Wondering boat

[AZ Steve]

I've got a 98 Maxum i/o the boat likes to wonder in no wake, and is a pain to load straight on the trailer. Any suggestions? Stabilizer tabs?

[mmwjr]

AZ welcome aboard.

What boat model do you have?
What engine/drive package do you have?

Cruisers tend to wander at slow speeds due to cross winds. Loose/warn steering components also can cause this, can you feel any play when trying to move the drive side to side?

[biggerseagar]

Try this AZ...............once you get your boat back up on its trailer go around to the outdrive and in the down position grab the drive and try to move it side to side to see if it has much lateral movement. If it does you got some worn out parts to be replaced. Without looking at a manual here get with your local merc mechanic and see why it has so much movement.

Now if it the outdrive doesn't have any movement as Mike said this can be very common at slow speeds for any boat. You might look into a cavitation wing of some sort.

Good luck to you and welcome !!

Roger

[Phillbo]

need more info on the boat and outdrive.

All boats wonder at low speeds but not to the point of making them difficult to trailer.

[shrew]

Agreed, all boats wander at slow speeds. It's a matter of physics. They don't wander loading on a trailer, unless you're lining up several hundred feet out. This sounds more like a simply oversteering issue. A boat won't react like a car. In a car, once you're pointed in the direction you want to go you straighten out the wheel. In a boat, when you do this the boat keeps turning well past your target point. Consider a boats slow reaction time. When you turn the wheel, the boat doesn't immediately start turning. Once it starts turning it doesn't immediately stop either. At slow speeds I try to think of it this way. If I want ot go to Stbd, I turn to stbd. Once the boat STARTS turning to Stbd, I straighten out. The boat ends up going well past where I straightend out and ends up where I wanted to go.

Also consider this phenomenon. When you steer a boat at slow speeds, you're not turning the bow, you're really turning the stern.