I-pilot spot lock ?

[Jim L]

Does any one have problems with their US2 cable wrapping around the shaft and the head of their motor when using the spot lock? Am I doing something wrong? It twists pretty tight sometimes!
Thanks ,Jim

[reddog]

There is a set number of rotations that a Terrova will allow, before "unwinding". I think it is 2 1/2 rotations. If you already had a wrap or two in the cable, and then the Spot lock decided it was time to Unwind, I could see it getting tight, but with the US2 coming up thru the shaft, and out the head, I dont think it should ever be a problem, unless you dont have enough slack to begin with.. Sometimes, you need to check on it, and unwind it yourself..

[Bill Krejca]

I have had situations where I turned on spot lock, after turning off the outboard, before the boat came to a complete stop (drift), and got a little extra twisting while the motor returned back to the desired GPS position.

When it looks like there is too much twist in the cable, I just manually (with the control) turn the motor around to untwist it.

Bill

[Juls]

If I don't bring the boat to a stop (by hitting reverse and heading the bow into the wind first) it will twist around while it finds the spot where I hit the "lock" position.

It will unwind itself when it gets back to the "locked" spot.

After watching it do that two or three times, I figured if I stopped the boat completely before hitting the "lock" position, it wouldn't do that anymore.... I was right.

Stop the boat then hit the button to keep it from twisting around like that.

Juls

[Jim L]

Originally Posted by reddog

There is a set number of rotations that a Terrova will allow, before "unwinding". I think it is 2 1/2 rotations. If you already had a wrap or two in the cable, and then the Spot lock decided it was time to Unwind, I could see it getting tight, but with the US2 coming up thru the shaft, and out the head, I dont think it should ever be a problem, unless you dont have enough slack to begin with.. Sometimes, you need to check on it, and unwind it yourself..

I must not have enough slack to start with I just don"t like two feet of slack cable laying around to trip on thanks.

[FryDog62]

Juls brings up a great point about being mostly stopped before engaging spot lock, makes a big difference. Adding a little more (not too much) slack also helps. Before I did that I got so twisted a couple times the plastics collar where the wires go into the housing popped off - thankfully in the boat and not in the water.