Auto pilot

[rlconverse]

I purshased a 30' sportscraft fishermen 300 w/ an inboard 454 late this fall from a fellow LOU member. Iv been reading up on autopilots. So many options! Im looking for something quality and affordable. I know tough things to come by. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[John E Powell]

I've been on a few boats with the Garmin units, no complaints, and I've heard really good things about the new Raytheon unit. I'm torn between the two myself. The Raytheon is a bit newer, more high tech, but the Garmin is pretty much plug and play with my existing Garmin network.

Are you planning to install it yourself or have someone else do it? If someone else, I'd give serious consideration to go by what they have past experience working with.

Sent from my iPad using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[rlconverse]

I was going to try installing the unit myself

[fathobbit0074]

I put a ray in last year. Make sure you follow directions

[final flight]

I have a raymarine auto pilot and HATE it, loses the GPS signal when trolling slow for lakers, when this happens you have speed the boat up to over 4MPH for several min. Before it will regain the signal, wish now that I stood my ground and had them install a Simrad, trouble free unit that works at ANY speed!!!

[BAITNH]

Lowrance has a unit coming out any day now for a grand

[Silver Fox]

I have a raymarine auto pilot and HATE it, loses the GPS signal when trolling slow for lakers, when this happens you have speed the boat up to over 4MPH for several min. Before it will regain the signal, wish now that I stood my ground and had them install a Simrad, trouble free unit that works at ANY speed!!!

Make sure all your calibrations and setting are done properly. I have one too and when I dont do it right I'll have the same problem. But when I set it up again it was great.

[Chas0218]

I have a Raymarine autopilot and love it.  If you have raymarine electronics you can network them.  Mine uses the fluxgate compass and has only had an issue once when I didn't set it up correctly.  I love the thing, but trolling slower speeds 2mph or less heading into 4'+ waves it does a lot of over correcting and sometimes limits out.  At that point I stand at the helm and help steer a little.  I could have my limits setup wrong but think it's right.

 

Only thing I did have to do is buy a longer cord to go from the compass to the head unit.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Chas0218

[Silver Fox]

For slower trolling speeds turn your response level up to 8. For cruising go to 2. Mine starts at 5 every trip, then adjust

[Chas0218]

Mine only has 3 settings it is the evolution 100 series, I generally always have it at performance which is the most sensitive.  I think my compass is mounted too far to the rear of the boat so I purchased a new cable to put it further forwards for quicker response of the compass. Right now it is about mid ship but raymarine wants it almost at the very front.

[Silver Fox]

My compass is probably half way in my cabin. About 3-4' from the bow

[Chas0218]

Mines around 10' from the bow at closest (23' boat)

[Silver Fox]

Yeah, you need to close the gap at least by half. You'll see a big diff

[baitrigger]

We ran a new to us boat with a simrad last fall. First experiance with autopilot. The last day we were out, eight footers were coming from the north. Unit is point and shoot. It seemed bullet proof. What a powerful tool. I cant wait to see how it handles through a full season.

[Chas0218]

I fish alone a lot and it is worth its weight in gold, no lie.  It's like having a third arm.

Edited January 9, 2015 by Chas0218

[rlconverse]

I always fish with someone but i usually do all the rigging on my boat(usualy an inexpericed crew in training) with the upgrade in size of the boat this year i figure an autopilot would help the stress factor with the captain at the helm. Im the boat owner that never drives his own boat.

[rlconverse]

Iv noticed thier are alot of diffrent styles from a hydralic pump style to the ones the go behind the steering wheel at the helm what are the pros an cons of each?

[baitrigger]

My experience is not extensive. Through research there isnt a big performance difference. If you have power steering you need the hydrolic version. If you have a cable system, you need mechanical "cable steer". I was blown away using the simrad cable version. I should have bought one ten years ago.

[finsntins]

raymarine smart pilot xr-5 for sale on buffalo craigs list,seems like a good deal if it will work on your boat.

[Frisco]

I had the 3 Raymarine X5s and it gave me fits I replaced it with the Garmin GHP 10 and love it

[John E Powell]

I think there's probably quite a big difference between the new Ray Evolution series which is a new design and older models.

I was chatting with a couple reps from various companies about autopilots last year and the consensus seemed to be that an autopilot install is not something the average weekend warrior should attempt. Independently the three guys I talked to said most of the problems people experience comes from incorrect installation and setup. I decided to wait a year to save up a little more to get mine professionally installed by a NMEA certified installer.

I'm leaning toward the mid range Garmin myself as I already have a fairly extensive Garmin network and various devices. Ease of software updates over the network is really attractive to me. I can do that myself. Another brand would require sending the unit out for updates.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

Edited January 10, 2015 by John E Powell

[Andre wallyandre]

For my part I'm going with the new hydraulic AP from Lowrance. The integration through the 2000 NMEA will make the installation easy. The other complain when we are talking about AP is the slow trolling problem; the ap workd in conjunction with the gps and the gps need some speed to work properly but with the Lowrance Point-1 (Point-1 is a electronic and also a compass antenna) that will give a better operation at slow speed.

[Chas0218]

For my part I'm going with the new hydraulic AP from Lowrance. The integration through the 2000 NMEA will make the installation easy. The other complain when we are talking about AP is the slow trolling problem; the ap workd in conjunction with the gps and the gps need some speed to work properly but with the Lowrance Point-1 (Point-1 is a electronic and also a compass antenna) that will give a better operation at slow speed.

Is it truly a lowrance brand auto pilot or someone else's with lowrances name on it? Personally with lowrance not repairing their products I would not own something with so many moving parts and that much initial cost.

Sent from my thinking car!

[Andre wallyandre]

Same as the Simrad. Navico owns Simrad & Lowrance

 

I'm using Lowrance since 1975 and never had any problem.

 

Many mooving parts?: a pump and a box (computer) 2 wires for the power+ & - and a NMEA 2000 connection

 

I run 2 Raymarien AP and didn't like them (not easy to set-up) and the last one couldn't be use for trolling nelow 2mph and when I call Ray they say that's the way it works.

[Frisco]

Please let us now how you make out, buying APs has become complex mainly because the units are constantly changing. I owned a Simrad AP12 that I eventually had to replace most of the electronics then I'm hearing that the unit was discontinued and parts aren't available. I understand it was made by a vendor for Simrad. I'm sticking with Garmin for that reason APs are a pain when there are problems