Garmin Reactor 40 Autopilot Install, Mechanical Type R Drive for Mercruiser on Searay Amberjack

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I had such a hard time trying to find a "how to", to install a Garmin Autopilot onto a mechanical stern drive vessel. Little did I know, there are very few options for mechanical steering boats to have an autopilot application. This 270 Searay Amberjack has a 6.2l MPI Horizon motor made by Mercruiser. The steering is a mechanical drive with hydraulic assist. Octopus worked with Garmin to help create the correct drive unit compatible with an autopilot for stern drive vessels. The key to making this all work is having the correct rudder feedback sensor. The wiring diagram in the video shows where all connections need to be. Also you will see the dockside wizard run its calibration program.
buy.garmin.com... Autopilot
www.westmarine... Type R Drive Unit
www.westmarine... Rudder Feedback Sensor

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7 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 40

@ew1421 6 месяцев назад

I'm fixing to add autopilot to my houseboat and this video helped clear up a few questions I had. Thanks for sharing.

@highpointeoutdoors6958 6 месяцев назад

Oh happy to help! I searched high and low for a video to show me how to install it. I figured other people may be in the same situation as me, so why not film it to share

@ew1421 6 месяцев назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 I'm installing it on the s drive that I already have at the helm so it should basically be the same installation process. The rudder control module is what I was wondering about and you explained it perfectly. Thanks!

@highpointeoutdoors6958 5 месяцев назад

@@ew1421 happy to help! Goodluck with your install

@Moondog9322 3 года назад

I think the Amberjack is the best boat Sea Ray ever made.

@blindosprey6789 2 года назад

I’ve been running the Reactor 40 on my kicker and it works great!

@highpointeoutdoors6958 2 года назад

That’s great to hear. This was our second season with ours and so far we have no complaints

@xanaphyst Год назад

I removed the mercruiser steering system completely and installed a hydraulic seastar cylinder and helm. Very easy and no rudder feedback required.

@highpointeoutdoors6958 Год назад

That's awesome, I sorta wish we had done that but we were eager to get something installed to hit the water right away. I can't complain too much with our currently auto pilot because it has been a life saver on the water for us and has worked great. How long would you say it took for you to fully install the hydraulic steering system and then the auto pilot?

@xanaphyst Год назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 it took two days. The hardest part was removing the old steering system. Everything else was easy

@arooshka 3 года назад

Great video. Thank you!

@ernesthorn1535 2 года назад

I love your channel, keep it coming guys

@highpointeoutdoors6958 2 года назад

Thank you! I got more videos coming, just kinda got busy getting into the deer stand but still lots more coming ASAP!

@ernesthorn1535 2 года назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 are you still happy with the autopilot, is that octopus R Drive working well

@highpointeoutdoors6958 2 года назад

@@ernesthorn1535 we actually had it go out on us on the very last trip of the season. Haven’t had a chance to pull it out and go through it. Hopefully it just needs to be recalibrated but I fear it’s the gear in the motor. Luckily it’s under warranty still. But besides that, it worked flawlessly for us and did everything we needed it to

@ernesthorn1535 2 года назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 thank you very much, I’ll keep watching to see what you find out. I’m going to follow your video carefully and install mine

@ernesthorn1535 2 года назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 can you create a route on your chart plotter, auto routing, and will it follow it?

@AchikSarih 4 месяца назад

Merci beaucoup ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

@jakejacobson2999 19 дней назад

Is this right enough for trolling? I just bought a 245 Starfire, which has a 5.7 MerCruiser in board Stern Drive. I really want to put an auto pilot on it for Fishing since the helm is so far from the back of the boat and I still wanna be able to fish with two people.

@highpointeoutdoors6958 19 дней назад

@@jakejacobson2999 we use our autopilot for 99.99 percent of fishing. We have used it to navigate back to the pier heads up and plane but trolling for walleye and salmon is our primary use of it. And it has worked well for us over the years

@jakejacobson2999 19 дней назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958nice, that’s exactly what I’ll be using it for on Erie and Lake Ontario. I’m pretty handy with working on my boats. So how difficult would you say this was? I wasn’t sure if these units were able to go on sterndrives or not but I guess this answers my question lol I have a MerCruiser 5.7.

@highpointeoutdoors6958 18 дней назад

@@jakejacobson2999 I would give the whole project a 7.5 out of 10 for difficultly. But that includes the research of finding out what parts I needed to work from our Garmin to the drive unit. Finally a marina on Lake Ontario confirmed that the octopus drive type R unit would work for stern drive vessels. When I asked Garmin, which where I bought the reactor 40 from, they had no idea what drive unit would work for our boat. The installation wasn’t bad, the instructions walked us through pretty easily

@jakejacobson2999 18 дней назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 okay doesn’t sound bad. My boat is older however, it’s a 1990 so I may need a different part than you. I need to bring my boat home so I can figure out what steering system it has. What do you think the total cost roughly was?

@pooyarad Год назад

hello. does your aitopilot goes from engage to stanbt mode if you turn the wheel? does the clutch senses it?

@highpointeoutdoors6958 Год назад

Unfortunately no, our auto pilot doesn’t have the shadow drive feature that allows that. Shadow drive from my understanding is only applicable on hydraulic steering. Ours is a cable drive, with hydraulic assist. We would have had to convert our entire steering system to hydraulic. I hope this helps

@ttlkamd Год назад

I would like add this on my dual sterndrive chaparral. How much did everything cost you?

@highpointeoutdoors6958 Год назад

For the Garmin components plus the octopus, it costed about 3,500 if I do remember correctly

@nickb8618 2 года назад

If you have room can you just use the octopus type s drive that installs in the helm with existing teleflex cable to the motor instead of the remote (r) drive?

@highpointeoutdoors6958 2 года назад

Yes, you sure can. I know the reason why we didn’t go that route was because our helm did not have much room behind the steering wheel to fit that apparatus

@nickb8618 2 года назад

Another question can u run the autopilot while the main engine is off if I wanted to tie my kicker to my out drive?

@highpointeoutdoors6958 2 года назад

@@nickb8618 I guess that depends. Because on our boat, there’s still hydraulic assist to help turn the main engine. So the engine has to be on for the R drive to move the piston back and forth. Without it, it moves a lot slower.

@nickb8618 2 года назад

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 thanks my mercruiser has hydraulic assist so that answers my questions to troll with the kicker get the reactor 40 kicker autopilot.

@ernesthorn1535 3 года назад

What year is the Amberjack. I have a 2009 and would love to put an autopilot in it

@highpointeoutdoors6958 3 года назад

This one is a 2007. I believe everything should be the same to hook up for a 2009

@ernesthorn1535 2 года назад

Thank you very much, great video. I hope mine goes as smoothly as yours did.