Speedometer Issues

[Marc1983]

Just lately my speedometer doesn't read my speed until I'm at 5mph and above! It use to be fine reading from the second I was in forward motion, I checked the paddle wheel and it seems fine, any suggestions??

[Marc1983]

Forgot to mention 2010 vlx

[jenk2board]

I know you said that you already checked the paddle wheel, but this same thing happen to us last weekend. Speedometer wouldn't pick up speed until about five MPH and when wakeboarding at 23mph (phone app), speedometer read 16. After examining the paddle wheel, noticed that one paddle was broken off. $20 for a new paddle wheel and the problem is solved. We must have bumped it while loading the boat. When you get up to speed, is it accurate? Our boat is a 2006 vlx.

[grandude]

If all the lobes are still on the paddle wheel, The shaft that the paddle wheel spins on could be slightly bent causing friction.

[tccombs]

first if you were boating on water with a flowing current like a river.. then the gps will never match the paddle wheel.

if you were on still water then you have a problem.

in my opinion paddle wheels and venturi's are really a lot of work to keep running right and will never be as accurate as a gps. I say dump the paddle wheel system

option 1 fix what you have and face the same problems again down the road.

option 2 payabout $200 for a plug and play GPS conversion kit called NAUTIC LOGIC (this is what i did and i love it) there is a thread here somewhere that talked about it. basically it plugs into your paddle wheel and overrides the paddlewheel signal with gps. but all your guages stay the same.. your depth guage will still work and if the gps signal is lost then the paddle wheel takes over as a backup. it is much more accurate than the paddle wheel.

option 3 switch to GPS perfect pass or Zero off both would cost about $1000

Edited September 25, 2013 by tccombs