Autotether, tests great!

AutoTether_on_Gizmo_cPanbo

The Autotether wireless engine kill switch system sounded good to me on first Web site read, but, by golly, it’s even better in the flesh. I’ve been testing it for a while now, and can tell you that if that yellow FOB goes underwater or about 50 feet from the base station, the spring loaded plunger lower right will activate nearly instantly, stopping my Honda 40 dead. The white passenger FOB works the same, but just sets off a buzzer, so the driver can u-turn back to the MOB. The base station and FOBs run on AA batteries and the base attaches with sticky-back hook-and-loop tape, so installation is trivial. The manual is a little wordier than needed, but learning to turn the system on and understand the LEDs is pretty easy. The Autotether folks have developed a solid safety product which frankly may my save my dumb butt some day, as Gizmo is an easy boat to fall out of and I rarely used the wired kill switch as it’s so clumsy.



Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

2 Responses

  1. norse says:

    small correction: It uses AAA batteries.
    If the driver fob goes MOB, the manual doesn’t mention the possibility that some passenger might be able to drive the boat back to pick up the missing driver. That passenger might find it less than obvious how to re-enable the engine.

  2. Russ says:

    True, but certainly no worse than when the outboard driver goes MOB with a wrist cord.
    Probably a bigger problem on a larger boat.

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