Someone help me out with autopilot

[Tyski92]

So I’m in the market for a 282 sailfish and most likely I will be upgrading electronics from the old furunos to either Garmin Simrad or Raymarine. I do a lot of ground fishing, lots of trolling for salmon here on the west coast, trolling for albacore and we’re gna be doing some day time deep dropping for swords and a occasional bft. Help me out with what kind of transducer I’m gna need to see up to 2500-3000ft as well as live bait fish shallow 10-20ft. I do want to upgrade autopilot as well but I have no idea what I need or how it really works

 

[jtselios10]

I have a 2006 282 I run Simrad nss12 Evo3. I have a 3-1 active transducer and a Hdi skimmer. I run a lot shallower water but the system is great you can run 2 transducers on one unit. Super easy to use I am adding auto pilot now too, system can be fully intergrated no need for a standalone controller. Pump is not fully hooked up yet waiting in some hoses . It’s located in hatch in the mid berth compass is located in center hatch of mid birth. Computer fits In my dash with the NMEA network .

 

[amf282]

We run a pair of Garmin 7610s with a through hull GT41 transducer for clear Vu and Side Vu scanning. Simrad AP 24 autopilot and Garmin xHD 18"radar. All is networked through a NEMA 2000 backbone. If we had to do it again, would probably add a Garmin autopilot for ease of use with displays, but Simrad gets the job done.

 

[trapper]

Hey Tyski, what are you fishing for at 2000 t0 35000 ft? I thought fishing up here with riggers at 300 t0 400 ft was a deep but what are you seeing at those depths?

 

[SkunkBoat]

Here on East Coast, deep drop sword fishing is usually 1500-1800ft.

If you really need 3000ft depth you are going to need top of the line sonar and transducer and a shipload of money.
A Garmin GSD26 is up to 3kw and cost $2000 just for the black box.Transducers over 1kw are crazy expensive.
You could get away with a 1kw unit... like a GSD25
You will have to match your transducer to the sonar so its hard to recommend one. That can be a dizzying process...so many choices.
Look at the Airmar transducer site http://www.airmar.com/bottom-calculator.html?refid=B275LHW

You are also going to want a Sidevu type sonar and transducer

For autopilot I recommend the Garmin Reactor40 with SmartPump. Its fantastic at all speeds.

 

[drbatts]

I'm currently in the process of installing a garmin reactor 40 and smart pump on my boat, so I'm Biased. All of my other electronics are Garmin, so i went with their autopilot. Plus Skunk gave it a good review.

 

[Fowl Hooked]

I did the electronics upgrade this off-season and given the space available I opted for Raymarine as I could fit a pair of 12" MFDs; I liked the Garmin units but the height was going to be a challenge. I went with one Axiom Pro as the primary and one regular Axiom as a repeater. The Pro model comes with two built in sonar drivers so no black boxes needed, a 600W matched to their 3D transducer and a 1kW that I have driving an Airmar dual band CHIRP, both are transom mounts on my boat but there are in-hull and thru-hull options. Given the depths I fish on the east cost I went with Airmar's TM275LHW low/high wide which brings a constant 25 degree beam width; it limits depth to 600' but more than doubles the area being looked at, the low band will supposedly reach 3K feet. Given the stay at home order I've not yet splashed the boat to actually try the sonars but am excited at the prospects of coverage here in the Chesapeake and the near-shore waters of the mid-Atlantic. The NMEA standards are such that I think most components will work well enough across brands but full interface functionality will likely require you to stick with one manufacturer who designed their units to work together from the start.

 

[SkunkBoat]

btw, I recommend a stand alone controller for the autopilot....close to the wheel where you can make adjustments while sitting in the chair and trolling.

 

[jtselios10]

I agree if you are putting a full touch screen mfd then a stand alone head unit is great. With my evo3 it has a dedicated button To turn auto on and out back in stand by. Also a knob that can turn for course movement. I would check size and make sure you know where you can locate pump if going Garmin reactor 40 it is a large setup. I know in my 282 space is limited in the aft bilge .