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Best Autopilot

brokenrodtip
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Yankee Troller

Yankee Troller

Posted
Posted

Stick with a Garmin AP and you wont have to get an AP disply. You can control it right through your Garmin head unit. Does the boat have hydraulic steering?

Andre wallyandre

Andre wallyandre

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, Yankee Troller said:

Stick with a Garmin AP and you wont have to get an AP disply. You can control it right through your Garmin head unit. Does the boat have hydraulic steering?

Same with Lowrance and Simrad; full control through the head unit

Yankee Troller

Yankee Troller

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, wallyandre said:

Same with Lowrance and Simrad; full control through the head unit

 

Right, but he mentioned he already has a Garmin.

john1947

john1947

Posted
Posted

I've used a sitex brand .It is a electric drive unit that attaches to the steering cable.So far it has worked well over 7 seasons.I don't have a trolling motor on my boat.

Yankee Troller

Yankee Troller

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, john1947 said:

I've used a sitex brand .It is a electric drive unit that attaches to the steering cable.So far it has worked well over 7 seasons.I don't have a trolling motor on my boat.

 

Good to know. I get asked about mechanical drive AP's a few times a year and knew about the Sitex option. I just never knew anyone who had one.

Earl28

Earl28

Posted
Posted

I have a Simrad ap12 with a mechanical drive  rotory cable steer. I am looking into retrofit the steering to a Garmin Reactor 40 Mechanical/Retrofit/Solenoid Corepack Without GHC 20, 010-00705-48 and my Garmin 7600. 

Is anyone running this autopilot retrofit. I am hoping to be able to use the pattern features the available with 7600 sonar.

killntime

killntime

Posted
Posted

I bought a new boat this past year with a Garmin reactor 40 and Garmin 7600. I put 140 hours on my boat this summer and now would never own a fishing boat without autopilot. 

 

One time this summer when when I pulled my boat up to the Georgian Bay in Canada for some reason the autopilot came out of calibration. I was able to talk to the dealer and they talked me though the calibration screens to get be back going the same day. 

 

I must say that that when I ordered my boat I cringed at the price of autopilot and almost decided against it. After using autopilot for a summer I realized that was some of the best money that I spent on my rig. 

tim

tim

Posted
Posted
I had an electric auto pilot connected to my steering well made my steering wheel tighter to turn plus electric is kind of noisy I converted it to hydraulic a lot nicer


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United mobile app

You guys seem to know what’s going on. What autopilot would be the best to run my 15 hp merc 4 stroke. I have 2 older Lowrance HDS gen 1 units.I just want to run the kicker motor, upgrade the sonar later. Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United
FishingFool34

FishingFool34

Posted
Posted
22 hours ago, tim said:


You guys seem to know what’s going on. What autopilot would be the best to run my 15 hp merc 4 stroke. I have 2 older Lowrance HDS gen 1 units.I just want to run the kicker motor, upgrade the sonar later. Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United


Only options for kicker AP that I know of are Garmin. The TR-1 Gold which is now discontinued (but you can still find them) and the Compact Reactor 40 which is the replacement for the TR-1. Compatible kicker options are limited on the new CR-40 system so it depends on what year your kicker is.

Yankee Troller

Yankee Troller

Posted
Posted
On 11/5/2019 at 12:02 PM, tim said:


You guys seem to know what’s going on. What autopilot would be the best to run my 15 hp merc 4 stroke. I have 2 older Lowrance HDS gen 1 units.I just want to run the kicker motor, upgrade the sonar later. Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

 

We installed a Lowrance outboard pilot here at the marina a few months ago. Seemed like a pretty easy install. Something to look into since you already have Lowrance MFD's.

ed.mac whinnie

ed.mac whinnie

Posted
Posted

I have a 25ft boat with a 225 Merc outboard with hydraulic steering and also Merc 9.9 kicker that is steered with a linkage rod 

from the 225 motor. (not sure of the linkage system brand name but you see this on a lot of boats)

A few years back I purchased a Simrad AP-24 autopilot system with virtual rudder feedback. The virtual feedback allows you to 

use the system without a real feedback as to the real position of the rudder as when you have an outboard motor.

When I purchased the auto pilot it came with the display and everything that was needed. Now I see you have to buy the display separately.

I installed it myself which was pretty easy. The installation manual was very good. When I first powered the unit up I had to enter dock side settings before taking the boat out on the lake. Once I did this I took the boat out in Little Sodus bay in Fairhaven and did the actual calibration of the autopilot. Using the manual (which explained things well) this was very easy.

Other than changing some tuning settings like how fast you want to make a turn or zig zagging etc I have not changed much

 

I just cant believe I didn't get an autopilot sooner. I normally fish with one other person or people who cant seem to drive, so its much better now when your trying to net a fish, in the wind , running back and forth trying to keep the boat strait.

 

The autopilot is also connected to my Lowrance HDS 10 Sonar/Chart plotter etc and can take me to way points and follow depth contours

A few suggestions I have are. 

Don't try to calibrate the autopilot while fishing.

When you install the new hydraulic lines from the Autopilot pump to your existing steering lines use Seastar brand tubing

with bronze or brass compression fittings with inserts (I got the fittings from home depot0 that go inside the tubing so the tubing wont collapse when compressing the fitting onto the tubing. I tried other plastic and copper tubing and it didn't work so well.

 

What others are saying about getting an autopilot that works with your Garmin display makes good sense

 

tim

tim

Posted
Posted

I appreciate all the help I have an auto pilot on the main motor I’m looking for a good auto pilot strictly for the 15 horse Merc kicker so I can run the little motor with an auto pilot without the big motor running.

FishingFool34

FishingFool34

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, tim said:

I appreciate all the help I have an auto pilot on the main motor I’m looking for a good auto pilot strictly for the 15 horse Merc kicker so I can run the little motor with an auto pilot without the big motor running.

Not sure of the steering setup on your main (hydraulic, power assist, mechanical?) do you need to have the big motor running for the auto pilot to be able to steer it? If not why don't you just connect the main and kicker with an EZ steer setup? Save you thousands of dollars to not have to buy another AP unit. Then you just let the AP on the main steer the kicker via the EZ steer rod. I know Yankee mentioned the Lowrance Outboard AP but I don't think that is meant for a small kicker motor. Only options for dedicated kicker AP that I know of are the two Garmin units I mention above.

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