attaching a tiller mount to rudder shaft for autopilot

[Rock Richardson]

I need to attach a tiller arm to the rudder shaft, the top on the shaft is square for an emergency tiller. can I use this square part of the shaft to attach a tiller arm for an autopilot

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[Seawater]

Yes. I did and it working well for over a decade. You should make it easy to remove so you can still use your emergency tiller

[Rock Richardson]

What did you go with as far as a tiller , hydraulic or mechanical, do you use it sailing or only motoring I’m an looking at hydraulic, either 7 or 12 inches long
how did you measure it.? where did you put the tiller base? Sorry for all the questions but I am new to this

thanks
Rock
SV Topaz

[Bryan Bywalec]

We are currently fitting a B&G T2 hydraulic ram coupled to the NAC-3 computer. We’ve seen boats that used a tiller on the square part above the quadrant but elected to go with the Edson Tiller Arm that fits below the quadrant. It isn’t cheap but we didn’t want to make fitting an emergency tiller that much harder. We are using the 10″ one.

I’ve attached a picture of what the tiller looks like above the quadrant on another Pearson 424 in our area with the same T2 ram. Sorry they aren’t better quality, I took the pictures after three bushwhackers.

The last photo is of our boat with the proposed location of the ram. The tiller arm is on its way and should be installed on the 13th. We had to build a foundation for it to sit on but haven’t glassed it in yet as we want to confirm the setup with the actual tiller. What is shown is a mock up.

Right now I’m trying to locate a good spot to mount the solid state compass and computer!

Jefa makes a direct drive electric unit that we were considering but ended up going with the T2 ram based on our research. We will use it both sailing and motoring.

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Bryan Bywalec
S/V Pelican, Hull 209
Siren Engineering, LLC

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[Rock Richardson]

I decided not to attach the rudder arm to the square emergency tiller head but went lower I attached an octopus hydraulic ram and a rudder feed back on the opposite side, I also went with the NAC 3 computer. have done the dock test but not the open water test, soon ill let you know how it works
rock

[Author]

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