Which is the most useful replacement Raymarine autopilot drive

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Quandary

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I am fitting an autopilot, the drive is a remotely mounted Octopus/Teleflex type cable drive but I do not like the Lowrance/Simrad or TMQ display head/ course computer that these usually are supplied with, so I intend to use a Raymarine P70 display head with Raymarine ACU and Course computer to control it. If I buy the three Raymarine items which I need separately they cost several hundred pounds more than if I buy them as any of the three EV100 packages which can include a wheeldrive, a hydraulic pump drive or a tiller drive. Crazy I know, but this is how Raymarine do their marketing.
So I will have a drive which I do not need and so will try to sell on to someone who needs one. So which package should I purchase?
I know wheel drives sometimes do need replacing so is this more likely to recover a few quid or is there likely to be a demand for either of the others?
 
I bought a Raymarine EV-200 upgrade kit last spring, it included everything except the linear drive.
Prices from Raymarine price list 2016.
Complete package type 1, 2995£
Without drive, 1995£
Linear drive type 1, 1700£

Question is what price you can get if you buy the complete kit and try to sell the drive unit.
 
I have looked at Hudson's prices, also Cactus and Yachtbits, on none of them can I buy the three main components I need as cheaply as they sell the kit. Interestingly, I asked the very reputable local Raymarine agent if he could match their price, he showed me the figures in the 2015 RM. price book, to match the price he would have had a profit of £3 on £1,140, he was still prepared to do it 'to keep the business local', a commendable attitude.

Laundryman: £850 is much keener than I can find anywhere unless I omit the display head and just use something like a a switch and a joystick, can you give me a few more details of the package you got from Hudson, what exactly did you buy from them, if I could get near that price the question about which drive would be irrelevant.
I am glad I asked now, the info. available on this forum could save me a fortune.
 
I reckon the Type 1 linear drive is probably the most desirable on the used market. Applicable to most sailing boats and some mobos, and an excellent upgrade from a rattly plastic wheelpilot.

Pete
 
You can still use the Octopus drive, you may need to either change the rudder position sensor on the drive which Octopus can advise on or disconnect the sensor and fit a Raymarine version directly to the rudder arm.

I would contact Octopus Europe for advice they are very helpful. I had an octopus drive with a Raymarine system and it worked fine.
 
Quandary said:
I have looked at Hudson's prices, also Cactus and Yachtbits, on none of them can I buy the three main components I need as cheaply as they sell the kit. Interestingly, I asked the very reputable local Raymarine agent if he could match their price, he showed me the figures in the 2015 RM. price book, to match the price he would have had a profit of £3 on £1,140, he was still prepared to do it 'to keep the business local', a commendable attitude.

Laundryman: £850 is much keener than I can find anywhere unless I omit the display head and just use something like a a switch and a joystick, can you give me a few more details of the package you got from Hudson, what exactly did you buy from them, if I could get near that price the question about which drive would be irrelevant.
I am glad I asked now, the info. available on this forum could save me a fortune.
Click to expand...

The £850 ish came from memory, the paperwork went with boat when sold. I remember the saving was more than I could have sold the surplus wheel pilot had I bought the full kit. I found I could talk to Hudson and at that time I hadn't even found a basic kit advertised anywhere. Prices may well have increased since but the kit without the actuator has to be the Best Buy. The man at Hudson knew his stuff and was helpful, not pushy. Good luck. Alan
 
prv said:
I reckon the Type 1 linear drive is probably the most desirable on the used market. Applicable to most sailing boats and some mobos, and an excellent upgrade from a rattly plastic wheelpilot.

Pete
Click to expand...

I agree, unfortunately the type 1 ram is not included in the package deals, (they include only the choice of wheel pilot, hydraulic pump or tiller drive) it is in a whole different price league and adds around £1000 to the package, it is what I have on the boat I am selling, the tiller drive would perform a similar function but it does not have a clutch so would have to be removed when not being used involving lifting a hatch in the floor, hence the choice of the cable drive motor. The Jefa ram is a very impressive bit of engineering with planetary gearing giving high power and low consumption and if this was a sail boat and my budget was a lot bigger would be my choice. But, hey, you hope to get what you pay for and as this is going on a cable steered mobo the cable drive should do the job and is very flexible when it comes to finding a position for the bits.
 
Laundryman said:
The £850 ish came from memory, the paperwork went with boat when sold. I remember the saving was more than I could have sold the surplus wheel pilot had I bought the full kit. I found I could talk to Hudson and at that time I hadn't even found a basic kit advertised anywhere. Prices may well have increased since but the kit without the actuator has to be the Best Buy. The man at Hudson knew his stuff and was helpful, not pushy. Good luck. Alan
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will try your approach of direct negotiation, they might be happy to discount for the bit I do not need, and sell it to someone else.
 
Quandary said:
I agree, unfortunately the type 1 ram is not included in the package deals
Click to expand...

Ah, that's a pity.

In that case I think you're probably right about picking the wheelpilot, being such a flimsy piece of crap there are probably always people looking for a new one :). The headless tiller drive and the hydraulic pump seem more likely to be bought along with the rest of a system rather than standalone.

Pete
 
When checking prices you also need to check those elsewhere in Europe. I wanted a Raymarine Evolution 100 Tiller and the list price was £1500. The best price at the time in the UK I could get was £1250. However with advice from this forum I was advised to check German and Sweden for prices. Well I bought from http://www.hjertmans.se/ in Sweden and allowing for shipping, it finally cost me £986! Just after I received it a special promotion reduced the best UK price to £1100, so I still saved over £100 compared to the £250 I thought I had saved.

If you wish to use a web site in a foreign language, just use Google translate for the page or for phrases on the order page. The service was excellent and the staff do speak english if you want to talk. The delivery took about 7 days by a secure insured carrier. I would have no hesitation of using them again.

Forgot to mention the guarantee is world wide and it is immaterial which country supplied or fitted the electronics, so no worries there at all.
 
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prv said:
Ah, that's a pity.

In that case I think you're probably right about picking the wheelpilot, being such a flimsy piece of crap there are probably always people looking for a new one :). The headless tiller drive and the hydraulic pump seem more likely to be bought along with the rest of a system rather than standalone.

Pete
Click to expand...
Agree. I ended up with a surplus wheel drive after a long saga of failures and sold it very quickly via the forum for £350.
 
Yep, I too have an unwanted wheel drive which rather than inflict on somebody I am going to chuck in a skip. What a total waste of money.
 
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