Volga Hydrofoils Messageboard

Posted: **Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:09 pm**

Hi,

Most Volgas use classic conventional mechanical control, which means:
- Gas-pedal like in an automobile...
- Gearshifting (or engaging) from the handle (either from left or the middle).

But there is another way as well: Steering wheel operated throttle and shift control.

This version frees you from the Gas-pedal (Who wants to press for hours? An who wants to match
engine speed with gearshifting?)

Now how does it work? Most of us are lovers of the classic 50 - 70ties US cars and for this we should
adore the typical ''American-Way of life AUTOMATIC propulsion control''.

The cars are splashy, the dashboard is spacy and everything is electric'n'easy!
With electronic or electromechanic control we turn our boat into an Automatic-Cruiser with hand propulsion
control and skip the pedals and the shiftgear handle.

The controls not only enable the most unprofessionals to control 'n' gear, but also eliminate the presence of
shifters and gas-pedals and grant you spacesaving steering wheel control like on a 1960 Chevy.

: Steering, throttle & shift control on one single console only; Steering-Wheel.JPG (31.05 KiB) Viewed 55376 times

Posted: **Thu May 06, 2010 9:03 pm**

Hi,

Here are some updates on the last version of the steering wheel. It became somewhat more baroque...
Leather lower part, plexiglass horn doom with Volga logo type flashy CCCP.

Posted: **Thu May 06, 2010 10:42 pm**

Close-Up on Horn badge

Posted: **Sat Nov 27, 2010 12:13 am**

The sectional drawing was something I forgot to add here... Here we go...

: We are still struggling on this ...; Sectional drawing of steering wheel.JPG (35.68 KiB) Viewed 54990 times

: The machined steering wheel, rest is still waiting for finishing.

Posted: **Thu Dec 09, 2010 8:46 pm**

Some more photos for updating the progress ...

: There is still some packing material on it for protection.

: it will be removed, once we attach the leather.

: b

: a

Posted: **Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:48 pm**

: Lever moving 90 degrees; Lever Movement.JPG (16.52 KiB) Viewed 54919 times

90 degrees is steped-up to 160 degrees to move a potientiometer of a ready control head lever (Mathers)
The movement is being transfered via toothed belt drive box.

: Trigger belt enables the transmission; Revised mechanics.JPG (27.88 KiB) Viewed 54865 times

The box is out of aluminum and consist of 3 plates, bolts and nuts.

: Here is the production drawing.

Posted: **Thu Jan 06, 2011 11:58 pm**

The mechanic transmission of the lever is being shown.

: What is beige is the mechanism of the potentiometer.; ControlLeverMoverment&Mechanism.JPG (39.36 KiB) Viewed 54908 times

: Sectional drawing of the step-up box.; ControlLeverMechanism.JPG (35.79 KiB) Viewed 54908 times

: beige became our favourite...; last version of of da wheel.JPG (18.85 KiB) Viewed 54865 times

Posted: **Tue Mar 01, 2011 9:42 pm**

Done ...

: Control transmission box

We were fearing that it will touch the shaft, but it was thouching the housing of the aluminium cast steering housing. So there were 5 mm to 8 mm too much we had to the jigsaw to cut it away. A cover was glued on the opening.