Small boat autopilot recommendations

[GAMBLER]

My buddy is looking for an Autopilot for his 17' aluminum boat with a 90 HP outboard.  Any recommendations would be appreciated!  

[Frogger]

Brian, not sure if he has hydraulic steering, or a dash console,  if he does, Raymarine Ev-100 would be my suggestion. Doesn’t need any electronics to support running it. Love mine. Think I’m on my 8th year and has worked flawlessly for me. 

[GAMBLER]

22 minutes ago, Frogger said:

Brian, not sure if he has hydraulic steering, or a dash console,  if he does, Raymarine Ev-100 would be my suggestion. Doesn’t need any electronics to support running it. Love mine. Think I’m on my 8th year and has worked flawlessly for me. 

He has cable steering.

[Gator]

Hans. He does a great job for Scotty.

[Great_Laker]

He could use a bow mounted trolling motor like minnkota or Motorguide for auto pilot while his main motor provides thrust. On small light boats having the auto pilot on the stern makes for slow response time when winds and waves push you. Bow mounted autopilot on small boats gives you better control, you can also use it for spot lock when jigging. You pay about the same price for helm mounted autopilot vs a nice bow mount trolling motor and I think the auto pilot on a bow mount is an easier install for small boats and provides you with multiple uses.  Either way, man is autopilot a game changer! 

[13owhunter]

I just put a 24v terrova on my 19 footer this year and am running lithium batteries.  I really cant see how any other AP system would be any easier to use and you get spot lock.  It really works amazing especially paired with a kicker and throttle control.  Only downside I can see is if its rough enough to pull the motor out of the water.  I got the longest shaft I could and if its rough enough to pull it out to the point it wont steer the boat, its too rough to fish in my rig anyways.  Shell go 10+ hours if its calm out which is plenty for me.  Total game changer!  No longer yelling at my dad, wife, buddy to steer the boat straight when im setting gear.  Just need to be a bit more creative when accusing others of the tangles I create.  =0)

 

 

[Frogger]

Yea, if he only had cable steer I’d have to agree a bow mount electric would be more practical and if he’s a bass fisherman he’d want it on the boat anyways. 

[BRsnow]

The precision from steering from bow vs stern is pretty impactful. You can link your sonar/gps to TM and have a great set up. Likely if it is too rough to use a longer shafted TM might be too rough to use any autopilot on smaller boat. 
 

I am totally jazzed garmin came out with long shafted TM and blue tooth connection to sonar/gps for nav and sonar.

[13owhunter]

My rig is a bit out of balance due to the kicker and extra house battery in the back.  Was downright difficult to make a 180 degree turn into the wind with a stiff breeze and some chop before I added the terrova up front. Would take full concentration which is not good.  The TM up front pulls the bow in the right direction which really makes turning effortless.  I really wanted that garmin force but couldn't bring myself to pony up the extra dough! 

[tyler.woodard04]

Agree, TM pulling on the small boats works great. I found with mine I lock the target speed the increase kicker speed to the TM is running about 50%. Any less and it seems to get lazy with the steering. Kicker throttle made a world of difference on dialing the speed. Also mad a big skeg for the TM to grab more water. As long as the wind isn't bad I can look at my tracks and they are dead straight. Moving in the boat upsets it more than anything else

[Pair of Jacks]

My son and I just added MK Terrova with advance autopilot to our 16 ‘ Tracker Laker DLX.  It absolutely amazing…it records up to 16 routes of 2miles each or you can link it to your GPS for infinite route lengths.  The advanced autopilot corrects for current and wind drift to reduce XTE.  We use it exclusively with the remote control vice the foot pedal.  We troll for stripers here on our home lake (Lake Anna, Virginia), salmon/trout on Seneca Lake, and Henderson Bay.  Additionally we use it to troll for walleyes in Canada.  The added plus is absolute precision speed control.  Ours is 12VDC and we can typically get 12 hours continuous trolling from our West Marine AGM batteries.

 

Given our boat is 16’ w/7’ beam there are few opportunities to safely get out on LO we have not tried it outside of Henderson Bay.

Edited July 27, 2023 by Pair of Jacks

[dhhurlburt]

I have an 18ft and use a 12v terrova and 56in shaft. I put the main motor in gear and then use the terrova to fine tune speed as well as auto pilot. I've been doing this for 3 years now and it's simple and effective. I can get easily 7 hours on a single battery charge. The only drawback is trolling into the waves. The shift doesn't have a locking device so the bouncing of the bow disengages the shaft from the spindle it sets in for the directional driver thingy...or what ever the hell that's called ...but its not too often I troll into the waves.

[muskie magnet]

A boat like that, you can't beat a Terrova on the bow. Lithium at least 100AH.

[Todd in NY]

For a 17ft boat, it's hard to beat the Minn Kota Terrova. I put one on my 16ft boat, and a friend has one on his 19ft Alumacraft. Another friend has a similar Minn Kota on his 17ft Lowe deep V. The spotlock feature is an added bonus.

 

If your friend doesn't want a trolling motor up front, I recommend the Lowrance Outboard Pilot cable steer pack. I have one on my Crestliner Sabre and it's awesome. He will need at least a Gen 3 Lowrance HDS or similar/newer model to control the Lowrance AP.

Edited July 28, 2023 by Todd in NY

[1lastweekend]

After 2 months of messing around trying to find a way to rig a Raymarine ST1000+ tiller pilot to the steering yoke of my Mercruiser lower unit (inside the boat to allow for more space on the back deck and to keep it out of the weather) I finally realized it wasn't going to have enough guts to turn the main motor leg and the kicker motor (tied together with an Ez-Steer) without removing the steering cable.  Since that is a real PITA every time you want to connect and disconnect the AP, I gave up and bought a used 12V MK PowerDrive that someone had added the iPilot head to as an aftermarket add-on.  Just finished my first shakedown run, keeps my boat about 3 degrees +/- to a heading using the heading feature, and steers flawlessly with the kicker providing the propulsion.  My biggest concern is that the marina where I keep my boat doesn't have shore power, but I have found others online who spent about $250-$300 on a 100W solar panel, a charge controller and the wiring and connectors, and can charge a Group 31 100AH AGM battery in about 1 day.  Wish I had done this a few years ago!

 

[Pair of Jacks]

Nice write up and thanks for sharing great lessons learned.

[signalman]

i fish with frogger all the time and his ap system works perfect on my 18 py boat i have a kicker and a minn kota on the front and it works well,but there is n comparison between the two as far as i,am concerned.His you set the course and forget about it,and mine you are working the fob quite a bit.

[BRsnow]

2 hours ago, signalman said:

i fish with frogger all the time and his ap system works perfect on my 18 py boat i have a kicker and a minn kota on the front and it works well,but there is n comparison between the two as far as i,am concerned.His you set the course and forget about it,and mine you are working the fob quite a bit.

Depends on the TM, the higher end ones will follow a chart and pair with the sonar/chart plotter,

[1lastweekend]

43 minutes ago, BRsnow said:

Depends on the TM, the higher end ones will follow a chart and pair with the sonar/chart plotter,

That is correct, there's a difference between a PowerDrive with iPilot and a Terrova or Ulterra with iPilot Link.  With the Link version you can have the TM follow courses and go to waypoints if you have a Humminbird FF thats compatible with iPilot Link.  It can even be set up to follow a depth setting/contour line on the Humminbird!  Whereas my PowerDrive, I get spot lock and autopilot, which keeps me on a heading and compensates for wind, waves, etc.  There's a cheaper add on to a PowerDrive called Copilot which basically gives you Left/Right steering and I think speed control, but I have lost my fishing partner to college this year so I needed the autopilot to be able to hold a course while I set up.  Big price difference between the 3 options too...

[BRsnow]

20 minutes ago, 1lastweekend said:

That is correct, there's a difference between a PowerDrive with iPilot and a Terrova or Ulterra with iPilot Link.  With the Link version you can have the TM follow courses and go to waypoints if you have a Humminbird FF thats compatible with iPilot Link.  It can even be set up to follow a depth setting/contour line on the Humminbird!  Whereas my PowerDrive, I get spot lock and autopilot, which keeps me on a heading and compensates for wind, waves, etc.  There's a cheaper add on to a PowerDrive called Copilot which basically gives you Left/Right steering and I think speed control, but I have lost my fishing partner to college this year so I needed the autopilot to be able to hold a course while I set up.  Big price difference between the 3 options too...

The price difference between ipilot and link isn’t much. I am shifting to garmin now that their TM comes in shafts up to 75”. If you need a TM either way, 500-1000 more for charting auto pilot doesn’t seem too bad.

[Pair of Jacks]

My research indicates a MK Ulterra #80 thrust which auto deploys and stows along with having the advanced autopilot which coupled with a heading sensor and integration to your GPS/chart plotter is ~$3000.  It comes in a 72” shaft.  This setup is comparable in cost and less complicated to setup that a RM or similar autopilot.  What I don’t know is in at least my application on SeaRay 200 OV is is the 72” shaft will suffice is lift to heavy chop.  I plan on doing my refit this Sept and will get measurements.  The other issue with be modifying/refitting my bow nav lights to a staff mount if I go with the MK Ulterra bow mounted TM solution.

[Pair of Jacks]

I agree…my two concerns are:

 

1.  How the t/m would perform in choppy conditions as I am going with trolling plate on my I/O versus kicker…at least initially 

2.  I have to modify my bow nav lights to post mount vice current configuration  to be visible over t/m apparatus.