You are a rare person then. I have the slider system on my 26 year old Necky Arluk 1.9. However, with me in the boat I almost never need or use the rudder. The boat tends to turn broadside to the wind, so turning up or downwind is usually not a problem. Some years not at all unless with strong stern quartering winds. As most people use the foot pegs to push off on to increase the power and efficiency of their forward stroke, they prefer a pedal that doesn’t move and prefer a gas pedal type actuation for rudder movement. Of course boats with skegs have fixed foot pegs.
The only advantage of sliding foot pegs that I know of is that the cables are straight run with no bends and usually last forever.
I don’t know if anyone is still manufacturing boats with sliding foot pegs anymore, but there might be some. It’s cheaper.
Hey hey now, let’s be civil. I specifically worded my post to avoid this kind of bickering and opinion posting.
In reply to Willow, I’m glad you specified that your last reply wasn’t aimed at me (OP), as I did go out of my way to specify that I was looking for technical information/advice about a specific rudder system, and specifically did ask to not comment about why should not use a rudder - so my post here was certainly not for any kind of validation, as I tried to make it clear that I fully intend on installing a rudder on my Jackson Journey, whether it is the full Smart Track kit, or mostly Smart Track parts with a cheap-o rudder blade/assembly.
In reply the Mjac, I agree about preferring a fixed platform over sliding foot pegs. I’m not flexible on this, I do not want sliding foot pegs.
In reply to Rstevens, I understand your thinking here, but my boat is specifically outfitted for the Smart Track system, and already has Smart Track mounting and Smart Track foot pegs installed, so I’ll be sticking with the Smart Track system at least for the controls of the rudder. I don’t anticipate actually using the rudder enough to worry about wear and tear on the cables and cables are about $20 for a set of 16’ of cables if I did ever need to replace them, so I’m not so worried about it that I would go out of my way to remove the hardware that’s already installed to buy even more hardware.
After talking to an outfitter that deals in these, I learned I need the mid pin housing, blade, and mid pin gudgeon bracket totaling me about $155 before tax. OR, I could buy the mid pin gudgeon bracket and a set of cool rudder wedgies for a total of $32 and rig them up to pretty much any stern mounted aftermarket kayak rudder, typically $35-80
I have the toe controls, but I’m unfortunately missing the cable guides that attach at the end of the foot peg rails, but I could probably find something aftermarket that would work.