Carver Owners Forum

We just recently purchased a 2000 Trojan 440 Express. It does not have autopilot. I'm looking for recommendations on brand or appropriate size. Does anyone know what type of steering it has .... Hynautic / Seastar etc.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all .

Probably Hynautic. Could have been changed to Seastar by previous owner. I changed my Hynautic to Seastar when the helm pump started leaking. Much easier to keep fluid topped off, and a 2 line system instead of 3. The Hynautics had a reservoir tank in the engine room that was not easy to access. Make sure you are very clear on the hydraulic steering fluid you use in the system. There are some products out there that are very confusing with the way they mark their bottles. For example, Quicksilver sells a product for power trim and steering. They should put power steering on the label to be clear. That is not the fluid you want to use in hydraulic steering. Good luck! er

Tmac928 wrote:Source of the post We just recently purchased a 2000 Trojan 440 Express. It does not have autopilot. I'm looking for recommendations on brand or appropriate size. Does anyone know what type of steering it has .... Hynautic / Seastar etc.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to all .

Unfortunately you will really have to crawl around and see what make you have installed.......lots of things get changed over the years so to be sure......well you get the picture.....good luck on your upgrade.

Hynautic included a separate spec sheet/operations brochure in the original manual package. See if you have that, and make sure the helm looks the same as the illustration. It is just a 3 or 4 page info sheet so it may look like incidental info. er

If you get a chance, post up some pictures of what you have and it might be easy for some folks to ID it. Even if not a pic specifically of the gear, but one that you may have taken of the helm or the engine compartment.

Thanks for the responses. We will be going to spend time on the boat next week. In a way I'm hoping it's a Hynautic steering... I know some of you have changed over to Sea Star, but I am very familiar with Hynautic and to me it's very easy to repair/rebuild, and I have a spare Hynautic helm pump.
I'll report back when I identify what it is. But as for the Autopilot .... what do people like or have on their boat ?

Thank you

Once you've determined what type of steering you have, I'd start by sticking with the same brand autopilot as the rest of your navigation electronics, that way there's less chance of communication incompatibilities and errors with your autopilot. Then it will depend on how old your current navigation system is and whether you'll need to stick with older auto pilot models or can go with more updated/current ones.