Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Rejected Takeoff; Flight Crew Returned To Gate; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
When I added thrust for takeoff; I noticed a strong pull of the aircraft to the right. I had to apply and hold nearly 80-90% left rudder travel to maintain centerline. The wind was variable at 3; and when I checked the trust; the engines were matched. I mentioned the large amount of left rudder to the Captain and he called to continue; suspecting it would correct itself. I brought the thrust up to about 80% at that time then the swerve changed to the left needing about half of the right rudder travel to stay on centerline. The Captain called and accomplished abort; during which we got a brief 'config spoilers' warning message. The Captain immediately checked the spoiler lever and they were already completely retracted and never out of the 0 detent. We exited the runway and contacted maintenance; returning to the gate.I am not sure what cause the aircraft to swerve; but after the abort with the 'config spoilers' message and later on after maintenance had checked the airplane; there was a 'R FLT SPOILERS' caution message that briefly came up on the EICAS.For a moment due to the large rudder required; I stopped moving the levers forward and looked that they were matched about 40% N1. Possibly could have reduced thrust back to idle for a moment to check the directional control of my rudders; then reapplied thrust after; but it's not a real long runway anyway; I think we handled it well by aborting at a lower speed.
CRJ-200 First Officer reported rejecting the takeoff and returning to the gate after experiencing directional control issues early in the takeoff roll.