Autopilot upgrading... experience with Latest raymarine?

photodog

photodog

Lord High Commander of Upper Broughton and Gunthor
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I’ve got the older st4000+ raymarine with the black wheelpilot..(mk1?) and am looking to upgrade...

Want.. more responsiveness and power. The current model just isn’t as good as I would like for singlehanded sailing...

Has anyone got experience with either upgrading this unit to the newer mk2 wheel drive unit, (I understand that the current wheel drive can be replaced by the newer one and it will work with the st4000+ control head etc...). Or... installing a new EV100 pack with the latest evolution system????

How good is it?

Boat is a Older Bavaria 31.. 3600kg displacement...

Comments greatfully received! And suggested alternatives..

Thanks!
 
I have just fitted a ACU400/EV-1/P70RS system to my mobo and had virtually the same set up on my old Elan 40. Very good systems. Virtually idiot proof to set up and calibrate it (put in boat details, spin in a circle and its done) and keeps a good track. Follows the wind well on the sailing version providing the rest of your kit is up to date and working properly (my wind transmitter needed a new set of bearings before it would work accurately).

Hard for me to compare to previous versions as before the set up on the Elan we just had a tiller pilot on former yachts. Replacing the aged ST7000 on the mobo to the latest system does see it track a better course, and that's without putting it onto the highest performance setting.
 
photodog said:
I’ve got the older st4000+ raymarine with the black wheelpilot..(mk1?) and am looking to upgrade...

Want.. more responsiveness and power. The current model just isn’t as good as I would like for singlehanded sailing...

Has anyone got experience with either upgrading this unit to the newer mk2 wheel drive unit, (I understand that the current wheel drive can be replaced by the newer one and it will work with the st4000+ control head etc...). Or... installing a new EV100 pack with the latest evolution system????

How good is it?

Boat is a Older Bavaria 31.. 3600kg displacement...

Comments greatfully received! And suggested alternatives..

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Just change the boat.:p
 
I'm not convinced the Mk II is much (if any) of an improvement over the old black Mk I. Might even be worse. I've used both. The new electronics controller is probably better, but the Mk II wheel drive itself is pretty feeble and fragile.
 
Maybe not applicable as mine is a below deck system but I just installed an Evolution ACU-200 system with a type 1 linear drive unit. Simple to install and commission and so far it behaves perfectly. First proper test in a fresh breeze and a bit of following sea on Saturday and it steered as well as I could.
 
DJE said:
Maybe not applicable as mine is a below deck system but I just installed an Evolution ACU-200 system with a type 1 linear drive unit. Simple to install and commission and so far it behaves perfectly. First proper test in a fresh breeze and a bit of following sea on Saturday and it steered as well as I could.
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Id love the below deck version...but it’s an extra £1200 plus more for the install... so at least twice the price. And that’s too much moola for this season..
 
photodog said:
Id love the below deck version...but it’s an extra £1200 plus more for the install... so at least twice the price. And that’s too much moola for this season..
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DiY remember the day and a half when I put the new pedestal and lewmar drive in the boat anything is possible to a STEM graduate.:p
 
Poey50 said:
We have the EV-100 tiller pilot on our Sadler 32. A brilliant piece of kit in our experience.
Click to expand...

I fitted the EV100 tiller to my Fulmar. Definitely the best autopilot I have used. Do shop around for the best price. Using this forum I ended up buying from Sweden as it was much cheaper than UK prices. When I fitted mine the RRP was £1500 and available discounted to £1250. After paying Swedish VAT and delivery to the UK it cost me only £980. Shortly after fitting was Southampton Boat show where the unit was on special offer at £1100. Do not worry about the guarantee as it is world wide and does not matter who fittd it or in which country it was fitted in or which country you need to claim.
 
To those posting about the Evo100 tiller drive, this drive unit is a different kettle of fish to the Evo100 wheelpilot and will not help the OP.

I had a St4000+ wheel pilot with MK2 drive when I got my 34' AWB. I did not like the slow noisy drive but thought I might update in stages. However, when I looked at what my upgrade paths were I found that Raymarine don't make it easy, i.e. the parts to upgrade to Evo (keeping wheeldrive) cost nearly as much as a complete new Evo100 system. And, it is not possible to later upgrade the Evo100 to below deck ram drive as a different computer is required (ACU200). I therefore bit the bullet and have a new Evo200 sytem with linear drive. The cost was helped by taking advantage of Raymarine's winter fitting allowance scheme and selling the old system. It has at least integrated with my ST60s and C70.
 
We have the Evo100 and wheel pilot on our Marcon 34, upgrading from the ST4000. At the same time I fitted new Nmea 2000 chart plotter and wind/speed/depth

The autopilot performance is hugely improved. The ST4000 could not cope with a quartering sea; the Evo unit steers really well. So far (four seasons) the Wheelpilot has been fine. However if purchasing again I would probably go for the more expensive below deck version
 
Don't rush to sell the old "lets call it the Mk 1" black wheel drive. They have brass gears inside the planetary gearbox rather than plastic gears in the later grey Mk 2 wheel drive. This assumes it is in good condition so worth taking it apart and having a good look. Excessive wear from the belt on the flat steel mounting plate is a good starting point to show if its worn. If you keep it, then there is a good upgrade explained on you tube to replace the roller screws with through bolts so they don't snap out of the plastic. I did mine without any issues. However, I do regret selling it when replaced with a new Evo 100 wheel kit despite getting good money for all the components sold separately.

So on to the Evo 100. Fitted the Evo 100 wheel pilot to a Moody 31 (5000kg) yacht two years ago. Took some time reading all the manuals and there are lots of them. Also ordered a single navpod unit to mount the P70 control instrument on the side of the pedestal. Took a day to fit and about an hour to commission. Did it twice because wasn't sure I had completed each step correctly but it worked straight away once complete.

Over the past two years it has worked flawlessly in conditions up to close hauled in a F6 and down wind in F5 with strong tidal currents adding to the fun and waves. Single handing, the wheel pilot will hold the boat on course whilst I sort out the sails and get them trimmed. Always tricky because there will be a while when I have only one sail deployed so trim is completely out of the question. This hasn't been a problem. Equally, less than perfect sail trim doesn't seem to be an issue for the wheel drive.

Overall am I happy with the Raymarine Evo 100? yes very and would buy again. Also give a thumbs up to Hudson Marine who supplied it and had the lowest price at the time.
 
Pete7 said:
Don't rush to sell the old "lets call it the Mk 1" black wheel drive. They have brass gears inside the planetary gearbox rather than plastic gears in the later grey Mk 2 wheel drive. This assumes it is in good condition so worth taking it apart and having a good look. Excessive wear from the belt on the flat steel mounting plate is a good starting point to show if its worn. If you keep it, then there is a good upgrade explained on you tube to replace the roller screws with through bolts so they don't snap out of the plastic. I did mine without any issues. However, I do regret selling it when replaced with a new Evo 100 wheel kit despite getting good money for all the components sold separately.

So on to the Evo 100. Fitted the Evo 100 wheel pilot to a Moody 31 (5000kg) yacht two years ago. Took some time reading all the manuals and there are lots of them. Also ordered a single navpod unit to mount the P70 control instrument on the side of the pedestal. Took a day to fit and about an hour to commission. Did it twice because wasn't sure I had completed each step correctly but it worked straight away once complete.

Over the past two years it has worked flawlessly in conditions up to close hauled in a F6 and down wind in F5 with strong tidal currents adding to the fun and waves. Single handing, the wheel pilot will hold the boat on course whilst I sort out the sails and get them trimmed. Always tricky because there will be a while when I have only one sail deployed so trim is completely out of the question. This hasn't been a problem. Equally, less than perfect sail trim doesn't seem to be an issue for the wheel drive.

Overall am I happy with the Raymarine Evo 100? yes very and would buy again. Also give a thumbs up to Hudson Marine who supplied it and had the lowest price at the time.
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Thank you!

That’s the sort of assurance I’m keen to hear.

The current machine with the st4000+ and the black wheel pilot isn’t capable of keeping the boat under control except under the most benign and balanced conditions... and it appears to have gotten worse this year. If a biggish correction is called for its slow to respond and far more likely then to throw a hissy fit and go into a XTE error issue and stop working at all complete with lots of beeping. This season it seems to not be responding at all to gusts and simply switches the display to the XTE screen but with no actual data....

I will try to recalibrate and adjust the gain next time I’m down, but I think an upgrade is called for.

The wheel pilot itself seems to be in good knick apart from the spoke holders which are broken... not even getting any slippage on the belt.
 
Just fitted the EV100 wheel to my benny 343, didn't expect too much of it but I am actually rather impressed so far, early days but so far so good.
 
I spent far too long and too much $$$ eeking out the lifespan of my old 4000+ system, both on repairing the plastic wheel drive and also failures with the head unit itself. Was a false economy and caused much uncertainty esp single-handing. Like others here I eventually made the jump for an Evo with below-decks linear drive and never looked back.... until I sold the boat and 'upgraded' to a bigger, newer vessel but found myself the un-proud owner of another dated AP! Actually to be fair it does have the superb linear drive not the plastic wheel drive but the older style head unit plays up from time to time. I think most of the ST units are really showing their age now and even with reset / recalibration lose their mojo fairly quickly. And parts & servicing options also becoming more limited.

All of which is long-winded way of saying think hard before you invest more time & effort in extending the lifespan of your current system!
 
I can not comment on the drive (tiller steering) but my last boat had an Ev200 which I installed and later removed and the current one a 4000+, I can not detect any difference in the performance other than having a pretty coloured screen, I like the simplicity of the 4000, seems to be very little to go wrong. The backbone cabling seems like an effort by Raymarine to restrict your choice of ancillaries and charge you an awful lot for wee bits of wire.
I still have the Ev200 ( new owner did not want to pay for it) but can not be bothered to change.
 
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