Tiller - something missing?

pez

Member
k... My tiller has play left to right, but also top to bottom...

Is the old wooden tiller supposed to only be a single piece of wood going into the rudder head, or is there also supposed to be a wedge that secures it top to bottom?

Trying to look at tillers for sale and see how this is accomplished, but the pictures are so small...

How are y'all's tillers secured top to bottom in the rudder head?
 
All one piece. The tiller should have an angle cut (I think it's on the top) that allows it to be wedged into the rudder head when you keep pushing it back into the rudder head to get rid of the up/dn play. The side to side play can be taken out by squeezing the rudder head (the stainless part) in a vise, adding width to the tiller so it's a tighter fit, or by thru bolting the tiller in the rudder head (yes, you no longer can easily remove the tiller from the rudder if you do this)
 
This must be an early 70's laser issue... my tiller is a straight piece of mahogany, roughly 1" by 1.5".... I will engineer something... maybe I'm a cheapskate, but buying $150 tiller for my cottage beater is not my best idea of a needed upgrade...
 
Hello Pez,
If your fairly handy with tools and wood working, it's fairly simple to make a wedge, I bought and finished a wooden tiller, I cut a small wedge of teak and used a small stainless pan head wood screw to secure it to the square tiller along with some epoxy. Sanded it and used linseed oil to add a good finish to it.
Now I need to find some good wooden blades to re-finish...
Regards,
Fishingmickey
150087/181157
 
LOL... that's the plan before this weekend's sailing... build a wedge...

Was also going to refinish the wooden blades, but didnt think they would be done before this weekend, so decided to wait until the season is over.
 
Hi There,

I had lots of play in my 1980 wooden tiller as well. 15 years ago, I made a new tiller using a 1" piece of aluminum tube from the hardware store (about $5), and the $10 plastic rudder head wedge that you can buy from Laser. That coupled with a fiberglass (old school!) RWO 48" extension and it is almost as light as a $100+ carbon. The extension weighs more than the tiller and I've had no stiffness problems. I recently moved my tiller cleat behind the traveler and that has been a nice change too, I used to wear thru the gelcoat in the deck all the time with the rudder downhaul line.
I probably carry more water weight in my boots than I would have saved with carbon steering parts.
 

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