I am looking at 3 used late model Doosan excavators. I would like to know if the hour meter is easy to manipulate? I know that alot of companies lease equipment these days, so would think it wouldn't be a simple matter to mess with. But i also know that their are lots of folks that would if possable.
I can't answer your question but I am a firm believer that how it was cared for is way more viable than the amount of hours on it. I'll take a high hour machine with good documented maintenance over a low hour machine that was used with no care to maintence.
You are correct, if machine is tight, clean and been well keep up, is the most important. But i wanted to know if it was something that could be easily messed with by someone. The hours are important from resale and financing aspect.
The short answer is, is that where there is an economic incentive (more$$ for a machine that has lower hrs), there is an incentive, to alter the reading. Look at the screws on the dash, make sure that there is nothing relatively new, like scratches, etc. Also check the left hand side numbers, to make sure nothing has been painted over, I've seen black paint over a digit or 2 done so well, as to be almost invisible...