We recently purchase the Navico/Simrad TP30, bought two of them from go2marine.com in Seattle, factory refurbished at $300 each without remote control. Both the Raymarine, formerly Autohelm and the Simrad TP30 are rated at 185 ft/lb max. Early tiller pilots are notorious for blowing cylinders, so we wanted the biggest tiller pilot from the durability standpoint, the TP30 replaced our Autohelm unit perfectly, everything is located in the ram assembly, unlike the autohelm at a wopping $1800 which spreads the keypad and compass all over the boat; the object of having a standby spare is to unplug and replace everything to eliminate all components within the system and get underway now. Short of having a power cord and receptical failure, the backup system has us back online in a hurry. We’ll deal with troubleshooting the problem later, in calm waters.
We like the tacking feature in the TP30, all we have to do is push 2 buttons and tend the sheets, the TP30 will bring Shamrock through the wind and set us up on a new tack, a nice feature shorthanded in rough seas.
You are better off stepping up to new techknowledgy than to fiddle fixing the old units, most vendors do not carry parts or want to think about servicing these units. We repaced a mint conditon Autohelm 2000, couldn’t find a backup spare in similar condition, so we EBayed it at $300, which paid for one of our new tiller pilots.
Electronics in my opinion these days are unplug and toss items, by the time they go bad, parts are obsolete or no longer available. This is coming from a guy who was raised on the principal of repair vs. replace, times have changed and so has the network of suppliers who use to support this equipment. I’m having a hard time adjusting to this philsophy, but I’m having fewer headaches these day and waste fewer days tracking down used junk.
Gone to the dark side 
Marty
BCC Forums bccforums@samlmorse.com wrote:
Author: Itchen
Username: Itchen
Subject: Navico/Simrad tiller pilot replacement
Forum: BCC Forum
Link: http://www.samlmorse.com/forum/read.php?5,4117,4117#msg-4117
Itchen’s old Navico TP300 CX tiller pilot began operating erratically a day out of Beaufort – wants to go hard to starbord and the problem seem to be electronic not mechanical this time. Last time one of the buttons was stuck and that could be easily fixed. So, does anybody know if this is likely fixable, and if not, what’s the best replacement. Navico has since been bought by Simrad - is the Simrad TP30 a drop-in replacement for the Navico 300CX? Would it use the same pedestal mount? It seems to be rated for a larger boat than a BCC, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I REALLY want to fix it or get a replacement it before the next leg of our trip homewards from Beaufort!
Regards to all,
Scott