Digital Voltmeter

Agnelli

True Classic
Always nice to know battery / charging systems are in effect. Mounted and wired in this Blue Sea Systems digital instrument, which is really for marine applications so a bit of overkill for a car but nonetheless. Maybe not such a bad idea as my windscreen does leak on occasion and I've yet to take the plunge and remove it to figure out the fault. Behind the dash panel resides a Hella relay. Voltmeter is wired direct to the battery (via wires feeding my headlamp relays), the trigger current comes from the switched power to the headlight switch, since it was close by. Grounded to a lug mounting the mysterious interlock box under dash. This way I get an accurate reading at the battery while running and don't need to switch the voltmeter on an off manually.

I want to find a Hobbs meter to enable service intervals based on hours vs. miles.

128 Familiare:

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Electronic hour meters are easily avialable and of course easy to add. The thing that’s has always been a quandary for me with a car is the difference in use case. A tractor or airplane is often run at its normal max RPM for most of its time running, especially if it uses hydraulics for movement and equipment drive. A car has highly variable rpm which is not captured well by an hour meter as to the actual use.
 
My tow vehicle for the 600 E/Mod car has a listing of total engine running hours, engine idling hours and total fuel used in gallons.
Might have been useful when I bought it used but I didn't find it for almost a year (didn't look for it).
As noted it doesn't tell you how it was run except you can calculate hours per mile which might be useful.
 
Something I heard about medium-duty international truck's.. when they are sitting still and idling (as in a tow truck doing a recovery where the bed is being used but the truck is not moving) the computer will add miles based on the RPM's and time iddling.
 
My tow vehicle for the 600 E/Mod car has a listing of total engine running hours, engine idling hours and total fuel used in gallons.
Might have been useful when I bought it used but I didn't find it for almost a year (didn't look for it).
As noted it doesn't tell you how it was run except you can calculate hours per mile which might be useful.
Re: hours per mile, another member here with a newish Abarth 500 noted his dash computer informed average speed was consistently right around 28mph (which is also a funny statistic in itself). Knowing that with an hours meter can then give an approximate odometer measure. Thinking about this from a service perspective with an X with no speedo cable and a 128 with a sticky speedo needle. Plus the industrial vibe of a ship or aircraft.
 
Something I heard about medium-duty international truck's.. when they are sitting still and idling (as in a tow truck doing a recovery where the bed is being used but the truck is not moving) the computer will add miles based on the RPM's and time iddling.
Not sure how this works with Federal odometer standards/laws.
 
Not sure how this works with Federal odometer standards/laws.
it is only adding to the milage, not subtracting. And with it adding depending on the use of the motor is in fact giving a more accurate indication of overall vehicle usages. (some commercial vehicles don't do many miles at all but spend hours (even day's) idling all day long
 
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