Auto Pilot Recommendations Wanted

[Baccala]

I've been trolling Lake Ontario fairly seriously for about five years now. I usually run two cannon mag 10's with two rods on each and on rare occasion a fifth and sixth off dipseys depending on how many people on board. I use a depth raider and a fish finder and now I want to get a little relief from the monotonous 8 hours of steering the boat. I have a 26 foot Chapparal single screw I/O with cable to power steering. Can anyone recommend an Auto Pilot that would be good for trolling?

Thanks!

[holy mackerel]

I love my Simrad ap12r. I had a Raymarine sport pilot plus before and it was a constant head ache. always in the shop and only worked half assed at its best. 5 years on the Simrad, no issues.

[L&M]

If you have clearance or can make room under the helm for it (11") The AP12r is definitely the way to go. There's some more info here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14807

[High Bidder]

I installed the Simrad 2401 unit with a mechanical drive attached to the power assist unit at the outdrive. It eliminated any play in the cable drive and I believe it maintains a better course this way. I initially wanted a AP14r but they weren't available last year and it wouldn't have fit behind the dash of my old Striper without cutting a large hole anyway.

The 2401 unit was however twice the cost of a AP14r and did require a NMEA2000 buss sytem to connect the compass, head unit, GPS puck and GPS chartplotter. Creating the buss system cost about $200.00 and one wire to GPS had to be fabricated from a Simnet cable and (in my case) a Lowrance cable. I only used it for three weeks last August, but it performed flawlessly in the wind and waves.

High Bidder

[spoonfed-1]

I have a Simrad AP 12H and couldn't be happier.

Glen

[on the lam]

Simrad

[ray koziatek]

MUSKY (without cheetos)