Is it Illegal to change the hour meter on boat

[gbracer]

Looking at Buying a Moomba boat and I have found evidence of hours being changed, question is this illegal?
I have not bought the boat but was going to look at it but not now .... comments
I know there are a lot of scum bags out there doing shady stuff.

[Stazi]

Technically if you replace the engine you can reset the hourmeter because it is brand new. Nonetheless the owners should record the previous our reading and devoted to the next buyer as well as explaining what work was done to justify replacing the hourmeter


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[larry_arizona]

Not sure about the legality as it pertains to boats, as it certainly is not legal on automobiles.

My guess is it’s not closely regulated on boats. I know some recent moombas have a glitch where they stop counting at 250 hours.

As a buyer, I would like to know accurate hours as it’s one of the only metrics you can use to understand the use of boats.

That’s not to say hours dictate condition of the boat as I would take a well maintained boat with high hours over a neglected boat with low hours.




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[VA LSV]

What year, model and engine? Newer models have the engine hours stored in the ECM. Is it a separate hour meter? Owner should be able to provide details. If not that would be a red flag.

[jason1973]

It is illegal on boats as well i believe. I know it is on snowmobiles because there was a guy selling a bunch of sleds and got caught and made the news. If its illegal there, then boats would also qualify. At least in my state.

[sandm]

quick internet search.
it varies from state to state whether or not it's illegal in the sense of the law but almost all list enforcement is nonexistent and I would bet if you called the local popo to talk through a boat you think or have proof it's been tampered with they would not bother to do anything.

buyer beware and if it's too good to be true, usually is.

[996scott]

If you believe it has been rolled back or tampered with and the owner has not or will not disclose it i would walk away fast. If he has done that, i would worry what else he has done. Just my .02

[gregski]

Falsely representing a sale is probably illegal regardless of the exact details but not exactly something to be enforced unless you have a specific grievance and want to take it to court. Like others said, I'd just try to judge the boat on its own merits. The ECU might tell you something interesting but those dash gauges can be easily replaced at any time, they also run if the ignition is left on even if the motor's not running (like if the key is turned on to check the depth gauge while sitting in the cove and then accidentally left on).

[98outback]

If it was replaced due to a faulty hour meter you can have it hooked to a diacom system to read the true hours from the ecm.