Decoding Old Town VIN, for year & specs?

Advice
#1

Hello all, I just picked up my first canoe… Its a ~20 year old Old Town canoe, and I am interested to find out the specs on it… I was wondering if there is a place I could look to find out what the VIN means so that I could determine the year/model of it, and specs?



Thanks in advance!

Kevin

#2

HIN Link
http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/hin.htm

#3

Here’s an idea!
Get on the phone and speak directly with Old Town? They have folk there who have been around forever and even have registration crads on 100 year old canoes on file…

#4

Is that right?
The letters designating the month of manufacture, The Alphabetical/Month designations,I mean. For kicks I went out and looked at the hull numbers of a couple of identical model canoes, and although the hull numbers were only 386 apart, the lower hull number ended in “M80E” which would indicate December 1980, and the higher hull number ended in “M80F” indicating January 1980.

That fact coupled with the unusual pairing of August with “A” as the start of the alphabetical/month code made me wonder if there wasn’t a typo somewhere.

I thought if January was “A” and so on, it would make sense to have the lower hull number made in May and the higher hull number made in June. Can anybody clarify or confirm the Alphabetical/Month designations?

Thanks, Jeff

#5

some OT advice

– Last Updated: Jan-22-08 1:48 PM EST –

For wood/canvas and some of the early (pre 1975) petrified snot boats (my wooden prejudice is showing!) visit http://forums.wcha.org/forumdisplay.php?f=3

You can also contact Old Town as previously noted.