Auto steer /pilot advice

S

Simon

Member
I am looking to replace my Raymarine X5-R Auto Pilot ,it broke a few years back ,and its discontinued .I have a Lund Grand Barron with cable steer .Was thinking of a trolling motor on the front but was told it wouldn't work well ,if there was some waves .
Is there a way to mount an actuator somewhere or on the cable at the back some how ,I know the computer /GPS still works ,I tried it with a small RC drive motor ,and was thinking of trying to rig something up.
Any suggestions on what is out there ,or what others are using.

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Trolling motor not working well because of waves, how much wave height are you talking?

You can get longer shafts for the trolling motors and more thrust to satisfy most any conditions.

But 2 & 3' plus waves I'd have to think is a bit much for a trolling motor? Because I am currently installing a 36v 112# thrust Minn kota on my boat...I'll find out what it can do in choppy conditions.
 
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Simrad makes a cable steer autopilot. I think it was around a grand. The bow mount auto on my last boat was good enough most days.
 
I was told trolling motor might not be a good option from a dealer ,which I found odd ,forgot to mention that my boat is an inboard motor .
Thanks for the advice
 
Windy Point said:
Trolling motor not working well because of waves, how much wave height are you talking?

You can get longer shafts for the trolling motors and more thrust to satisfy most any conditions.

But 2 & 3' plus waves I'd have to think is a bit much for a trolling motor? Because I am currently installing a 36v 112# thrust Minn kota on my boat...I'll find out what it can do in choppy conditions.
Click to expand...
Lund Barons are bigger boats and Nice . Understandably the distance from water to bow is an issue even for extended bow mount trolling motors.
 
Well there are a few options, one being using a linear actuator and pypilot to control your kicker alone, I ran this for years and for the most part it worked great, but for the best results it's always better if the main engine and the kicker turn together.
As far as an electric on the front, it works, but like any autopilot if it gets pushed too far off course it will fail, and I've had some pretty horrific failures using either method, but the worse one was when I was using the electric on the bow because my linear actuator seized up, and I needed to finish the day off.... well when we got turned around, and I couldn't correct fast enough... that was a hard end to the day.
 

Off Topic - Auto pilot

Seeing that we haven't been able to vacation. I am thinking about a major upgrade for my old boat. I am trying to justify sinking around $3500. for a cable steer auto pilot. The boat is a1987 in great shape new motor and outdrive recently and only insure it for $5000 boat and trailer. Looking...
www.longpoint.on.ca

There's an example of what you can do with a linear actuator on the 2nd page, there is also an example of a raymarine tiller pilot at the end which is another option if you can reach the kicker from the inside of the boat.
 
Put a garmin reactor 40 on the trophy last season and it works extremely well. It’s an inboard with a 9.9 HT kicker
 
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