autopilot

Posted By: Robin among the California fruits and nuts
Date: 2/25/08 8:47p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Honda 9.9 (Albert)

You probably will be using the autopilot mostly for motoring so an extra battery is really not necessary, if you did use the autopilot for sailing, the draw is minimal, I think you could use it for a couple of hours and still have the juice to startup..on my boat I rigged a 30watt solar panel, and it almost kept up with the autopilot's draw. Extra batteries come in handy though if you cruise and find yourself at anchor for a few days at a time, then 2 batteries wired together (pos to pos neg to neg with a battery selector switch) provides a nice cushion against excessive discharge (poison to battery health)...if you just day-sail one battery is fine