Simrad AP24/28 worth the 5K plus install??

[sailorduff1978e]

ooops some one else then

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Frankly,....I am particularly handicapped when it comes to matters electric (Gordon May will confirm that I'm confident).

Okay..., let me clarify...

I am confident [that] Gordon May will confirm [that] I am particularly handicapped when it comes to matters electric... And I suspect Bill Trayfors might as well....

[paulrack]

The system was installed by the boatbuilder and signed off by Simrad. The boatbuilder said it was very easy to install compared to some other products. The main difference between the AP24 and AP28 is the size of the screen and the AP24 does not have a wheel. The AP24 is designed where there is a space constraint.

[silverp40]

I realize that this is an older post but I am looking at the exactly same Simrad combination as a few of the posters....

Regarding the Jeffa motors, I spoke to one of the original Robertson tech guys at Simrad about the Jeffa drive motors and he explained that he is a big fan. These motors are (in his opinion) best in industry. There is also a larger motor available, the DD2 which is rated for boats up to about 45k-50k lbs.

Any installations with any offshore experience with both hydraulic or electric drives would be appreciated....

Thanks

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by silverp40

I realize that this is an older post but I am looking at the exactly same Simrad combination as a few of the posters....

Regarding the Jeffa motors, I spoke to one of the original Robertson tech guys at Simrad about the Jeffa drive motors and he explained that he is a big fan. These motors are (in his opinion) best in industry. There is also a larger motor available, the DD2 which is rated for boats up to about 45k-50k lbs.

Any installations with any offshore experience with both hydraulic or electric drives would be appreciated....

Thanks

Ours is the hydraulic drive. It works like a champ at sea, for daze on end and in all types of weather without difficulty. We call the thing "Otto" (as in "Otto-Pilot"). "He" works like a horse, never sleeps, rarely complains and doesn't drink our beer/wine. Heck of a deal...

FWIW...

[colemj]

Originally Posted by silverp40

I realize that this is an older post but I am looking at the exactly same Simrad combination as a few of the posters....

Regarding the Jeffa motors, I spoke to one of the original Robertson tech guys at Simrad about the Jeffa drive motors and he explained that he is a big fan. These motors are (in his opinion) best in industry. There is also a larger motor available, the DD2 which is rated for boats up to about 45k-50k lbs.

Any installations with any offshore experience with both hydraulic or electric drives would be appreciated....

Thanks

We have the Simrad AP24/RC42/AC42 system driving a Raymarine T2 short electric/mechanical linear drive. While it has only been in use for 6 months now, and we haven't taken it offshore extensively yet, it has performed flawlessly - steering better than our old B&G Network system while using much less power and not having the drag on the steering system when not in use like the B&G hydraulic linear drive.

Mark

[silverp40]

Thanks for the replies! Hylyte, is yours a Mark2 unit? I think these came out a few years ago, pump, drive and tank all in one unit....no hydraulic hoses, seem simpler.

[sbrin]

Love my new Simrad with the DD15, Installed myself over the winter. Replaced my Autohelm 6000 so as to interface with my Garmin GPS. Works beautifully. (Autohelm now for sale if anyone is interested in complete unit).

[paulnorkett]

I have just bought the AP24 system with a hydraulic ram for my nauticat 33 (18000lb displacement) . Am about half way through fitting it. The instructions are good and the connections not too complicated.
It looks like the complicated part will be the dockside and sea trial set up. I will report later on how things progress.

[silverp40]

Paul, the dock setup is easy, just a matter of following the instructions.

On the seatrial, it takes about 2 minutes and the AP will show you where to steer- easy too!

I think the hardest is to make sure the angle of the ram arm is aligned with the rudder stock/quadrant properly so it does not put undue load on the base of the drive.

[goboatingnow]

I have installed a few APs over the years.

Garmins AP is very good in my experience, but the choice of drive units is very limited, you can roll your own but , your "on your own" too. The gamin autopilot comes from a well established company they bought a few years ago ( not unlike Simrad, when it acquired Robertson).

Its hard to say if the extra money is worth it. I would rate Raymarines APs quite good too , especially since the rate gyros were added.


As to installation, there is a fine line between making the autopilot mounting bullet proof and having the autopilot destroy the quadrant in extremes, I have seen this happen and its not pretty, given a choice I would install a dedicated tiller arm for the AP drive.

The biggest failure , is users installing an underpowered drive unit, This is the single biggest thing that kills electric drives for example . electric drives are actually very durable once you size the drive to the boat properly. This is especially true for Water boats">blue water boats, The drive really needs to operating at about 50% of rated power even in very bad conditions. Yet I regularly see installations where the system is struggling to control the boat even when its just down to bad sail trim.

Ive taken two boats on 2000-3000 mile trips with Raymarine linear electric drives, both worked flawlessly , and the helm in one case was never touched for 10 days at a trot. !.

Its rarely the kit, usually the penny pinching owner thats the problem.


Dave

[colemj]

Originally Posted by silverp40

On the seatrial, it takes about 2 minutes and the AP will show you where to steer- easy too!

The only thing I can add to the above is when calibrating the compass, where you turn in a circle, the system prefers you motor at a slow speed. 2-3kts seems to work best. In calibrating the gain and response, where the pilot takes control and does a bunch of S-turns, the system prefers you motor at ~60-70% of hull speed.

This isn't so obvious or explicit in the instructions, but I found they worked best with the above speeds.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Garmins AP is very good in my experience, but the choice of drive units is very limited,

Their electromechanical drive is the Jefa unit discussed above.

Mark

[paulnorkett]

Hi silverp
many thanks for the encouraging words on the simrad setup. The ram config. you mentioned has had due attention but I will make doubly sure the alignment is OK.
best wishes
Paul

[nhschneider]

I installed a Simrad AP24 on our 40,000-pound ketch over three years and 20,000 miles ago. The system steers far more accurately and with less rudder movement than I could ever do by hand. We're using N2K to interface it to our Garmin electronics and the vast majority of the time we steer using the navigation feature. We have one glitch that we haven't been able to solve: About once every 24 hours of continuous operation, the autopilot will alarm, stop steering and display "No Autopilot Computer Found". At that point, we can press any button (silencing the alarm and bringing the screen back to the standby mode) and then reengage the autopilot. I have checked the wiring dozens of times but it doesn't make sense that its a wiring problem as just restarting the unit clears the alarm. It has nothing to do with any radio transmission - either HF or VHF nor does the refrigeration cycling cause the problem. At first, Simrad acknowledged that they were aware of the problem but later denied that they knew it existed. I have had authorized Simrad dealers look at it but the problem occurs so infrequently that its almost impossible to have a technician around when the problem occurs.

Still, even with the potentially-dangerous problem, we 're still very happy with the system. Since our boat is equipped with the Whitlock Mamba steering system, the autopilot drive motor is part of the steering system.