Steering Mod suggestions?

Gidday all
New to this forum and an avid fly fisherman chasing NZ brownies and rainbows in the South Island of New Zealand.
Spend most of my time on rivers or stalking edges but...
I have a Colorado pontoon getting pushed with a MinKota 35Lb Thrust motor powered by 80Ah battery which is plenty for the distance I need to travel in 99% of the locations i use the pontoon.

Issue is that the transon is located on the right hand side of the seat, as most are as standard plus if not there then the seat is in the road, so you need to be a bit of a contortionist at times to steer and speed up/slow down. I find my elbow is used on the tiller more than anything but to be fair its a pain in the a#@e especially if there is a chop on the water.
Also other issue with the transon being mounted r of centre is the craft naturally twists and turns meaning lots of coorrections with the elbow.

Anyone have a simple solution? Naturally to avoid the twisting n turning I have thought about repositioning the transon but that would mean creating a steering rope/pully/lever set up but that could become cumbersome and messy.

Anyone mounted a rudder set up between your legs on one of these craft?  Would this even work being quite forward of the prop?

Any thoughts or suggestions or complete working diagrams and schematics gratefully accepted. Hell there may even be a bolt on off the shelf solution?

cheers
Teecee

Welcome to this forum teecee! Wow! New Zealand!!!
I'm not a pontoon user but there's few in this site. Stay put as I'm sure someone will chim in soon for ya.
Cheers!

Thanks Aquaholic
appreciate the welcome. You folks is almost as freindly as us Kiwis!! 

Welcome to the forum

well to the forum I am building a bracket as well for mine I am going to try to go with a cable system for turning a remote for power as soon as I figure it out I will post but this is going to be a lot for mod

welcome to the forums

Hey TEECEE
My motor set up for my Minn Kota is simple and very effective for alleviating just the problems you are having. Jeff CPR saw it in action at our first seminar. It requires a bit of surgery on the control head of the motor. I loosened  the control head from the down tube, rotated the head approximately 40 degrees counter clock (as you look down on the head) then cross drilled it and put a small bolt through it to prevent it from slipping. The affect is that when you mount your motor back on the transom or motor mount, with the power head (prop) pointing forward, the controls are now 40 degrees off center. I then purchased a collapsible outboard motor tiller extension from Cabelas and attached it to my motor. The model I chose has a small universal joint in it. The final result is when you sit in your boat the tiller can be extended over (or under depending on how tall you are) your right shoulder. Kinda like when you carry an axe or baseball bat on your shoulder. You retain full, on and off, and speed control by twisting, and steering is a matter of pulling the tiller forward to go right or pushing backward to go left! It takes a bit of learning but I have not looked back since!  LOL!!!  Hee Hee!!

   bodfish

PS  just a piece of advice. when you are deciding how much rotation you want to put in the control head, set up your boat completely and sit in it. test a few different angles before you commit and start drilling. Try and get the angle that will give you the most turning radius from your motor.Because of where your motor is mounted you may want to apply more angle than I did.  Cheers Mate!
PM me with your e-mail and I can send you some more details.

International welcome!

Thanks for the welcomes and the advice to date. I tried a tiller extension made out of plumbing pile and created a universal joint but wasn't super successful however didn't even consider the idea of changing the head angle. Damn good idea. Will have a play.
Cheers

Put a swivel seat mount under your seat. That will really save your back and neck!