Can you replace mechanical hour meter with digital?

[MHorn0817]

I have the hour meter in with my tach, the kind that spins and I'm assuming is (mechanical). I want to replace my gauges but I cannot find any gauges that I like with a roll style hour meter, just digital.

Would the digital hour meter still work or no? I know there is a signal wire for the hour meter but not sure if mechanical and digital get signal from the same.place or not.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[techmitch]

I have the hour meter in with my tach, the kind that spins and I'm assuming is (mechanical). I want to replace my gauges but I cannot find any gauges that I like with a roll style hour meter, just digital.

Would the digital hour meter still work or no? I know there is a signal wire for the hour meter but not sure if mechanical and digital get signal from the same.place or not.

Thanks in advance for the help.

That should not be a problem. The hour meter part of the gauge is usually powered by an ignition on power wire be analog/mechanical or electronic/digital.

 

[Bt Doctur]

An hour meter can be placed wherever there is a ign wire anywhere on the vessel.

 

[b_arrington]

If replacing the mechanical hour meter, you should document the number of hours since the new meter will start at 0. Maybe make a card, or add a conspicuous label to the engine like " Hour meter replaced on X date. True hours = dash meter + ### hours."

I was considering replacing one of my SmartCraft digital gauges with the hour meter. I could never get a good answer if the hours were stored in the gauge, or if the gauge was just displaying hours stored in the engine ECU.

 

[MHorn0817]

Yeah the guage with the hour meter will be saved to show hull hours. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a gauge set and a digital hour meter not work.

 

[Skybolt]

Yeah the guage with the hour meter will be saved to show hull hours. I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a gauge set and a digital hour meter not work.

Take pictures of it on the boat along with paper doc. Most hour meters that are not SmartCraft and that are part of the tach go off of the tach signal. So if the tach sig is 0 RPM then no hours logged, if there is a sig > 1rpm then hours are logged. That is for the higher priced ones. Some are just off of the ignition being on.


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