Jesperjo
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- Jun 6, 2024
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- Fluid Motion Model
- C-26
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- Out of Office
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write a while ago. Last year, one of the first upgrades I did on our 2024 Ranger Tug R-25 OB was the Lenco Autoglide system. Had I known then what I now know about it, I wouldn’t have done it. Most of the reviews are good for it, so clearly the experience we have had with it may be atypical, but to provide other people with the information to decide for themselves if it is worth it, I thought I’d write up what we thought. I know other people have had a great experience with theirs. @Submariner has installed a number of these, including ours, and he loves his. This is merely our experience and intended to offer some food for thought in case you are considering this upgrade.
This is a little bit late, not least because Lenco has replaced the Autoglide with Pro Control Auto. I’m not sure how that works. It does use different actuators on the trim tabs, whereas Autoglide uses the standard ones that come with the non-automatic trim tabs. You can still find plenty of Autoglides available though, and I’m sure many tuggers are considering it.
The upgrade to the Autoglide is relatively straight forward. On the R-25, and the R-27 (possibly others too but I only know about these two) you remove the refrigerator to access the existing controls. You remove those, install the Autoglide, then remove the Garmin screen, add a double-T to your NMEA 2000 bus, plug the Autoglide in, and calibrate it. Theoretically, it should now automatically control your trim tabs and you’ll never have to touch them again. Theoretically.
The system comes with two key benefits. First, it is supposed to detect that the boat is accelerating and drop the trim tabs to assist in the hole shot. I think it actually does this. It is a slight but noticeable difference and the boat does come up on a plane pretty quickly with them. It comes up on a plane pretty quickly without them too though. I don’t think this is really that key of a difference. We don’t have a custom prop on our boat, but from what I hear, upgrading to a PowerTech prop probably helps more than upgrading to Autoglide, and costs about the same.
The second benefit is that once you are up on a plane, it should automatically level the boat and keep it level. It can make small adjustments more frequently than you can. This should keep the boat more level. This is where the system has failed us for a number of reasons. First, the Ranger Tugs are actually remarkably stable and sea worthy. You just don’t fiddle with the tabs that much, meaning the Autoglide just doesn’t help that much.
If that was all, it would be fine, but in our experience, the Autoglide actually is detrimental. The vast majority of the time, we actually cruise with the automation disabled. Here is why.
First, we cruise on autopilot a lot. We nearly always navigate and having the boat do (most) of the steering is lovely. The autopilot and Autoglide, however, are like play yard enemies. The autopilot detects when you veer off course. It then adjusts the course to correct. This typically happens when sea action knocks you off, and it typically happens within 15 feet or so of the course deviation. When this happens, according to the documentation, the Autoglide should detect that the boat is steering and “help”. However, it doesn’t. I’ve spoken to @Andrew Custis at Fluid Motion about this and his theory, which I believe is correct, is that the Autoglide is simply too slow. The autopilot is quick, and gets the boat back on course. Then the Autoglide realizes that the boat is (or in this case, was) leaning, and adjusts. Say your course deviation was to port. The boat corrected and steered to starboard, which makes it lean toward starboard. The Autoglide detects that you are off level and pushes down the starboard trim tab (or up the port one, but it doesn’t matter which). This pushes the boat into a port side lean, which means it deviates off course to port, which the autopilot tries to correct, and the Autoglide counter correct, etc etc etc.
The result is that the boat ends up running in a tight zig zag pattern. It’s quite uncomfortable. It leans to starboard, then to port, then to starboard, and so on. I’ve tried leaving it alone and figured itself out, and it doesn’t ever seem to do so. It just keeps doing this zig zag until I finally tire of it, hit one of the trim tab buttons on the Autoglide to set it to manual mode, and then it immediately sorts itself out. The autopilot writes me a thank you note for expelling the play yard bully, and the boat is happy again. This behavior alone is enough to make me regret installing the system. It works acceptably well on smooth water where the waves won’t knock you off course, but when you’re on smooth water the Autoglide has nothing to do anyway, so it doesn’t provide any real benefit
However, there is an even more disturbing behavior that makes me consider pulling the entire system out of the boat and putting the old controls back in. Sometimes the wave action pushes the boat off course. E.g., if there are waves coming from the port side, it will push the boat to starboard. The autopilot detects this and tries to steer into port, which causes a lean to port. The waves, being lower than the bulk of the boat will exacerbate this lean a bit and cause it to lean a bit more. If this were all, it would be fine. But, this is where Autoglide decides it wants to play too. I don’t know what exactly it is doing in this situation. My theory is that the waves, coming from slightly aft of the boat, are pushing the bow up. The Autoglide tries to correct this by pushing down the trim tabs. Notably, in the situation above, with waves from port, it tries to drop the starboard tab. This greatly exacerbates the lean to port creating a very uncomfortable situation where the boat feels like it is at risk of capsizing. The first time this happened I didn’t know what it was and cut the power so I could get control back over the boat, but since then, I typically run with the Autoglide in manual mode instead. When I do that, this simply doesn’t happen. It is a very uncomfortable situation. Under no circumstances at this point do I use the Autoglide automation at all in any kind of seas. I only ever use them on glass flat water, when they really aren’t needed at all.
Your mileage will vary with Autoglide I am sure. I’ve spoken to @Submariner about our experience. He suggested they were not calibrated correctly so I reset the entire system and recalibrated it. It did not help. His own experience has been great on an R-27, however. Perhaps that boat is more suited to Autoglide? I only know that on our R-25, the experience has not been great. I may still take a day to pull the fridge out and entirely remove the system. I have not decided yet. If you want to play with them, let me know and maybe I will decide it is worth my time to yank it. If you have had a better experience with them on an R-25, please let me know.
This is a little bit late, not least because Lenco has replaced the Autoglide with Pro Control Auto. I’m not sure how that works. It does use different actuators on the trim tabs, whereas Autoglide uses the standard ones that come with the non-automatic trim tabs. You can still find plenty of Autoglides available though, and I’m sure many tuggers are considering it.
The upgrade to the Autoglide is relatively straight forward. On the R-25, and the R-27 (possibly others too but I only know about these two) you remove the refrigerator to access the existing controls. You remove those, install the Autoglide, then remove the Garmin screen, add a double-T to your NMEA 2000 bus, plug the Autoglide in, and calibrate it. Theoretically, it should now automatically control your trim tabs and you’ll never have to touch them again. Theoretically.
The system comes with two key benefits. First, it is supposed to detect that the boat is accelerating and drop the trim tabs to assist in the hole shot. I think it actually does this. It is a slight but noticeable difference and the boat does come up on a plane pretty quickly with them. It comes up on a plane pretty quickly without them too though. I don’t think this is really that key of a difference. We don’t have a custom prop on our boat, but from what I hear, upgrading to a PowerTech prop probably helps more than upgrading to Autoglide, and costs about the same.
The second benefit is that once you are up on a plane, it should automatically level the boat and keep it level. It can make small adjustments more frequently than you can. This should keep the boat more level. This is where the system has failed us for a number of reasons. First, the Ranger Tugs are actually remarkably stable and sea worthy. You just don’t fiddle with the tabs that much, meaning the Autoglide just doesn’t help that much.
If that was all, it would be fine, but in our experience, the Autoglide actually is detrimental. The vast majority of the time, we actually cruise with the automation disabled. Here is why.
First, we cruise on autopilot a lot. We nearly always navigate and having the boat do (most) of the steering is lovely. The autopilot and Autoglide, however, are like play yard enemies. The autopilot detects when you veer off course. It then adjusts the course to correct. This typically happens when sea action knocks you off, and it typically happens within 15 feet or so of the course deviation. When this happens, according to the documentation, the Autoglide should detect that the boat is steering and “help”. However, it doesn’t. I’ve spoken to @Andrew Custis at Fluid Motion about this and his theory, which I believe is correct, is that the Autoglide is simply too slow. The autopilot is quick, and gets the boat back on course. Then the Autoglide realizes that the boat is (or in this case, was) leaning, and adjusts. Say your course deviation was to port. The boat corrected and steered to starboard, which makes it lean toward starboard. The Autoglide detects that you are off level and pushes down the starboard trim tab (or up the port one, but it doesn’t matter which). This pushes the boat into a port side lean, which means it deviates off course to port, which the autopilot tries to correct, and the Autoglide counter correct, etc etc etc.
The result is that the boat ends up running in a tight zig zag pattern. It’s quite uncomfortable. It leans to starboard, then to port, then to starboard, and so on. I’ve tried leaving it alone and figured itself out, and it doesn’t ever seem to do so. It just keeps doing this zig zag until I finally tire of it, hit one of the trim tab buttons on the Autoglide to set it to manual mode, and then it immediately sorts itself out. The autopilot writes me a thank you note for expelling the play yard bully, and the boat is happy again. This behavior alone is enough to make me regret installing the system. It works acceptably well on smooth water where the waves won’t knock you off course, but when you’re on smooth water the Autoglide has nothing to do anyway, so it doesn’t provide any real benefit
However, there is an even more disturbing behavior that makes me consider pulling the entire system out of the boat and putting the old controls back in. Sometimes the wave action pushes the boat off course. E.g., if there are waves coming from the port side, it will push the boat to starboard. The autopilot detects this and tries to steer into port, which causes a lean to port. The waves, being lower than the bulk of the boat will exacerbate this lean a bit and cause it to lean a bit more. If this were all, it would be fine. But, this is where Autoglide decides it wants to play too. I don’t know what exactly it is doing in this situation. My theory is that the waves, coming from slightly aft of the boat, are pushing the bow up. The Autoglide tries to correct this by pushing down the trim tabs. Notably, in the situation above, with waves from port, it tries to drop the starboard tab. This greatly exacerbates the lean to port creating a very uncomfortable situation where the boat feels like it is at risk of capsizing. The first time this happened I didn’t know what it was and cut the power so I could get control back over the boat, but since then, I typically run with the Autoglide in manual mode instead. When I do that, this simply doesn’t happen. It is a very uncomfortable situation. Under no circumstances at this point do I use the Autoglide automation at all in any kind of seas. I only ever use them on glass flat water, when they really aren’t needed at all.
Your mileage will vary with Autoglide I am sure. I’ve spoken to @Submariner about our experience. He suggested they were not calibrated correctly so I reset the entire system and recalibrated it. It did not help. His own experience has been great on an R-27, however. Perhaps that boat is more suited to Autoglide? I only know that on our R-25, the experience has not been great. I may still take a day to pull the fridge out and entirely remove the system. I have not decided yet. If you want to play with them, let me know and maybe I will decide it is worth my time to yank it. If you have had a better experience with them on an R-25, please let me know.
