Dazedkipper
Well-Known Member
This saga has been ongoing for about two years so far so please be paitent, I will get to the point eventually.
So, having lived with an elderly TP5500 for many years I was getting fed up with the mechanical noise it made when I spotted a used TP20 in a classified ad in one of the comics. The guy lived a fair way away but agreed to meet half way (maybe alarm bells should have rung at this point?) anyway, we met as agreed, I inspected said TP20 which appeared ok and a deal was struck at £120 which I thought was a fair price.
BUT...first time on my boat and it did all sort of crazy things..
course variations up to 30 degrees
constantly buzzing back and forth by 10-20mm, it is never still
locking at full extension or retraction when tacking so I tacked and gybed, and tacked and gybed and...you get the picture.
So basically it was *uggered and I had been conned. Needless to say the seller was not traceable - lesson learnt, perhaps but it gets better.
So I sent it to Simrad, who pronounced that it needed a new pcb and seals and case top as water had ingressed the unit, £135 thank you very much! Which brings my bargain upto the price of a new one - ouch.
So I paid up, plus £12 odd to the post office to ensure it arrived in one piece. About 3 months later, I kid you not, and after quite a nuimber of phone calls I finally got it bck, just in time for laying up.
Next year, tried it in anger for the first time and was no better, still constantly buzzing around and doing crazy things - an autopilot with a mind of its own is not what you want when sailing single handed. Back it went again,(another £12 quid post) 'but we can't find anything wrong with it Sir' 'but we have changed the feedback circuit just in case'. So I tried again, and went round and round in ever decreasing circles whilst it did its own thing. Just to add insult the bleeper had stopped bleeping by now. Returned it again, (+£12) and managed to extract a loan unit from Simrad whilst they pondered but the answer came back the same, 'we can't find anything wrong with it, but we will change the compass although we don't think it is faulty'. So swap the loan for my unit (+£12, I hope someone is keeping a tally of this!). Finally I got 'my' TP 20 back, but not quite as it had a completely different serial number to the one I had sent in - I was told it was 'only the case, the innards are all yours, and new as well, the unit is perfect Sir!'
Is it ****, it still hunts back and forth driving my crazy with the constant noise, it still has a mind of its own and tacks/gybes/tacks etc etc and now and then loses the plot entirely and wanders off course by 30 degrees or more. The bleeper has died again so this weekend I thought I would open it up and have a look - amazing, rubber seal chewed up in places, several screw locations broken, the bleeper hanging by one lead, the other in mid air, the compass housing cracked and broken with bits rattling around inside the housing - basically it is knackered, and most definatly not my original TP20 innards.
Ok, so I have rambled on, and feel better for venting steam but in all seriousness what I need to know is:
Is the Simrad TP20/22 and good? Or do they buzz back and forth all the time (even in a marina!) lock in position, go walkabout when the mood takes them, or have I just been lucky?
Answers on a postcard to Simrad Ltd...!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
So, having lived with an elderly TP5500 for many years I was getting fed up with the mechanical noise it made when I spotted a used TP20 in a classified ad in one of the comics. The guy lived a fair way away but agreed to meet half way (maybe alarm bells should have rung at this point?) anyway, we met as agreed, I inspected said TP20 which appeared ok and a deal was struck at £120 which I thought was a fair price.
BUT...first time on my boat and it did all sort of crazy things..
course variations up to 30 degrees
constantly buzzing back and forth by 10-20mm, it is never still
locking at full extension or retraction when tacking so I tacked and gybed, and tacked and gybed and...you get the picture.
So basically it was *uggered and I had been conned. Needless to say the seller was not traceable - lesson learnt, perhaps but it gets better.
So I sent it to Simrad, who pronounced that it needed a new pcb and seals and case top as water had ingressed the unit, £135 thank you very much! Which brings my bargain upto the price of a new one - ouch.
So I paid up, plus £12 odd to the post office to ensure it arrived in one piece. About 3 months later, I kid you not, and after quite a nuimber of phone calls I finally got it bck, just in time for laying up.
Next year, tried it in anger for the first time and was no better, still constantly buzzing around and doing crazy things - an autopilot with a mind of its own is not what you want when sailing single handed. Back it went again,(another £12 quid post) 'but we can't find anything wrong with it Sir' 'but we have changed the feedback circuit just in case'. So I tried again, and went round and round in ever decreasing circles whilst it did its own thing. Just to add insult the bleeper had stopped bleeping by now. Returned it again, (+£12) and managed to extract a loan unit from Simrad whilst they pondered but the answer came back the same, 'we can't find anything wrong with it, but we will change the compass although we don't think it is faulty'. So swap the loan for my unit (+£12, I hope someone is keeping a tally of this!). Finally I got 'my' TP 20 back, but not quite as it had a completely different serial number to the one I had sent in - I was told it was 'only the case, the innards are all yours, and new as well, the unit is perfect Sir!'
Is it ****, it still hunts back and forth driving my crazy with the constant noise, it still has a mind of its own and tacks/gybes/tacks etc etc and now and then loses the plot entirely and wanders off course by 30 degrees or more. The bleeper has died again so this weekend I thought I would open it up and have a look - amazing, rubber seal chewed up in places, several screw locations broken, the bleeper hanging by one lead, the other in mid air, the compass housing cracked and broken with bits rattling around inside the housing - basically it is knackered, and most definatly not my original TP20 innards.
Ok, so I have rambled on, and feel better for venting steam but in all seriousness what I need to know is:
Is the Simrad TP20/22 and good? Or do they buzz back and forth all the time (even in a marina!) lock in position, go walkabout when the mood takes them, or have I just been lucky?
Answers on a postcard to Simrad Ltd...!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
