Does anyone use the hour meter on their pickup?

[bczoom]

My truck has an hour meter but I don't use it for anything. I could see it possibly being used for scheduled maintenance if your p/u is used for extreme or unusual duty circumstances but for day-to-day users is it needed?

Does anyone use it and for what purpose?

Brian

 

[buckle97]

<font color="blue"> My truck has an hour meter </font>

My truck does not have an hour meter. No idea what I would use it for if it did /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

Lawrence

 

[ByronBob]

Oil changing possibly?

I know the Chevy vehicles do this with their oil life expectancy meter so maybe this does the same thing as the odometer reading would.

 

[Jimbrown]

All of the newer Gm products have it, I have no use for it other than curiosity. It is interesting to use it to determine your average speed It is usually much lower than you would expect.

 

[Bird]

I didn't know Chevrolet had started including hour meters, but personally I think it's a good idea. Undoubtedly a better gauge than the odometer of when they need servicing since there's so much variation in the way they're used. When my brother was running a Matco Tool truck, naturally they had an hour meter because the trucks didn't rack up a lot of miles, but the engine was running all day 5 days a week, either in traffic or idling.

 

[bczoom]

Bird,

For construction, utility and possibly farm trucks that run like you mentioned, I could see the use.

Bob,

I'll admit that I haven't read the owners manual to see what it says about how the hour meter is used for computing oil changes. Think it may be used in whole or part to decide when an oil change is used?

Jim,

Computing average speed is the only thing I've used it for. Something tells me that I may be driving to fast since I've averaged 48 mph since the truck was new. It almost makes me drive faster to see if I can get/maintain 50. Might get more on a sale if it appears it's been all highway miles.

Brian

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I have one on my Silverado. As others have said, it's a curiosity. I suppose if I was looking at a used vehicle, I would look at it.

Cliff

 

[edski]

Ditto the above...
GMC has an hr meter.
When I paid attention to my fuel mileage I'd note the hrs as well.
I'm currently running oversized tires and the odometer is about 10% off...therefore I don't bother w/ mileage and haven't looked at the hr meter since.

 

[Knute]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I didn't know Chevrolet had started including hour meters, but personally I think it's a good idea. Undoubtedly a better gauge than the odometer of when they need servicing since there's so much variation in the way they're used. When my brother was running a Matco Tool truck, naturally they had an hour meter because the trucks didn't rack up a lot of miles, but the engine was running all day 5 days a week, either in traffic or idling. )</font>

They've had them for several years, I don't know when they started adding it but my 2000 Suburban has an hour meter. It's a pain to get to though, you have to do several weird steps like turn the key on, pump the gas while turning on the lights or some obscure routine, then it shows the time where the odometer would be.

I hope they've made it easier on the newer trucks.

John

 

[Bird]

John, it's entirely possible that they've had things I didn't know about. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif The last Chevy I owned was my '89 one ton dually and it didn't even come with a tachometer, although I had the dealer install one before I took delivery. I did drive my brother's '99 Suburban several times. I don't think it had an hour meter, but if you have to follow a procedure like you mentioned to get to the hour meter, it may have without me knowing it.