EV-100 autopilot pump reviews?

[williwaw]

I have an autopilot in my future - yeah! - so am interested in hearing from people with an EV-100 what their experience is with steering response in other than calm water. That model uses the small pump whereas the EV-200 uses a pump with twice the capacity but cost a whopping $1200 more.

I think this is a common issue for C-Brats as the SeaStar HC5345 (volume 136.6 cc) is on a lot of our boats and is right at the upper limit of the EV-100 capacity (150 cc). As it's not a mission critical component I'm tempted to save the $$$ but I also don't want to deal with failed hydraulic components.

Anybody with a lot of hours on the smaller pump have anything to report?

[hardee]

I have the EV-100 as an upgrade due to failure of the earlier RayMarine AP,(some of the components), and It is with the SeaStar cylinder, set up on twin 40 Yamaha OB's. I'm not good on the details of all the components but with 1000 hours on the system I have had have the control cylinder replaced due to leaking seals and corrosion of the tub fittings. I have 1000 hours on the boat and accept there is going to be some normal use wear and tear.

I use the Auto Pilot every time I have the boat out and love that little 1 inch steering wheel. My boat came with AP and it had a full RayMarine electronics suite. I have remained with RM, for Plotter, GPS, AP and sounder and think they are OK, although a bit of a learning curve. My VFH selection has branched out some (Standard Horizon and recently ICOM, which I am really liking.)

You are in Portland, right? I have had Rodger's Marine do all my electronics and highly recommend them. My personal philosophy regarding boating and safety is belts, suspenders and bailing wire. Double duplicit redundancy should cover it.

Auto pilot is not just a cool feature, it is a safety feature in my book too. Once you have it, and find how useful it is, ,it will be hard to go without. If you are tied into RayMarine, I think it is OK, if not RM I would be looking at Garmin, but that is just my opinion.

Good luck in your search.

Harvey
SleepyC