Autopilot recommendations

[Misty IV]

I'm looking to add an autopilot to my 2000 Starcraft Islander 221. It has the 4.3L, rack and pinion cable steering and power assist. Are there any systems on the market that bolt to the existing rack and pinion behind the dash panel and would allow me to use the current steering system on the boat? A lot of the kits I'm seeing are all hydraulic and require a lot of work and changes to the boat to get the autopilot installed and operational. I'm a weekend warrior and not on the water every weekend. Thanks for any input.

 

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[thumbburn]

I put a simrad ap24 on mine... cable steer.... year #5.... should have done it years ago


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[Cha-Sea]

I went with Raymarine EV-200 AP to control the Octopus cable drive. Works perfect. PM me if you want more details. The cable connection is back where the linkage is for the power assist. Not a bad install at all.


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[Misty IV]

Do you need a Simrad chartplotter/GPS for it to link to the coordinates or does it use a stand-alone GPS module to get the coordinates?

I put a simrad ap24 on mine... cable steer.... year #5.... should have done it years ago


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[thumbburn]

No chart plotter or gps...... it has its own computer and compass


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[Cha-Sea]

I have it networked to my Garmin chartplotter so I can easily cursor over to a point and have the AP navigate directly to a specific waypoint. Pretty nice and 

 

essentially free if you have a chartplotter with NMEA 2000.

[lost a lure]

I don't think the Simrad AP24 is available anymore.

[Yankee Troller]

I'm looking to add an autopilot to my 2000 Starcraft Islander 221. It has the 4.3L, rack and pinion cable steering and power assist. Are there any systems on the market that bolt to the existing rack and pinion behind the dash panel and would allow me to use the current steering system on the boat? A lot of the kits I'm seeing are all hydraulic and require a lot of work and changes to the boat to get the autopilot installed and operational. I'm a weekend warrior and not on the water every weekend. Thanks for any input.
 
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You need an octopus drive and a new seeing cable since you're rack and pinion. We've installed about 6 of these in the last two years. The octopus drive will work with Garmin, SiTex, and SIMRAD that I know of. We've mainly stuck to Garmin and SiTex. Let me know if you need any help getting the AP or with getting one installed

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[rustyhook1971]

I did Octopus rear drive and the SiTex CP120, did not need a new cable. Works excellent and SiTex  customer support was top notch. If you email them they tell you exactly what is needed.

My only complaint is the instruction manual could of been better.

[Earl28]

I am using the Garmin Reactor 40 AP with the Octopus rotary cable drive. I connected a GPSMAP and all the program manuvers work. It was very plug and play but you will need to follow the instructions. Very low power consumption!
Not a bad install at all.

I am looking forward to adding a panther to a kicker with ap control.

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[Yankee Troller]

2 hours ago, rustyhook1971 said:

I did Octopus rear drive and the SiTex CP120, did not need a new cable. Works excellent and SiTex  customer support was top notch. If you email them they tell you exactly what is needed.

My only complaint is the instruction manual could of been better.

 

Octopus recommends a new steering cable when the old system is rack and pinion, but if you did it without a new cable that's good to know.