hey fellers, i just bought a used stratos 273 boat from 1998. it must have not been used much and garage kept all of it's life. it actually looks about 1 year old. i'm going to give you a boat load of info for tight to no steering over 50 mph. i did put a new garmin depth finder on the bow and on the console. gps on the console. put a keel guard on it. replaced the anchor (white) light in the back. had the engine checked out and serviced by a good evinrude mechanic. it's a 150 intruder with carbs. the power plant is healthy. put 2 new tires on the trailer. old ones were dry rotted. most or all of the electrical works. bilge pumps aerator live well valve and all the gauges. i read a post about how to set up the prop to the pad. did that. had the boat most of this summer and finally got an opportunity to take it out. took my best and longest friend with me. he's about 2 cheeseburgers away from 300 lbs. i'm 220. and all of my gear. the boat has a renegade 4 blade prop. it's 13 1/2 by 23 pitch. it has a 6 inch jack pad by HI JACKER. boat came out of the hole very quickly. climbed on a straight line to 61 mph per my garmin gps. 28 water pressure. 6200 rpm. the stern started to light chime walk. i could correct that with a light twitch of the steering wheel to the right. but when it required a light twitch to the left. it was impossible to move. the steering acted like it was stuck. let off on the hot foot slowly. at 50 mph i could turn the boat to the right easily. but turning the boat to the left was very difficult and took alot of force. below 30 mph you can turn the boat both ways with normal effort. i'm not new to boats. owned bass boats all of my adult live. i'm 66 now and my last boat was a 1999 dyna trak with a 200 mercury. it's top speed was 76 mph. or lets put it this way. 76 was my ball limit. it could have gone faster but it started fish tailing on the rear and i ran out of balls.i fished with the chickasaw anglers out of memphis tennessee for a number of years. now i live in senatobia mississippi. don't fish as often as i once did but still love to bass fish. i think my stratos needs a trim tab on the skeg. no idea if that's the problem and have no idea how old the dual steering cables are. i oiled them at the motor and they seem to move freely out of the water inside my shop. do you have any ideas. thanks ARROW