Cost of autopilot install

[Waterfriends4]

I have a 2005 320DA with V drives and 6.2 litre engines. All Raymarine electronics. I asked marina for a quote to purchase and install a new autopilot. Their quote was $5,500. Does that seem about right? I thought it was very high.

 

[CSR_Admin]

Which pilot were they quoting? A pilot installation on your boat is pretty straight forward. It can take a while though, if it takes 15 hours that is $1275 in labor (this is high), and even the best of autopilots for your boat costs about $3200 with the typical pilot being about $1500, so I would say they are quite out of whack. I would get a second opinion. Now there could be somethign about your boat I don't know that requires them to make a special platform or do some kind of rigging out of the ordinary, but I doubt it.

 

[Dancin Dave]

Get 3-4 qoutes.try to get to a boatshow, apples to apples. the highest price will be the one from the firm that works your marina. Now get the lowest qoute the one thats a 25-30% percent lower, and call the firm that works your marina and thinks they have the biz locked up, thank them for the qoute but your going with the outfit that suprisingly came in much lower on the job. They will appreciate the opportunity to match that price since they dont want him in the marina potentially losing their work to a more hungry, fair, competive outfit.

 

[fwebster]

I don't know on the boat in question, but on some Sea Rays the standard steering gear is mechanical actuation via cable. On those boats it is usually more cost effective and gives you a better functioning a/p to change the steering over to hydraulic and that means adding a helm pump, hydraulic lines and a rudder actuator.

That may explain the high cost..........

 

[bliss]

I would search for owners of your model boat and see who is happy with what before making any final decisions as to product and installer.This is one of those things that you want to get right the first time.
I am especialy interested in this subject right now. I bought a 1997 330DA with a Raytheon (maybe Raymarine) auto pilot and mechanical steering. It was a winter puchase with a big dollar holdback subject to sea trial in the spring. The seller is very confident that the autopilot will perform well. We'll see.
I am curious about fwebster's comment re mechanical steering. After the expense of changing over from mechanical to hydraulic steering how is the cost effectivness mentioned achieved? Are you refering to reduced fuel costs resulting from better tracking?
Thanks.

 

[fwebster]

My cost effective comment should have been clarified. The total cost of the installation is dependant upon the boat in question and what, if anything, needs to be changed. My comment on cost effectiveness pertained to the autopilot and its installation only. A mechanical actuation for cable steering is expensive, but with hydraulic steering it usually just means a hydraulic pump installation and no mechanical hook up other than T's in the hydrauliuc lines and the rudder feedback sender.

How effective an a/p is on fuel economy is pretty much dependant upon whether your a/p is speed proportional or not. I notice that some guys in our marina who opted for the lower priced Raymarine model when they added their a/p's zig-zag all over the place as the a/p continually over corrects at cruise speeds or at fast idle, depending upon how the installer set the gain. I just won't follow one of them.

I've got a B&G a/p that is speed proportional and the wake at any speed looks like it was drawn with a straight edge.

 

[bliss]

Thank you. Interesting. I have had electronics of one sort or another on my last six boats. I, for the most part, have stayed with Raytheon/Raymarine because of the excellent and speedy service I have received from their repair people in New Hampshire. Now in Merrimack.
The one exception to the above is autopilots. I have had better results with Cetrek (I think now a part of TeleFlex). No matter what brand; I think waterfriends4 needs to talk to knowedgable owners of his model boat and get a feel for what pilot has worked best. Of course it will be one of the expensive ones!