Kicker steering with Merc Verados

T H

T H

Member
Looking to get some opinions/options on steering kicker when you’re running a merc verado main with the power steering. Have read and been told about the rather quick draw on battery power when running the power steering without the main turned on which makes a tie bar questionable. Any verado owners able to share how they’ve dealt with this issue so I can get the best trolling setup without killing the batteries?
 
Think those pumps draw up to 8 or 10 amps. Think the ignition has to be on for the pump to work? Can't remember. If not that it has to be running.

I know mercury has their tiebar that is specific to mounting onto that configuration. Not alot of real options. It's nice to swing both engines. It makes the turn alot nicer when on auxiliary power. Honestly it's not that big of a deal. If your kicker is modern it will have 10 -15 amp charging circuit. It's not like your constantly on the wheel turning either. That pump draws power when it gets hydraulic pressure from the helm pump. Have 2 really good batteries and I'd say it's the easiest and best most cost effective route. You might go through batteries a tad bit more going that route but it's really just about how much money you wanna throw at it

All those independent kicker steering systems are complete garbage. There are other ways you could go about doing things with hydraulic, however be advised your going to spend 5 grand at least


Last but not least, the mercury tie bar would be a permanent mount and would only work if the engines are side by side. The one end on the kicker side would have to be swapped out with a seastar 6001 end. Which you would drop 800 bucks on that specific part because good luck buying just the end. Have to buy the tie bar and steal the end off it.
 
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Thanks for that. Yes it can run with the key just to on and the motor off. Otherwise it’s pretty heavy to steer without it but doable. I’m probably going to upgrade to larger batteries this year anyways so that should help.
 
That's the thing that is annoying about the mercury system. Sell it used and put in the sea star power steering setup. It only demands power when you are actively steering unlike the mercury unit that is always pulling amps. I know of a few people who have made this switch and were happy.
 
mikep said:
That's the thing that is annoying about the mercury system. Sell it used and put in the sea star power steering setup. It only demands power when you are actively steering unlike the mercury unit that is always pulling amps. I know of a few people who have made this switch and were happy.
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Not a bad call, Thought about that as well. I’ll have to look into what the value I can get out of selling the merc pump.
 
Merc pumps on the new style are almost 3 grand plus you have to buy the 300 dollar adapter hose bacause they changed the fitting to the new style hydraulic line, which is a really hard to make fitting that's onto a wierd flared stainless tube end. It's ******. Then the old style only works with the old style. Welcome to mercland. Parts are worth used half of new or a bit less since there no guarantee with those pumps. Seastar is 3 grand plus. Can't remember the price exactly. Ohh and you'll spend time and money on adapting mercland crap to seastar. That will soakup a day for sure
 
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I went through this already with my boat. I have a 300 verado and a 15kicker. Blew a pump shortly after owning it and had it replaced under warranty. The only way to keep the batteries charged was to run the main for a few hours everyday. You don’t have to run with the main key on system as they provide a splitter that fires the pump up when the ignition is on for the kicker. That ****** pump sucks to say the least. Now that I’m out of warranty, if it goes, I’ll be putting a new helm in and scraping the power steering system. My work around was installing a Lowrance auto pilot system that I steer the boat with whenever I’m fishing. Never ran the batteries down again.
 
I also went down the merc fittings rabbit hole when doing the autopilot and it was a huge pain in the butt. Lowrance wanted $500 for the verado fit kit and I ended up piecing it together for under $100 from my local fitting shop.
 
Fisher_dude said:
I also went down the merc fittings rabbit hole when doing the autopilot and it was a huge pain in the butt. Lowrance wanted $500 for the verado fit kit and I ended up piecing it together for under $100 from my local fitting shop.
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Yep. That fitting is what's in the loop for new style hydraulics. Pretty sad. The world just can't stick with things that work always have to change. I can't remember the name of it. My rep at greenline gave me the info a couple years ago. What was wrong with 45 degree flare? Or JIC. I can live with the seatar stupid fittings as they are at least universal with compression unions. Like I said, doable, just how much money and time you wanna throw at it. Welcome to mercland

If you think about it on an engineering level it's a complete waste of material. Instead of just a crimpable fitting that's 2 pieces now it's 3 pieces with orings. The machining involved wtf. All for what? Some steering system that's under 400 psi?
 
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noluck said:
i run my verado without the power steering with just a seastar helm, and seastar hoses. worked great. no pumps to suck power and blow up. then a simple custom built tiebar to the kicker that stayed on all the time
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How does it feel? is it stiffer than a normal seastar cylinder configuration?
 
noluck said:
i run my verado without the power steering with just a seastar helm, and seastar hoses. worked great. no pumps to suck power and blow up. then a simple custom built tiebar to the kicker that stayed on all the time
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This is what I do with my 300 and 15 kicker. It’s fine at low speeds but a little stiff when your cruising.
 
ship happens said:
You must mean 1.7. 1.4 is baystar
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