Autopilot Hydraulic Ram Mounting Photos

[h]

Has anyone got a photo of how your Hydraulic Ram is mounted on your boat?

I am trying to visualize the installation of my ram.

Forward Aft or across the boat? How strong the mounting pad have to be in order not to fail under heavy following seas?

Any references or guidelines I can refer to?

Thanks for your help.

[Veranda]

Once I had my auto pilot in hand I sat and looked at the area every time I went down to the boat. Before I got it I had a picture in my minds eye as to where I was gonna mount all the components. After I looked at it about a hundred times I ended up with something completely different than I had originally planned.

I ended up building a stringer of 2" X 4" 's. I fiberglassed it in anthwartships and then capped it with a piece of 1/2 inch aluminum. I bolted it down to my new stringer and to the bulkhead at either end of the new stringer. Its solid as stone and the aluminum gave me the ability to tap holes for mounting some of the various components.

Bill
s/v Veranda
Veranda422.blogspot.com

[zeehag]

phil sez is what i have in my formosa--but i donot have pix with me of it---gotta get some when i get home.....i know there are parts of it on my quadrant and a box in my master stateroom--i have simrad.....

[Randy]

I was like was like both of you. I did alot of prework before actually buying one and needing measurements so I could actually figure if it would fit in the space needed. Did alot of hand drawing and figuring.

As Bill says, it needs to be solid as a rock. Ours is on rear bulk head and is very solid as well. It helps if your able to do the work yourself as things seem to need to be custom fitted or machined.

Randy

[h]

Thank you all,

As they say, pictures tell a thousand words.

Looking at the two installations, I can arrow down my options on mounting plate for the ram.

Note: both installation uses a non-pivoting ram holder. I though that most installation are not in a single plane, hence the need for a pivoting ram holder, that can take up any variation in ram angle when it is pushing the ram on the auto-pilot arm. Any comments? I guess all intallation are different.

Thanks again.

[Veranda]

The ram base is rigid mounted but the bearing inside the base can pivot independently of the base. I don't really know how much but I bet its at least 15 degrees.

Bill
s/v Veranda
Veranda422.blogspot.com

[Art Dufresne]

you don't mention the size of the boat

when designing your install make sure you are bolting to something very solid, glass reinforce the mounting point if necessary. ram autopilots take a lot of impact loads in rough weather.

[h]

Art,

My boat is 34 ft. Smallest B&G ram did the job based on the calculations. See my calcs on

http://oleana.webs.com/L&S%20Linear%20Drive%20Selection%20Proce...

It pivots in 2 directions, horizontal and vertical. Hence I do not need to make sure that the ram is in the same plane as the AP ram.