Kayak Rudder, Fishing Watercraft Canoe Boat Rudder (Nylon Glass Fiber) Replacement Parts Foot Control Steering System Kayak Accessories with Control Line Kit

Purched this to add to my 10 ft recreational kayak to help it track straight and it worked perfectly. Before instally the kayak would not stay straight, now when I stop paddling it continues on a straight path. I had to modify the mounting bracket to fit my kayak but it fits great.

As others have said, there are no instructions that come with this rudder kit. You could say that makes it something less of a kit, but if you've used a rudder on a kayak before, the installation isn't that hard to figure out. I have an old Dagger Tupelo canoe, which is a sit on the bottom boat that paddles like a kayak but doesn't track as well as my kayak. I did not set it up with the foot pedals for steering, so it functions like a skeg that can be raised and lowered from the stern. After planning the placement and measuring, I drilled three holes in the fiberglass stern cover and riveted two embedded nuts below the surface. I drilled new holes in the mounting plates as the ones that were pre-drilled were useless. If the manufacturer reads this review, think about drilling a couple more mounting holes closer to the large pin in the center. Anyway, the biggest problem I had with the whole process was finding a couple short #10 x 24 bolts in my collection of old hardware. I would have saved time driving to the hardware store and buying bolts. Whatever, I don't really blame the manufacturer as there are many ways these things could be mounted, using far too many combinations of hardware pieces. It's seems less like a kit when the mounting hardware isn't included, but why would I want to pay for shipping a bunch of pieces I would never use? Using an unused pulley in a rafter I clipped it to a pad eye then tied the kit line, forming a loop from the pulley in the cockpit to the rudder in the sterm. The rudder has several line-sized holes around the pivot that the line goes through and by routing one side of the line over the top of the pivot and the other under the bottom of the pivot the rudder can be raised and lowered easily by pulling on one side of the loop or the other. The rudder mechanism moves easily through it's full range. Note: the line doesn't need to be tensioned much, so there is no need to overthink mechanisms like cams for keeping the line taut. I have not had it out on the water yet to see how it works, but I'm confident that the installation will be good enough for my next paddle.

It works perfectly along with the foot pedal controls I installed for steering. If you have a kayak designed for rudders this probably would be a simple install but for anyone, including myself, that doesn’t have a kayak designed for it it will definitely take some work depending on how functional you want it to be. It’s pretty straight forward what you have to do but I had to design a mount, run cables through the hull, run pull line across the deck. Definitely doable for anyone who has done some kayak modding before!

This is an incredible price for a kayak rudder, wouldn't have imagine it possible 10yrs ago. I installed it on a 9' kayak as short kayaks will always have problem tracking straight without further help. I got creative and was able to install it with what tools and bits I had laying around the garage, in the end I only used it as a skeg without foot controls which was perfect and my short kayak goes straight as an arrow now (with the loss of some speed of course as rudder sacrifice).

Pin is the right diameter but too short to fit a Bonafide ss127

I replaced my old rudder with this and it's just perfect for me.

This replaced a broken rudder on one of my kayaks. The included bracket needed a little mod to retrofit, but finally works. Haven’t used it in the water yet, but all functions are working.

The media could not be loaded.  I’m using this as a skeg/fixed rudder and it’s been a great improvement for my 10 ft. Pelican kayak. Really improved tracking. Installation was fairly simple and just required drilling a few holes. I was trying to go for a stock lock and think it came out nicely. Toughest part was figuring out how to route the cord through the rudder but YouTube came to the rescue. Money we’ll spend and I’d highly recommend it.

As many have stated, no really useful instructions but if your handy, you'll figure it out. Had to build a mount for my plastic pelican kayak as it's not really made to sit in the tow rope hole (or whatever fancy name those holes have).