Autopilot upgrade options

[Slickcraft]

looking for advice, want to do a complete upgrade for a 1989 390ec autopilot system, looking for the best advice for a brand that will work good for this size of a boat, primary use Lake Michigan salmon fishing and small travels. Want to replace the whole system that's currently not operational. Ideas? Also upgrading to a new fishfinder/gps combo unit, and a new radar system, so open to ideas as to a complete package system

 

[alnav]

If you're going to change out the whole system, you should probably start with the MFD and select the brand you are most comfortable with in terms of size, dash space, feature set and usability. Then flesh out the rest of the suite with that brand's models. The rest of the equipment (radar, autopilot, fish finder transducer) is roughly similar across brands in terms of features available but mixing and matching across brands is likely to be either impossible or awkward due to proprietary standards. Going for the just or about-to-be retired models is a way to save money with a tradeoff of not having the very latest. With respect to the autopilot, you may be able to retain the below-deck equipment like the pump and steering linkage and save on both equipment and installation cost. Document exactly what you have and see if the new models you explore are compatible with your equipment.