BUT - I find it incredibly annoying and painful to keep my hand behind my back to steer, especially when trolling. I may leave the speed set the same for an hour, yet am constantly adjusting the steering.
I came up with a crazy easy way to add remote steering to my motor and it works so well that I thought I would share here. If you decide to try this project and have questions, don't hesitate to ask.
There is a link to a video at the end that shows a bit more information.
Basic Design:
Raise engine - Cut a piece of hose (cut about 2 inches long and then slice it down one side so it is open) so it fits around the motor shaft, but with a small gap. This increases the diameter of the shaft to make steering easier.
Take a nice fat rope, about 8 feet long, wedge it into the gap in the hose and then put a pipe clamp around the hose and the rope so the rope comes out above and below the hose clamp. Rotate the hose around the motor shaft until the gap (and the rope) is at the FRONT of the motor. You want an equal amount of rope on each side of the clamp.
Tighten it up.
The motor can still be raised and lowered on the shaft and the tilt still works. This doesn't interfere with the motor stowage and you dont have to modify the motor in any way.
Next make a plywood handle, I just cut one using a jig saw and sanded it nicely. I used thick 3/4 inch plywood.
Drill THREE holes in the handle.
Middle-hole is for the pivot-point. I used a 1/4 inch knob handle which you can get at many hardware stores. It has about a 1 inch long shank.
At equal distances from the pivot point, mount two strong eyelets into the edge of the plywood. It is important that they are equal distance from the pivot so when the handle is moved forwards and back the ropes stay at the same tension.
Since the motor shaft is about 5 cm in circumfrence, you want the eyelets on the handle to be around 7cm apart (too far apart and it will take too much force to spin the motor, too close together and you will find that the motor doesn't spin around enough when moving the handle). I set mine up so that the motor pivots a full 360 degrees (so you can reverse the boat by just pushing the handle forward.
On the face of the handle put two screws with large fender washers. These will be clamped around the ropes (later).
Cut a small piece of plywood that will go on the outside of the canoe to mount the handle to. In my case the Coleman canoe has four bolts that hold the seat in place, so I cut the plywood so that it would re-use those mounting holes.
Drill a hole in the plywood at a location to comfortably mount the handle. I found that right in the middle of the seat is best, it is out of the way when fishing, but easy to access for steering the boat.
Use a 1/4 inch T-Nut on the inside of the plywood. I used a spade-bit to slightly countersink the nut. You can buy high quality ones at Lee Valley, or lower quality "3-arm" T-Nuts at most other hardware stores.
Mount the handle to the canoe by putting a fender washer on your 1/4 inch knob, passing it through the handle and threading it into the T-Nut. Depending on the thicknesses of the plywood used, you may need to counter-sink the knob and/or the T-Nut in order to get good thread engagement. You want all of the threads engaged as this creates friction needed to keep the knob from losening up when you move the steering handle.
With the motor pointing "straight forward", lowered to normal driving depth BUT tilted ONE NOTCH higher than normal, tighten the steering friction nut on the motor so it doesn't turn.
Put the plywood steering handle in the middle position (straight up) and also tighten the knob so it doesn't move either.
Take the ropes that are attached to the motor. Pass one rope counterclockwise around the motor shaft, it is really only going about 1/2 turn.
Pass the other rope clockwise (ie. the other way) around the motor shaft.
You don't want to pass the rope multiple times around the motor shaft or the coils of rope will move down the shaft (due to gravity) as you steer back and forth, gradually becoming sloppy).
Take the first rope, pass it through the top eyelet in the steering handle, you pass it from the canoe side of the eyelet out, then pull the line just barely tight and wrap it around the screw/washer, then tighten the screw to hold the rope in place.
Repeat with the second rope through the bottom eyelet.
Both ropes shouldn't have any slack, but they shouldn't be tight.
NOW - Tilt the motor down one notch into your normal driving position. You will find that this puts a little extra tension on the ropes. If you can't tilt it down, then you might need to loosen the ropes. If you tilt the motor down and the ropes seem floppy, then tilt it back up and re-tighten the ropes.
Loosen the steering knob on the handle and also loosen the friction on the motor itself. The motor should now steer freely.
If you take the steering handle, move it forward and back the motor should easily turn back and forth and even swivel completely backwards if you want. Move the handle back and forth several times then re-check the ropes to make sure they still have good tension. You want enough tension that the motor position isn't sloppy.
When it is time to take the motor off the boat it's very easy! Just unscrew the knob from the steering handle, remove the handle (then thread the knob back into the T-Nut for safe keeping. The handle itself and the ropes can stay attached to the motor. You shouldn't have to adjust the tension again! It only takes me an extra 30 seconds to mount or unmount the motor with the steering in place.
I tested this today and it worked really well so something so incredibly simple!
Movie
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/653 ... esteer.mov
