Looking for experienced opinions on setting up autopilot on a 1984 Alpha 1 Gen 1 power assisted stern drive (22' with 3.8L). It's for a fishing boat that I will ultimately connect the 9.9 kicker with an EZ steer connector.
I troll on AP with my main motor at 2-7 knots. Quite often under less than ideal conditions. No way I could manage the trolling spreads I pull w/o a bit of help.
Unfortunately, none of the inexpensive APs will do very well when push comes to shove. A $1,200 Chart plotter add-on isn’t going to cut it when push comes to shove. You need a good quality unit with rudder sensor/feedback at a minimum.
I’m sure there are others out there, but the old Garmin TR1 I use is a good unit as is it’s replacement the Garmin GHP Reactor.
As I said earlier, I troll with my main. No experience with kicker performance.
Lake Ontario salmon trolling at depth is 2-3 knots. Surface speed will vary accordingly. Most trailered boats up here will typically run a 9.9 - 15hp kicker to save on the main. Some have tried using a trolling plate but the consensus view is concern that it causes seal damage on the prop shaft as well as wear and tear and poor fuel economy. AP is a must when no crew. A lot of older set up’s use stand alone AP, but technology has made life a lot easier to plug and play. Raymarine and Garmin are two main players with Garmin edging out on cost.
Also a lot of power assisted mercruisers ditch the power assist in lieu of full hydraulic steering to make life easier on the pump when the main is off.
Larger audience with different techniques on this forum I realize.
I have a 23' sea ray with 260 Mercruiser. I have been collecting auto pilot and hydraulic steering parts for a couple of years. This spring I installed the complete system. I would keep the steering assist as I did. I am a certified Mercruiser technician currently working for Mercury marine. I am cheap when it comes to boat electronics so I pieced an older simrad ap27 together because I didn't wat to spend 3000$ if the system wasn't going to work well with my boat. With the uflex helm and the unbalanced cylinder recommended for Mercruiser with power assist steering an simrad ac10, ap27, simrad gyro compass, and simrad rotary rudder reference. Using two sea anchors I can achieve below 1.5mph sog trolling for walleye with the auto pilot maintaining course with no issues I trolled for 5 hours yesterday with 10+ mph winds no issues. I would think with a kicker engine losing some thrust vs the sterndrive you would still be able to turn up the counter rudder settings to maintain course.
Using two sea anchors I can achieve below 1.5mph sog trolling for walleye with the auto pilot maintaining course with no issues I trolled for 5 hours yesterday with 10+ mph winds no issues.
