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Moving a boat lift


Troy

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I need to know what it would take to move my boat lift. I have bought an older aluminum boat lift with my condo. At a minimum, I need to move it to the other side of the dock. Ideally, I would like to get it to shore or up on the dock so that I can clean all the pulleys, upgrade the bunks and reinforce the supports.

I forget the maker (shore station or shore mate) but the lift is an aluminum vertical lift with a motorized winch. I am guessing that it weighs 3-400 pounds.

It is in about 7 feet of water and the bottom is very soft mud at least 5 feet or more. Because of the mud, there are big wooden pads bolted to the legs. I am just hoping to get 1 season out of the lift before I upgrade next year. I have been quoted $300.00 (a lot since I only paid $500 for the lift) to have it moved.

I hope that is enough info, I am hoping someone has had a similar experience and can help me out. I am new to lifts (coming from so cal).

Maybe some of you fellow Sammamish boaters want to help out (Lance?)

Thanks for any help.

Troy

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Raise the lift all the way. Then attach something that floats such as large styrofoam blocks or 55 gal drums for pontoons. Then unhook it from the dock and float it to shore.

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Around here there are a couple of guys that have barges with hydraulic winches on them. They pull my lift out every fall for around $65 and do the piers/docks for a lot of the people on the lake.

I'd ask around a bit and see if anyone around does the same.

Mike

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I forget the maker (shore station or shore mate) but the lift is an aluminum vertical lift with a motorized winch.

I am just hoping to get 1 season out of the lift before I upgrade next year.  I have been quoted $300.00 (a lot since I only paid $500 for the lift)  to have it moved.

Curious why you only expect to get one year out of this lift before upgrading. Is it under capacity for your boat? I don't have a lot of experience with Shore Mate lifts, but I've always thought Shore Stations were very well built. Outside of cables (or possibly your motor if it wasn't taken care of), there isn't really a lot to go wrong with a lift. Cables might run you a few hundred to replace, but a new lift? $$$$$$$$!

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Don't know if this will help.

I usually have to put my dock in/out myself. (Where is everybody when you need a second set of hands?) It's 28 feet long, in 3 sections. The middle section is in 5 feet of water.... the last section is in 6 1/2 feet of water.

To put the dock IN, I set the framework on a couple of 2 X 4's laying across the kids large tube. (It has held 2 adults without sinking, so I knew it had enough bouyancy for the weight of the dock/leg/framework. I floated into place..... then slowly let the air out... and it dropped slowly to the bottom. (For the initial dock placement, I also temporarily attached the 18" X 18" patio slabs (feet pads) to the bottom of the dock support poles.... to makes sure I got the dock legs & feet DIRECTLY onto the slabs. (The bottom is soft and the water has silt so you can't see more than 4 feet.)

In the fall, to take the dock OUT, I put the same tube under the dock, and inflate it with the 12V air pump and booster pack. In your case, the large "feet" may likely require somethingf to break the natural "suction". You may need a second or 3rd or 4th set of handes with long poles to stir up the bottom around the "feet" to break the suction. (In my case, the paitio slabs stay down on the bottom.... but the dock "feet" (about 5" X 5" get pulled up)

The attached picture shows the middle section with legs, feet, patio slabs being floated into position.

As for how much bouyancy you may need: Each cubic foot of water weighs 62 pounds. So, each cubic foot of floatation will support 62 pounds (less its own weight). If you figure you need to lift 300 pounds, you'll need 300 / 60 = about 5 cubic feet of floatation. (600 pounds would need 10 cubic feet)

Another method that could help. If you could lift the SHORE end of the boat lift up first (where the water is shallow), you would be able to break the suction around ALL of the feet.... even the ones in deep water. Combined with floatation... this could do the trick. That's what McGuyver would do I think.

Good luck whatever you try!

Edited by doughickey
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Depending on the weight of the lift, two plastic drums, one on each side of the lift that can go up and down. Hook them on, and lower the lift (unless it depends on weight), break the suction loose as stated.

The inner tube method seems like it may work for you also. Maybe two inner tubes??

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Thanks for the advice. The tube idea sounds good if I could get a compressor with a hose on it to fill the tubes while submerged.

I do have access to empty kegs, is there any way to get leverage to get them to raise the lift.

Maybe we throw down 4 full kegs and drink until the lift starts to float Crazy.gif

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Thanks for the advice.  The tube idea sounds good if I could get a compressor with a hose on it to fill the tubes while submerged.

I do have access to empty kegs, is there any way to get leverage to get them to raise the lift.

Maybe we throw down 4 full kegs and drink until the lift starts to float Crazy.gif

Re compressor. A couple of ideas:

If you have 12V compressor ($10-$20 item), and a 12V battery (or booster pack), and some tubes, you don't need a long compressor hose. As long as you can jam the tubes (deflated) under some 2 X 4''s jammed just underneath the surface, you should be ok. You're not rasing the Titanic.... don't need to get the tubes down at the bottom. As long as they start underwater 9even just below the surface) you should be ok.

Even if you just do the DEEP end this way, you may be able to manhandle the shallow end with you and a couple of buddies..... just floating the deep end around your dock.

Or, you use a portable air tank as your air supply. (Air Pig)

Fun project!

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MalibuNation
I need to know what it would take to move my boat lift.  I have bought an older aluminum boat lift with my condo.  At a minimum, I need to move it to the other side of the dock.  Ideally, I would like to get it to shore or up on the dock so that I can clean all the pulleys, upgrade the bunks and reinforce the supports.

I forget the maker (shore station or shore mate) but the lift is an aluminum vertical lift with a motorized winch.  I am guessing that it weighs 3-400 pounds.

It is in about 7 feet of water and the bottom is very soft mud at least 5 feet or more.  Because of the mud, there are big wooden pads bolted to the legs.  I am just hoping to get 1 season out of the lift before I upgrade next year.  I have been quoted $300.00 (a lot since I only paid $500 for the lift)  to have it moved.

I hope that is enough info,  I am hoping someone has had a similar experience and can help me out.  I am new to lifts (coming from so cal).

Maybe some of you fellow Sammamish boaters want to help out (Lance?)

Thanks for any help.

Troy

I bit the bullet and got some lift bags and everyone on the lake uses them. Got the "salvage tube" style.

I like the fact I can secure them to the boat lift. Heck I could put a motor on the boat lift and tool around the lake.

Got the lift bags at:

http://www.carterbag.com/home.html

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How about some 5 gal jugs with a rope on the handle that you can take around a frame member and pull and tie off above the water.

Like one on each corner. That should help and it's cheap.

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Troy, let us know what you come up with. I have to move my lift over a couple feet because our lake is so low this year. I have a huge peice of dock flotation foam that I'm going to stick under the rails and see if I can get it to float a bit.

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Troy,

I have a similar challenge with my verticle lift. Like Brazosvet suggests lift the carriage up out of the water, put some flotation under the carriage ( I use blown up inner tubes) and then let the carriage down until it is floating. Then I go one step further and use tie down straps (the ones that hold the boat down to the trailer) and I wrap the straps from the floating carriage to the frame of the lift and tighten up. If you use ratchet straps you can create a sort of down pressure and the whole lift will float and one person can move it anywhere. When you get it to where you want, let off the pressure of the straps and the frame will sink to where you want it. You will obviously need to loosen it from the mud but with the carriage floating that should be easy. One caution though. Put more floatation on the side where the winch crank is. That is the heaviest part of the lift and if it is not balanced right the lift when floating will want to flip over to that side.. Hope this helps.

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Troy- Like Doug said..... Also, if you put a small jack on a piece of wood and break the suction on one end, we then push an old aluminium row boat under the center cross bar on that end, then you can walk out the other end with the help of another person or get another row boat if neccesary, it is fairly easy to maneuver at that point. That is how we have done it when we are short some help.

Hope this helps!! Shocking.gif

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Rushman, that's the method that I was going to try. Mine is a little different type of lift but I think I'll use a come-along (sp) to winch the rails down till it floats.

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So.... how did things turn out?

Is the lift moved? Did the ballast tanks work? Did the whole affair go turtle on you?

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My brother and I actually moved two lifts this spring. One was galvanized steel weighing about 1,000 lbs. The other was similar to yours. We did them both with two people. The heavier one was actually easier b/c of the hydraulic arm.

Basically, you need bouy's and rope. We used about (4) med sized balls and (2) large balls. I forget the air to weight ratio but it worked just fine. Tie a rope around the balls, sit on them and push under the water and under part of the frame, and tie off. If you can get your hands on a empty 55 gal plastic drum it works pretty good with strap tie-downs. Center the drum in the middle and ratchet down.

Let me know if you need suggestion on boat lift. Just went thru the process of purchasing last year.

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The lift has not been moved yet because the HOA that wanted the lift on the other side of the dock, has now assigned my spot to another boat. So, maybe I will just stay put for a while.

As far as moving the lift, I have 4 55 gallon drums and some ratchet straps. I figure one drum on each corner of the lift and that baby will be floating with ease and very stable. I am prety sure I will be able to move it myself if I have to.

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