[rb85]

Looking at the Hydrodrive as a few have recommended as said the correct ram setup seems like the critical part. They look pretty easy to install.

Hydrive look good too,