Island Time 1,211 Posted March 5, 2023 Share Posted March 5, 2023 36 minutes ago, aardvarkash10 said: Follow up on the auto tiller. It's now fitted and operational. Nothing exciting technology wise, just a standard TP32. However, there was earlier discussion around the tiller pin, so here it is. Works great. just remember that the TP32 max thrust is 85 Kg. The pin must support that, and the longer it is, the bigger the lever.... Quote Link to post
aardvarkash10 943 Posted March 5, 2023 Author Share Posted March 5, 2023 15 minutes ago, Island Time said: just remember that the TP32 max thrust is 85 Kg. The pin must support that, and the longer it is, the bigger the lever.... The ram travel is not as long as the free swing of the tiller. The pin is located about 1/3 of the distance from the tiller handgrip to the rudder stock, so 85kg is about the same as a 30kg effort at the grip - thats a lot of load! Any time its in use is likely to be benign rather than "sporting" conditions, so its unlikely to be struggling to manage a wildly weather-helmed event. I haven't done the math, but I in the event that it does exert maximum load, 85kg in shear would probably remove the head of the pin before anything else. Unless the tiller and rudder bind, I don't forsee an issue. Quote Link to post
Island Time 1,211 Posted March 5, 2023 Share Posted March 5, 2023 The correct position for mounting is 460mm forward of the rudder post center (pivot point). The issues are power, motion range and speed. Mounting the pin 460mm forward of the pivot gives the best performance of these 3 requirements. 85kg on the standard pin is fine, but with one of extended length the torque on the tiller can be quote a bit... and, set up correctly + with the right sail combination, they can steer pretty well. The single best improvement you can make is to add a decent compass - like a precision 9 - the difference in steering accuracy is HUGE. This is due to the fact that the little fluxgate in the tiller pilot is simply too small to give accuraqte headings in a seaway. 1 1 Quote Link to post
aardvarkash10 943 Posted March 10 Author Share Posted March 10 Been a while between drinks. I posted in the weekend thread about a trip to Coromandel that started with the raw water pump impeller self destructing. Here's the replacement. Great price, ordered 03/03, arrived a week later. Looks fine, if you hear nothing more you can assume it's lasting ok. The tiller pilot has been working fine now for a year. No issues with the mounting and leverage, but tracking is a bit random. It's going to get connected to the OpenCPN plotter this winter so that should resolve this minor issue. Quote Link to post
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