I own a 2001 Chaparral 180 SSE. When I first looked at the boat, I saw that it had 149 hours on the hour meter. When I picked the boat up, I didn't even inspect the hour meter, and a couple of weeks later I noticed it was not there. I believe it was on the RPM gauge. I called the dealer and he said they probably changed the RPM gauge out when I bought because it didn't work, and the new one does not have an hour meter on it. My question is, how does the hour meter work? Off of the RPM's or something else? If the RPM gauge was not working, was the hour meter frozen? The dealership is making it right by installing a new gauge with an hour meter, but now I'm wondering if the hour meter was even accurate. In the dealer's defense, when I first looked at the boat, they had just gotten it in and hadn't even inspected it, or cleaned it up (they literally got it in that day, or the day before).
I help maintain a 28' Chesapeake workboat with a Honda 235 on the transom. When the tach crapped out so did the hour meter that was built into it.
Depends what kind of hour meter it is, some just work off of ignition on voltage, some are integrated with the ECU of the engine. I agree if its FI its possible that data is logged into the ECU.
On a 14 year old boat you more or less go by condition of the upholstery and how clean it is, condition of the zincs, prop, hull, etc.. . A simple hour meter wouldn't be a huge thing for me because some people beat the shit out of their stuff in a few hours while the next guy may just cruise around the lake. The newer mercs I know give a throttle position percentage and let you know where the engine has spent most of its life.
If it runs OK don't sweat it.. I'd be more wary of a 14 year old boat with only 149 hours than one used regularly and a bunch more hours.
Took it to the dealer today. He's going to install another one. It'll show zero, but I know what the engine already had on it (around 150 hours), so I'll be able to keep track. There's also a gasket leaking (not that big of a deal) and I just now noticed the trim oil leaking. They're taking care of all of that too. None of this was supposed to be under warranty and they could've been difficult about the situation. For all you north Texas people, I recommend Jerry Whittle boats.
Boat; BIG hole the water in which one dumps lots of money!1 The only way I can afford it is I get paid to run one and they dump the money in the big hole!! That being said I do treat it and take care of it as if it were my own. Just got assigned a brand new Boston Whaler 23' Guardian with a 300 Yammie on the back. 150 hrs since April 1.
