Anybody ever tried to use their outboard as a rudder?

I picked up a an old Power Drive third hand a few months ago and got it real cheap on account a it only turns one way. I bought it thinking it was just a bad pedal and I wanted to upgrade it with a co-pilot anyway so no big deal. Well my budget has been real tight and now I got another baby on the way and I just dont see how Im gonna sneak the 150 past the wife to buy the co-pilot. All I want to use it for is pullin cranks, it came with a quick release mounting plate so the plan was to have someone fab up a mount for the other side of my bow opposite of where my cable steer tm is mounted (my deck is a few inches lower than my gunnel and the gunnel is not wide enough to mount the tm directly to it), leave the cable steer on permanent and just slap the pd on when im gonna pull cranks. I figure that is gonna cost me some money getting a mount fabbed up making it even harder to spend money on the co-pilot.

So I been wonderin how effectively one could steer the boat using the outboard at a rudder. Im not gonna be making any tight turns pullin cranks anyway, so Im thinkin maybe just point the tm straight and steer with the outboard. Will it work or am i just going to give myself a big ole headache?

try it with the cable steer first

I did it back in the summer pulling cranks. Here is a link to pictures. http://www.crappie.com/crappie/fishi...uto-pilot.html

Hey BigKyd, I've got a Powerdrive V2 with the co-pilot and I just got the iPilot for Christmas. I've got to remove the co-pilot to install the iPilot so if you're interested in the co-pilot, shoot me a PM. I have used my outboard as a rudder when I'm pulling cranks with a side wind. The wind makes the boat fishtail so I reach back and correct it with my outboard steering wheel.

I used my big motor as a rudder while my i-pilot was on backorder. Worked just fine.

Sounds like every thing is good.

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Originally Posted by willsjwills

try it with the cable steer first

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The cable steer has a tendency to steer itself as soon as I take my foot off the pedal, and I would not be able to adjust speed without running to the front of the boat. Also it has 5 set speeds. The cord for the pd pedal is long enough to where I can place it pretty much anywhere on the boat and at least be able to adjust the speed and it is variable speed so I would not be confined to the 5 pre-sets. Ive tried pushing cranks off the front with the cable steer but I dont like constantly having to stay on the pedal to control the boat and again, my cable steer limits me to 5 pre-set speeds.

Thanks for the replies guys, I think I'm gonna give ob rudder a try before I go out and buy a co-pilot and get in hot water with the boss.