# Foot Controlled TM



## pbw (Nov 11, 2007)

I took the boat out today for a test run and boy do I suck at steering with the foot controlled tm. Any tips?


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## Captain Ahab (Nov 11, 2007)

You need lots of practice, oh yeah, you can fish while you practice so keep doing it.

It is tricky at first but it will come to you.


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## Waterwings (Nov 11, 2007)

I surely had my problems the first time I used the foot-control tm. Just took some getting used to. I'm still not coordinated enough to stand up and use it though :roll: . It seems to put me off-balance when standing. I'm much better at it sitting down. If there's room to do so, without hitting the trailer frame/tongue, lower the tm while it's on the trailer, and practice steering doing a "dry-run". Make sure there's enough room for the lower part of tm to turn freely so that you don't cause any damage to the steering cables from the foot pedal to the tm. If that doesn't work, it'll just take minimum time on the water until you're used to it. For some reason I seem to be able to drive my boat better using the front foot-control tm (as long as I'm sitting down), than I can using the rear tiller tm. ](*,)


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## pbw (Nov 11, 2007)

ah cool.


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## dampeoples (Nov 11, 2007)

Think of it like turn signals, up to the right, down to the left. If you have a Motorguide, the process will be a whole lot easier as well, as the switch is generally on the right, which is more of a natural position for a right handed/footed person. The biggest advice I can offer is to start out slow, really slow, and fish with the motor on ALL the time the next few times out, so that you are barely moving, and focus on fishing, and keep that boat straight, running up the bank. As you go along your day, every hour or so, turn the power up a little higher, as you get used to the way it handles. Just remember to not do too hard of a turn at high speed  Also, try to make sure the power is set fairly low before starting. Most new motors come with a ramp up feature, so it takes a few seconds to get to full power, to prevent slinging you out of the boat!

There really are no tricks, just takes practice.


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## little anth (Nov 12, 2007)

its kinda hard to get used to but after mabee 5 times i do ok with it.


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## pbw (Nov 19, 2007)

Getting better 8 hours on Sunday helped.


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