Hydraulic steering for AutoPilot - what's needed?

[b_arrington]

Can someone explain exactly what is meant by hydraulic steering, as needed for an autopilot?

I'm really not sure if my boat has what's needed, or if it would be cost-effective to upgrade. I've looked at the Garmin info and even read the instruction manual for the new autopilot unit without much clarification.

As an example, I have an Sea Ray 270 Amberjack with Bravo 3 stern drive (no Sea Ray comments please, I like my boat). It has steering cables from the helm back to the drive. But it is power-assisted with a hydraulic unit connected to the wheel under the dash Is that good enough for an AP?

[surfcaster51]

Without doing a full blown conversion to a full hydraulic system your only choice for what you have now is the simrad AP12r and the simrad ap14R. A hydralic steering system consist of a hydralic helm with lines running back to push or pull a hydralic ram that steers your boat I have the identical steering setup in my boat tht you haveand have concluded it to be to costly to convert to full hydralic steering to use any of the auto pilots available today. The simrad units are around $1500 or so and appear tp be a very good AP but are just a basic unit without any bells or whistles. A cable change is also required to use one of these but they are not expensive

[surfcaster51]

What I meant to say was...........hydraulic.........bt my U key must have been stck

[b_arrington]

That's about what I thought.

I would consider the Garmin AP as a fishing tool for the multiple types of patterns it can run. But not if I have to also create a completely new steering system. It would be too expensive, and I think, too much effort, on top of the non-inexpensive AP system.

Of course it would also be nice just to keep the boat on a straight course when I go back to check a line, too.