Autopilot

[Fish53]

Anyone using a Sitex SP-70 autopilot? I'd be glad to hear other experiences with autopilots as well.

 

[jleonard]

I have an SP-70. It works fine.
What specifically do you want to know?

 

[Fish53]

I have an SP-70. It works fine.
What specifically do you want to know?

I guess that's about it unless you installed it yourself and have input on the ease of the installation or have a view on reliability and performance or any other observations you'd care to share.

 

[jleonard]

I guess that's about it unless you installed it yourself and have input on the ease of the installation or have a view on reliability and performance or any other observations you'd care to share.

Yes I did install it myself. The boat already had an outdated inoperable autopilot, so at least the hydraulic T was already in place. And I was able to use the old rudder indicator cable to pull the new on thru with.
Then it was just a matter of running a cable to the bridge, power, compass, etc.
I also mounted an extra socket below so I can move the head unit if I want to run from there. But I haven't done that since it was installed other than to test it.
The autopilot performs well enough. I use it a lot, almost every time I run the boat. It's wired to my Garmin chartplotter, and will take the boat accurately to any waypoint. Sometimes however it's better to use a simple heading and adjust as you go because if there is a bad cross current or waves I'll get a little snake wake. I probably could adjust that out by changing settings but I haven't bothered.

 

[nobles9596]

I was wondering if everyone was happy with the SI-tek sp70? I was planning on ordering one. Are there two different pump sizes available? I read that somewhere but do not see that on the website.