Trolling motor tracking issues on widebody?

[Cajones13]

G'day, a mate has fitted a 55lb Haswing Cayman trolling motor to his Quintrex 400 widebody with a bow mount. Fitted with the shaft dead centre of the bow, but boat refuses to track straight. The motor is not veering or doing anything untoward, but boat veers to one side or the other, then it takes a large adjustment before there is any effect, but this then becomes an overcorrection.  The result of this is constant zig zagging and an inability to both fish and steer at the same time, it's one or the other as while you flick out a cast, the boat will start heading for the bank.  Everything else on the boat is spot on, but this has us tearing our hair out.  It appears to me that the quite sharp centre keel at the bow is being acted on by the thrust from the prop - Point the motor left to go left and the prop thrust pushes the bow to the right, and vice versa. Has anybody encountered this before?  Prop depth looks fine, but thinking may need to drop it way down so the prop wash passes below the keel? Any ideas or experience out there with bow mount trolling motors on widebody punts? 

[Angry51]

Is your outboard out or still in the water, this will have an effect on your electric.

As you suggest about the prop height it could have some effect.

I've never seen one mounted dead centre, they have all been offset.

Dunno, some one with some more imfo will come along shortly.

[Cajones13]

Tks Angry51. We were thinking it was the dead centre mount somehow causing the issue splitting the water stream, so shifted it to a couple of inches offset, but no improvement.

I can't remember if we tried with the outboard down or not, but on a still day it appeared any stern swinging was the result of following the bow, rather than the cause.

[Junky]

Keep your outboard down with the steering straight. 

 

[rayke1938]

Could just be a matter of bow heavy my clark abalone is a pig on auto pilot when i have 2 people in the bow and only one in the stern The bow seems to dig in and the auto pilot over compensates. Try shifting weight to the stern or even a few buckets of water in the stern and see if that helps. Other thought could be the sensor compass magnet in the motor head. Have a yarn to haswing they can be a little hard to get on to if they are out and about but will return your call and are very helpfull.

Edited November 3, 2022 by rayke1938

[Cajones13]

Tks fellas, planning on taking her out again next week to try out a few things to see if we can get it sorted. Have been lifting the outboard to reduce drag so will try using it as a skeg. Havent really tried the autopilot yet but spotlock works brilliantly so suspect compass and gps are OK. Heavy bow is interesting too. Will post our solution (if we find one).

[Junky]

11 hours ago, Cajones13 said:

Tks fellas, planning on taking her out again next week to try out a few things to see if we can get it sorted. Have been lifting the outboard to reduce drag so will try using it as a skeg. Havent really tried the autopilot yet but spotlock works brilliantly so suspect compass and gps are OK. Heavy bow is interesting too. Will post our solution (if we find one).

Having that outboard motor down will be like night and day in handling. 

It can be trimmed up to shallow water drive but no further. Must be in water, like you say, to be used as a skeg. 

[WildeFishing]

On 03/11/2022 at 11:21 AM, rayke1938 said:

Other thought could be the sensor compass magnet in the motor head

This. To me it sounds like you have a heading sensor issue. I dont know much about this brand but to me it sounds like a heading issue. Minn Kota do not have the heading sensor in the head, it is a separate unit but this brand may. I would try to recalibrate it and if no joy may need to contact the OEM. Normally the boat should just follow the lead of the electric........

[Hweebe]

Agree with @Junky outboard engine trimmed down - like he says night and day to tracking.

I don't think it is a heading sensor issue.  On the minn kota (i know not the same as yours) "The Heading Sensor enables the Jog feature and is not required for any other function of i-Pilot or i-Pilot Link"

I'm with @rayke1938 check your weight distribution this is the most likely cause. Does the issue get worse if you have more weight / people moving around at the bow?

 

 

[Cajones13]

CoVid's kept us off the water for the last week or so, but hopefully good to go shortly and try a few of your suggestions. Don't think it is an issue with the compass or gps as it hasn't been the motor turning of its own accord unexpectedly, more a case of the boat having trouble following the motor's lead consistently. Will try using the autopilot and navigation functions on the Helmsman app via bluetooth; Engine up, engine down, stern heavy and also play with the prop depth. Should hopefully get it sorted.

[Cajones13]

All sorted!

Thanks everyone for the tips. Outboard down (with its brand new Permatrim Foil) sorted out the zig zagging when steering manually and the GPS performed flawlessly in Spot Anchor, Autopilot, recording and replaying tracks. Only downside to the Haswing thus far is the limited functions available on the remote, requiring use of the Helmsman App on the phone, however the app has much better functionality than Minn Kota's version.

[ellicat]

Been catching much lately ?