You might know the feeling when you open up an item of clothing that you ordered online only to find out that it does not fit correctly. In today’s world of online shopping, it can sometimes be hard to order the exact item you are looking for.
The same thing is true when ordering parts for your watercraft online. Inspired by a recent projetski article, here is a quick guide to making sure you identify your ski correctly when shopping online for those replacement or performance parts.
Unless you have a special limited-run watercraft model, chances are your make and model name are carried over for many years or decades. Even though the name remains the same, design changes and updates every few years makes it important to know exactly what watercraft you own.
For example as we recently pointed out, Yamaha made some unannounced changes to the pump design for 2020 SVHO models. This changes the catalog part numbers for certain items if you are accidentally searching for 2019 and prior model years.
Furthermore for 2020, we know that Yamaha has made some model name changes which may be confusing to some customers. For example, the outgoing VXR name is now the GP1800R HO and the GP1800R will be officially known as GP1800R SVHO.
Those who are shopping for their GP1800R HO will need to be especially careful if they simply do a search for “GP1800R” since this is what the graphic display is on the upper deck portion of the ski.
As a general rule of thumb in order to properly identify your ski, the make and model will be in your owner’s manual. If you do not have an owner’s manual, look at all identifying graphics on the ski and lastly you can search online for the ski which has your particular color scheme and graphics package.
The year of your watercraft is also important and this should be identified either in your owner’s manual or by the HIN (hull identification number) plate affixed to the outside portion of your hull. Generally, the last two digits indicate the year.
Of course, if you have any doubt, you can always consult your local dealer or directly call the parts vendor you are ordering from.
