Beneteau 343 Rudder Position Sensor Installation

[BigEasy]

I am preparing to install a Raymarine rudder position sensor on my 343. My understanding is that some of the 343's had the position installed from the factory and some did not. Unfortunately for me, mine did not have the sensor. I would certainly appreciate any advice as to where and how the sensor is installed. Any special brackets necessary? Photos would be super. Thanks.

 

[TAK]

BigEasy, Attached pix is from a Beneteau 381and shows the rudder position sensor mounted forward of the quadrant and the rod attached to the quadrant at about the 3 o'clock position. Disregard the dog hair and leaves, pix was before a heavy cleaning.

Regards
PaulJ
SV Summerhaven

 

[BigEasy]

Paul,
Thanks for the photo. Illustrates that there are multiple ways to set this up. From reading the installation instructions, I thought the rudder sensor arm has to be parallel to the tiller or in the case of a wheel steered boat, parallel to the rudder when the rudder is centered. From the looks of your installation, it appears that as long as the rod and tiller pin are 90 degrees to the rudder sensor arm, you are good to go. Again, I appreciate the help.

 

[Philip_Oceanis 361]

This is where mine is

 

[kloudie1]

Phil, I know its not Beneteau, but you can mount it upside down too and have it end up being pretty compact. The "sense" wires had to be reversed to make it correct

 

[TAK]

Yes the sensor is 90 deg to the rudder and I would guess the install was done by Beneteau when the boat was new. Seems to work ok. The was another 381 at my Marina and I believe it was installed the same way.

 

[DougM]

The sensor on my 323 is also installed "upside down". Simply had to reverse two wires at the course computer. It just made a more convenient setup on the quadrant. I'm not sure that the instructions provided from Beneteau showed the sensor installed that way, but there was no room for it otherwise.

 

[BigEasy]

Doug, if you get a chance, could you post a photo of the sensor installation on your 323? I would think that the rudder & quadrant setup should be similar to that of a 343.

Also, I am having a conversation with someone on another site who insists that the rudder sensor really isn't needed on a boat with a wheel mounted auto pilot. He stated that the sensor is most beneficial on a linear autopilot; however, little to no improvement on a wheel pilot. He claims that he has installed numerous wheel pilots and if they are calibrated & setup correctly, it should work well without a rudder sensor.

 

[Ron20324]

You'd need the sensor on my Ray system if you want to make use of the rudder indication on the autopilot.

 

[BigEasy]

Ron, this is what this thread has been about; mounting the raymarine rotary rudder reference/sensor (M81105). That must be
the unit that is mounted on your rudder/steering quadrant. Not to be confused with the rudder position visible display; just the sensor that feeds back to the autopilot.

 

[Ron20324]

[QUOTE="...Ron, this is what this thread has been about; mounting the raymarine rotary rudder reference/sensor (M81105). That must be the unit that is mounted on your rudder/steering quadrant. Not to be confused with the rudder position visible display; just the sensor that feeds back to the autopilot.[/QUOTE]

Understood. I was commenting on whomever said the sensor was not needed. On my Ray AP, at the bottom of the AP screen, it will show the rudder postion by little tick-marks. Otherwise, here is how my B323 (2006) was installed- by the dealer , i'm sure. I'd like to see Doug's "upside-down".

 

[DougM]

Doug, if you get a chance, could you post a photo of the sensor installation on your 323? I would think that the rudder & quadrant setup should be similar to that of a 343.

Sorry,but I cannot get you a photo. I'm a thousand miles away from my boat and its shrink wrapped and possibly snow covered.

 

[BigEasy]

Doug,
Hope you are in a warmer climate. Hopefully the boat will thaw soon!

 

[BigEasy]

Ron,
Much thanks for posting the photos of the rotary rudder transducer / sensor.
It is truly amazing to see the multitude of mounting configurations; many of which don't resemble the raymarine installation instructions & schematic.
1. with the rudder centered, the reference arm should be 90 degrees to the connecting bar
and the reference arm should be parallel to the rudder.
2. The connecting bar / rod should be a minimum length of 3" and maximum of 12".
3. The tiller (quadrant) toggle pin should be a minimum of 4" from the rudder shaft
and a maximum of 7.5"
(See the attached installation schematic)
With some of the installations that I have seen, makes me wonder what is being measured and is it really doing any good!

 

[Ron20324]

I had to brighten up pic 3 to show detail. The original installation allowed the arm to pop off that socket on the quadrant when the wheel went hard over too quickly. You can see in the pic that I put some hose over the quadrant's bumper to increase the bumper size/reduce wheel travel/stop ball and socket separation.