Below deck autopilot install

[Noah]

Alex—call me conservative and gun shy as I am, based upon my experience with breaking my first mount. I would suggest lots of fiberglass and perhaps even build up the hull area underneath the mount with some glass too, to help spread the load and reduce point loading. That area of the hull is not very thick.

[Gregory M]

Alex, Noah is right  , I did install of bracket  last year for same autopilot, took Noah's advise and produced bracket out of 1/4" mild steel. They are substantial forces, pushing and puling. You don't want to take chances! No issues, working flawlessly!

[LogoFreak]

2 square foot area where loads are being dissipated, 1/4in glass. More than enough.

[LogoFreak]

Also, this piece of 3/4in 6061 aluminum plate is getting glassed under. It will get drilled and tapped for fasteners.

[waughoo]

I am a long way from installing a below deck pilot, but am very keen on everyone's suggestion for the proper stength due to the loads. 

[LogoFreak]

I agree that the linear drive can exert significant loads, it is rated for 650lb thrust. However this linear drive is also rated for boats up to 22,000lbs. Our boat are a little over half of that, highly doubt our rudders can exert as much resistance to the drive to push it to its peak thrust rating.

[Noah]

I glassed reenforced a square hull area approx. 18 in. wide/high and encapsulated a 1-1/2 thick slab of white oak sandwich inside. While I don't really know how thick the hull is, it is quite translucent, as I could see the bootstripe from the inside. Kinda spooky. Wasn't taking any chances.

[LogoFreak]

Took out the shelf for the aft water tank and the aft hanging locker. Really didn't like that setup, rear hanging locker must weigh 20~30lbs... now I have great access to properly glass in the autopilot mount and really spread the load out over a large area. Once I'm done with that I'm going to design a fuel tank to go where the old shelf for the water tank went. Likely be able to increase my fuel capacity to 60 gallons (being conservative).

[Noah]

Wow! Certainly gives you access.

[waughoo]

I just redid my aft water tank shelf as the one I inherited was rotted out from past un-repaired water leaks.  I made two sets of cleats and a removeable shelf to replace it.  Thus, if needed, I can take the water tank out and remove the shelf for access.

[KeelsonGraham]

Resurrecting this topic rather than starting a new one.

My boat guy is having trouble figuring out what sort of bracket he should make to anchor the Raymarine EV100 ram to the hull of my MkII. Has anyone got any photos or drawings of a completed installation using the Raymarine ram??

LogoFreak seemed to be working on this, but I can't see any pics of the final install. Noah's solution is very neat but doesn't use a Raymarine ram - as far as I can tell.

Another forumite did it by mounting the ram on the underside of the sugar scoop, but this requires an extensive mod to the water tank. I'd like to avoid this if I can.

Really struggling here. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

[waughoo]

There isn't a real simple answer here.  Installing an autopilot ram is a very custom installation.  I think nearly everything you find will have required at least some fabrication and tabbing into the hull to reinforce a mounting bracket.  Your installer is going to have to figure out the best spot to build that and either do so or have someone else do it.

[KeelsonGraham]

It's not that custom!

It's an Edson tiller arm, a Raymarine EV100 ram and a Catalina 34 hull!

I'm just hoping someone's done it before and has got pictures of their final solution.

[Noah]

It is somewhat custom.
1. First do you have room to mount Edson tiller arm? Some have had issues with not enough clearance to mount it on rudder post.
2. Once you determine rudder mount then you have to figure out a place (correct angle/geometry) and arm "throw distance" to mount the hull end of the ram.
3. Then you have to build a STRONG mount SECURELY attached/glassed to the hull. Trust me, just gluing it to hull with thickened epoxy is NOT enough!

[KeelsonGraham]

Hi Noah, yes the arm fits on the post. And, yes, I told/showed my guys about your install and the 12 layers of reinforcing.