Carver Owners Forum

New to the forum and need a little help. We are under contract and had a ride on the Carver we intend to purchase. We were surprised that all four hour gauges had different hours on them. Anywhere from 40 to 600 hours on each. Broker said this was a common problem with Carvers. We are told we will be able to see actual hours during the survey. Broker also said it was probably some $15 relays that will fix the problem. Any knowledge on this or the cost to fix this problem?
One of the temperature gauges also not working.

Welcome to the forum.

I've never heard of that being a common Carver problem but anything's possible. I'm not familiar with how they power hour meters on that model specifically, whether they go through a relay or direct to an engine power circuit but the only way to get them even now providing they are actually functional is to apply power to the lower ones individually and leave them for the number of hours needed to bring them up to 600. The other option is to replace them with new ones, start at zero and leave a mechanical log of that somewhere on board like at the electrical panel for future reference. If you want them to read actual numbers, again you'll have to power them up and leave them on. Of course all this depends on whether there is power getting to them when they're wired into ship's systems. If there isn't, that needs to be diagnosed and remedied first. If the engines are computerized, a tech with diagnostic equipment to read computer data can retrieve the true hours on each engine.

Another option is to go NMEA 2000 if not equipped, install gateways to the engines to convert to NMEA 2K and view the hours from the engine computers directly on your nav display. This would also allow you to monitor other data as well.

The temp gauge is a matter of doing some diagnostics. It's either the gauge, wiring, or an engine temp sender, poor connection, etc.

Ed as I am sure you know, brokers say lots of things that are somewhat interesting. I trust you are having a diesel engine mechanical survey done by a qualified diesel guy who should probably be on board for the sea trial......when this gets done as viper says, the mechanic should be able to retrieve the actual engine hours and give some insight as to what is going on........good luck with your purchase.

Thanks for the replies. We will have a complete mechanical survey done. This boat has the Volvo D12 electronic controlled diesel engines. Both the helm and pilot house starboard analog gauges are not functioning. All four tachometers read rpms correctly but hour meters varied significantly. We understand anything could be causing this at this point we were just wondering if it was a common problem as the dealer suggested or if anyone else had these problems.

I can't see it being a "common problem" and really can't see why there'd be relays in there that wouldn't affect other stuff.

Also wouldn't phase me a bit, so long as you can see the real runtime when they scan the engines. That's what counts.

My two meters were off by quite a bit because (for some reason) the starboard engine key was on when the engine wasn't running. That made the starboard meter keep counting when the port wasn't. TWO of those times were my fault, as I had turned on the ignition to check the fuel levels and forgot to turn it off... and realized it DAYS later. DOH!

Thank you km1125 That is good to know. Had no idea just turning the key would do this. Very helpful.

EdK - hour meters issue is not a "common problem" on Carvers. That comment is a "common problem" with brokers. Referred to as a selling statement. This is going to be hard to believe, but not all brokers are 100% straight up. When you ask why what they said, didn't match up to reality or fact, they throw that to the best of our knowledge disclaimer in there.

km - are you sure your meters run with just the key on? Typically, there is a connection to the oil system so the meters will not turn unless the engine is actually running. Not doubting you, anything can happen in or after production, but it is strange. My meters are about 3 hrs different, but easily accounted for by the habit of starting one engine for a couple minutes before the second. 54 days to go! er

A lot of boat hour meters are hooked up that way, just need to have the key in the ON position for them to run. The most an oil pressure system will have on an older vintage is a sender for the gauge which works off variable resistance, so not suitable for applying 12 volts to an hour meter, and an oil pressure switch which is in the open position when the engine is running, so again, no way to get 12 volts from that. It's doable with computer controlled engines but unless you have yet another pressure switch that closes the circuit when the engine is running, you can't use the oil pressure circuit. This type of pressure switch was eventually introduced when electric fuel pumps replaced mechanical ones and acted as a safety device so that the pump would only run in the presence of oil pressure. Leaving the key ON was the source of a couple of problems including burning out ignition coils.

Hour meters are not boat manufacturer specific as far as I know...... I believe they are sourced from suppliers as to their specific need.....now having said that, some may be more sensitive to voltage that others even though they offer a voltage range spec. I would get the numbers from the ecu and go from there.
The meters on our Carver were dead on and stayed that way until we sold it. I would be sure to investigate the wild hour discrepancy in the OP's considered boat though....has to be a reasonable verifiable reason, not just an assumption.

Cooler wrote:Source of the post ...
km - are you sure your meters run with just the key on? Typically, there is a connection to the oil system so the meters will not turn unless the engine is actually running. Not doubting you, anything can happen in or after production, but it is strange. My meters are about 3 hrs different, but easily accounted for by the habit of starting one engine for a couple minutes before the second. 54 days to go! er

Yes, mine were definitely active anytime the starboard engine key was in the 'on' position. Some could be tied into engine oil pressure or some of the newer ones even operate off tach signals. Mine were just simple... three connections... ground, power and light.