1988 thompson 240 /350 vortec/alpha 1 gen 1.. took out my cable steering and replaced with seastar HH5271-3 helm hydraulic steering ,and then put a raymarine autopilot EV ,with type 1 pump,my first question is do i need a low pressure line with this helm to type 1 pump?second question is will the pump /autopilot act different if is close to the helm and not close to steering ram?
Ayuh,....... In my limited experience, which was a one time build of various parts,.....
We used a race boat helm, which used a remote pressurized tank to feed the race helm(only enough pressure to move the reserve oil, up to the helm's inlet), to the steering ram,....
A raymarine auto-pilot pump was plumbed into one of the lines to the ram, which when actuated, pumped oil to, or from the ram, from, or back to the helm,.....
It worked very well in our application,.... The only draw-back, was the manual steering effort was quite high, after the auto-pilot pump was plumbed into the line, as you have to turn the pump, while actuating the ram,....
The auto-pilot worked as expected,..... Pretty much like the raymarine sport pilot cable auto-pilot on my fishin' barge,....
If you were goin' fast enough, 'n the wind didn't blow to hard, it stayed on a perfect course,.....
I could troll down-wind, on course, but into the wind, it couldn't keep up, 'n we were blown around to down-wind in a hurry, while the auto-pilot went bonkers tryin' to find it's course,....
So, I used it to get to, 'n from the fishin' grounds, rather than for trolling,....
Manual steering effort was the same on both boats,.... 2 hands, no finger turnin' the wheel,....
Given that it's a sealed hyd system, it shouldn't matter where the auto-pilot pump is mounted,....
