So my WS Ride 135 is rudder ready, with the tubing and what not already installed. I want to add a rudder, but I think $200 is way to much so I am looking at doing it myself. Figuring out the mounting bracket, cables, and making the rudder itself should be pretty easy. I am pretty sure I will have to buy the sliding feet rests for the controls. The main thing I do not understand is how the deploy / undeploy lines work. I cant see how they are mounted and it is not explained in the videos I have watched. Any other ideas greatly appreciated as well.

It's worth spending the money and it is easy to install. Saves time and head aches.

Well i know that. However i enjoy redneck engineering. I just need a new project, im short on cash, and want to try out a rudder. I might buy the real thing in the future if it doesnt work out how i plan lol.

There, I fixed it for you. Lol

I understand. I've seen some on here but YouTube might be the best place.

I found some good videos on you tube. Im pretty sure i can do better than they did. I work on oil rig equipment, so i have access to plenty of hardware and tools to make it easier. The most conplicated part is the deploy and undeploy setup. I am planning to make it out of 1/8" plexiglass. I have it planned out but im sure it will change along the way. Will prolly take a couple days to get done because i will have to plan it out with my kayak at home and do a lot of the work at my work. I will be sure to post pics once it is done.

It is not that hard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smooa3s94jY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZt-0RRBtho


I did mine a little bit different. I have a center pulley, and since I have have a Mirage drive, I steer with my left hand and raise and lower with the right. Couple of other things I did you may want to consider copying. Mine has a balsa core. Balsa comes in nice thin sheets and shapes nicely. You can laminate it with epoxy and several different fabrics. Fiberglass works fine but Kevlar or Graphite look nicer.
My rudder has a rather large cord but doesn't stick down in the water very far (low aspect ratio). I can turn 180� inside of 20 feet.



Link to page 2 of my build. Scroll down for rudder parts.

http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=181309&start=25

Suggest all stainless hardware, it will save headaches later.

Well plexiglass is way to expensive lol. Guess im going with wood. Spent $8 and have most of what i need to buy lol. Gonna get the rest from work hopefully.

I cant do fiberglass. So im just going to use pine. Going to paint it or lacquer it. Not sure which is better.

Well the rudder is made, still need to drill holes but whatever. I made it 24" long out of a 1x4. I wanted the front edge to be somewhat sharp to reduce water resistance. I only have a chop saw, power sander, and hand tools at the house though. I tried sharpening the edge with the sander for about a half hour with very little to show for it. So i went back to a skill i have not used in a long time, whittling. I pulled out my knife and hacked away at it. I got it pretty close to how i wanted it and used a file it take down the knots in the wood. Then i hit it with the sander again to clean it up. Not a bad edge for whittling. I did make a few bad spots when the knife slipped though. But i am happy with it. Here is what it looks like so far.

Looking good

Here's a shot of my rudder. You can just barely see the 2 black cords coming out of the tip of the stern. Pull on one and it deploys the rudder. Pull on the other and it flips the rudder up out of the water. The end of the two cords are tied together to form a loop, and held taut with a short length of bungee in the cockpit.

Im not sure it will be as easy on mine due to the extra weight of the rudder being made of wood. But hopefuuly it is. If only i can figure out How im going to make dliding foot rests. Appearently they dont sell them individually, can only get them in the kit. I was thinking about removing the locking clip from the current foot rests, but then they would not be removable. The other idea i had was using dresser drawer or tool box shelf roller tracks. Just not sure how they would hold up and would also make the rsils stick out further.

Not good idea to use non stainless hardware. You might consider using arrow shafts as your sliders. That is what I use for my controls. Got a couple of old ones from an archery friend.

If I go that route I will use wooden dowel rods as I do not have a source for free arrow shafts. How did you attach the shafts to the rudder but still allow them to rotate?

Not sure we are on the same page here but I use 80# superbraid to connect my hand control sliders to the rudder. I run the superbraid through 1/8" OD nylon tubing available at the hobby store for a buck for 3 feet. Not sure what the ID is. But 80# superbraid will feed through it as long as there are no joints. If it has to go through a joint I use 10 mono first and then pull the superbraid through. This 80# superbraid has lasted me for 2 years now on my kayak HYBRID.
The rudder is attached to the rudder clevis with a stainless 1/4 bolt so that it can rotate up and down. The rudder clevis rotates on a hinge pin made from a 1/4" diameter piece of titanium rod left over from the Real Big Reel project.
A rudder made of just about anything but metal will float and of course there is some pressure from the water backwards to lift it as well. So the rudder must be locked to the down position. But you want the down lock spring loaded or if you hit something, something will break. I use a bungee link in the down lock. And if my rudder is struck straight up from the bottom it will slide up on the clevis hinge pin against the rudder hold down spring.
This video was made before I put handles on the sliders so operation is not real smooth.

http://v6.tinypic.com/player.swf?file=2432beg&s=6

Note my rudder only rotates 180� not 270� like most. On my current build I doubled the width of the turn arms from what is on the kayak HYBRID because sometimes it takes some effort to turn in the wind. And the up down pulley is larger as well. Since your rudder is heavier you may want to enlarge your up/down pulley.