My QCC600 came with the STRS....I received it early July. I still cannot seem to get the feel for the toe pilot. I like the solid foot brace. Thats ok, but I am looking at racing this boat in a 460 mile race... and already I cant handle the toe pilot when out paddling for an afternoon. My toes seem to hate 'reaching' to turn the rudder, and the pads are horribly rough. (I paddle barefoot or w/light fleece socks on). After a day out, my feet hurt.
Has anyone else come across the discomfort of the toe pilot?
What can I do to change this for better comfort I am wondering? Or will I have to give up the whole system for something different all together?
Surely Im not the only one with this problem?
Similar feeling with the QCC 600 I had. I really disliked the system, loved the boat but eventually returned it to QCC. My Seaward has a much better system for me. Maybe it depends on the length of toes, foot size etc. Just my own perceptions. Also hated the rudder retract position of straight up. An accident waiting to happen for a careless paddler like myself.
them.
there are two ways:
1. Loosen or tighten the small knurled knob by turning it.
2. If you take the cable up as far as you can by the knurled knob, you can adjust them from the stern, by removing the little cotter pin, removing the little wedge that holds the cable tight and then taking up on the cable.
I have done it both ways.
The knurled knob is hard to turn, so you might need pliars to do it.
JackL Is Right I had similar issues for the first year and a half that I had that rudder on my QCC700. Jack clued me in to the adjustement and it made all the differance for me.
Another vote You should not have to “reach” for the toe pilots. Getting the system tuned is a bit of a pain, especially if you have to adjust cables at the rudder via the wedgies, but once dialed in I find them very comfy.
pad the pieces For the roughness issue, you might try gluing on very thin minicell foam, or the thin neoprene with glue on one side. This, of course, might change all the adjustments you need to do with the toe distance.
Wondered about that… I’ve never used the smart track system, but saw it on another paddler’s QCC 700 on a trip a few weeks ago. I was really impressed by the boat…but had reservations about the way that the rudder parked in the up vertical position when not deployed.
Seems like something of a hazard during wet exits/reentries…and a windage factor as well.
toe pilots I was out paddling last weekend when I suddenly lost rudder control with my right control. Couldn’t do anything on the lake about it. It could have been worse. It would have been ugly to loose the rudder control during the 100 mile race this weekend instead.
Got home and took the spare(bought when there was talk about smart track being discontinued) rudder kit out and looked at how the cable attached to the toe pilot. Went out to the boat and removed the foot rail assy. so I could access the toe pilot. oh oh. New toe pilot has the rudder coming thru an enclosed slot. Old toe pilot has no enclosed slot. A few miles of paddling has completly worn away the side of the toe pilot and the cable will not stay in place without falling out of the slot.
Purchased the Q700 in 2005. Hundreds of miles of training since then. One 75 mile attempt at the 2005 Yukon River Quest. One 460 mile finish pin in the 2006 Yukon River Quest. One (the last one organized) Bogey and Bacall race. Several other races in Louisiana, Mississipi and Texas All of this with a wing paddle so there was almost constant use of the rudder for trimming the boat. Hard to believe that that little bit of paddling wore out the foot pedal?
So now, I am hoping the new pedals are adjusted correctly. I might be able to get out on the water for a half hour tomorrow to test them. The next time will be at the start of that local 100 mile race here in Texas.
Thank goodness it happened in a training paddle an not the race!
We have been training for a ninty miler in our C-2, and two weeks ago the rivit that holds the front seat cross tube tore out dumping my wife on the foor. I fixed that and inspected all the other rivits, then the other day when we got to the put-in for another training paddle my foot brace was hanging off. One of the bolts that holds it had lost it’s wing nut.
Needless to say both wing nuts now have lock washers.
Good luck in the race, and I hope all your hardware problems are over with.
Every set of those I have ever installed I would have the owner sit in the boat and I would pull the cables back for them to get a good idea how they would feel … 9 times ou of ten I would simply end up pulling the bananna pedal back all the way.
Also recommend pulling them out and running that barrel adjuster in and out its full range with some silicone to free up those fine threads they used … easier than trying to sit there all day turning a quarter turn with a tool that is damaging it every grab.