Best Autopilot for an Outboard

[cedarswamp]

Looking for an Autopilot

I've run a Garmin TR-1 Gold on my Kicker for years , Love it ! I am buying a New Boat with a 135HP , 4-Stroke, Merc. Verado  4 stroke and Im considering adding an Autopilot to it, The boat has Hydraulic Stearing ! What is everyone opinion on the Best unit that is Both User Friendly and Rugged enough to last years?

Edited July 20, 2017 by cedarswamp

[John E Powell]

Garmin


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[Johndf02]

Bump


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[Gator]

We have a Raymarine and love it, but you can't go wrong with either the Ray or Garmin GHP. A hydraulic unit is preferable over one that attaches to the steering wheel, but the core unit without a pump will set you back $2K new.

[dawg]

Paul I installed Lowrance Outboard pilot this spring and could not be happier time will tell on longevity


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[Johndf02]

We have a Raymarine and love it, but you can't go wrong with either the Ray or Garmin GHP. A hydraulic unit is preferable over one that attaches to the steering wheel, but the core unit without a pump will set you back $2K new.

Does either of these models work with humminbird head units?


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[Gator]

I don't know. Both brands of autopilot use an NMEA2000 communications standard, but I don't run Humminbird units. I did notice that a Ray EV-100 with 0.5 L displacement pump is $1500, good for smaller powerboats; I hadn't seen that option before.

[Andre wallyandre]

I run a Lowrance witch in fact is a Simrad and I'm more then happy with it and it cost around $1000 but you need to pair it with a Lowrance MFD

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/Auto-Steering/Outboard-Pilot-Hydraulic-Pack-en-us.aspx

[L&M]

7 minutes ago, wallyandre said:

I run a Lowrance witch in fact is a Simrad and I'm more then happy with it and it cost around $1000 but you need to pair it with a Lowrance MFD

http://www.lowrance.com/en-US/Products/Auto-Steering/Outboard-Pilot-Hydraulic-Pack-en-us.aspx

 

That unit is also compatible with a the Simrad GO5 & 7 series chart plotters too Wally

[Andre wallyandre]

2 minutes ago, L&M said:

 

That unit is also compatible with a the Simrad GO5 & 7 series chart plotters too Wally

Absolutly! I miss on that one.

[John E Powell]

While units can be set up to talk to each other across NMEA 2000, sticking with one brand that has simple plug and play connections is a much easier arrangement to work with. For example, my friend's boat has 5 Garmin units in total, display, radar, gps, autopilot, etc.. Only the display unit has a card reader. When Garmin releases an update, you download it to a card, pop it into the display unit and turn it on. It scans your network for all Garmin units and in my friend's case all 5 of his units gets updated.

 

He previously had a Furuno fish finder that couldn't be updated because it didn't have a card reader and wasn't recognized over either network on his boat. By contrast, on my similar network, I used a Garmin black box fish finder and a second display and all of my units would update in one simple step. I could also pick which display showed the fish finder and which had the map and gps positional data and the radar overlay.

 

When you mix and match across brands, you can get them exchanging data across nmea 2000, but your not going to get, for instance, your lowrance hds gen 3 to update you Ray or Garmin autopilot.

 

My advice is if your going to mix and match more than one brand, be smart about it and only go off the main brand if the unit can be updated by its own means, otherwise your stuck. Updates don't just improve that units functionality, they also allow the older units to talk to newer units that will come on the market in the future. By sticking with one brand with plug and play connectivity, you get the best functionality across your network(s), the easiest update procedure that you can do yourself, and the best chance to seamlessly replace individual units down the road.

 

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