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Oh poo lift cable broke.


Sixball

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I was dropping the Bu today and the lift cable broke. So I guess you could say the Bu dropped.

I changed the cable two years ago it had some fraying. I let the guy at the marina talk me into Galvanized, I have always used Stainless steal aircraft quality.

He said it last just as long. I never got less then six years out of S.S.

The bummer is I would have done it out of the water but all visible cable looked good.

Any one have any other thoughts?

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I boke my stainless steal within two months. The dealer told me that the life of the cable is in direct relation to how well it is spooled around the crank mechanism.

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Actually he's not completely wrong. I have had both fray. My lift used to have a clamp where re cable went through to start the wrap around, well if the water was low and it had farther to pull, it would keep wrapping around that clamp and eventually frayed it. It did this with both stainless and galvanized. If your cable wrapps over it self it can be trouble too. Metal on metal with that much tension,especially if re cable starts to overlap then slips back down to the pole. You can easily rig up something to guide the cable or if u can put pressure from the front or back pushin it just a tad to guide the cable so it doesn't overlap itself.

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MalibuNation

Sixball, good luck. Guess what I'm doing tonight ... checking my cables, my lift was new in 2003.

How hard was it to change the cable? I have a 4000lb shore station.

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Where did the cable break? I have an overhead lift with a cradle that the boat sits in, and I use a 6 foot length of heavy duty chain to attach the cradle to the lift system. That way, the cable and bottom pulley never get down in the water. We are rebuilding the dock this spring and will put in new cable, but the old cable was used for over 12 years with no problems. The problem with letting the cable get wet is that it will rust from the inside out, and you probably won't see the problem until it is too late. Use a piece of chain!!

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It happened so quick you don't have time to s#^# your pants. The cable broke at one of the anchor ends so no rubbing. Might be close to the pulley well the lift is all the way up? The Galvanized cable showed much more rust an age after two years the the S.S. after six years.

Well I am off to try to get a new one and try to get it changed today as It's not cold blowing or windy. Dammer I should be skiing.

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I have two 4000lb overhead lifts. One is pretty old (over 10 years). Not even sure what our cable is made out of but is not frayed and never had any problems. As someone mentioned, the key is to not the let the cable wrap over the cable when being spooled. That will kill its life.

And putting cable on is pretty easy. Just note how you take the old cable off and have something to put across your slip so can stand out on it plus brace the cradle. Just want to make sure it's even side to side and that the front is slightly shorter than the back which makes the boat slope from front to back.

Even better it only cost us about 125 bucks to have someone else replace the cable in our other lift. We upgraded sizing on our cable was the only reason we changed it.

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So it finally dawned on me that everyone is talking about two different kinds of cable lifts..... the ones that hang from a boat house & the ones that sit on the bottom of the lake. And the ones that sit on the bottom of the lake have a pretty small spool for the cable to wind up on. All of the ones I've seen wind the cable up on itself. Every now & then the cable will shift or move to a low spot on the spool, which makes a little noise & the lift & boat shift a little. Probably causes a bit of fraying when it does this too. But I don't see how you could stop it either. You certainly wouldn't want your hands in there if something happened.

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So it finally dawned on me that everyone is talking about two different kinds of cable lifts..... the ones that hang from a boat house & the ones that sit on the bottom of the lake. And the ones that sit on the bottom of the lake have a pretty small spool for the cable to wind up on. All of the ones I've seen wind the cable up on itself. Every now & then the cable will shift or move to a low spot on the spool, which makes a little noise & the lift & boat shift a little. Probably causes a bit of fraying when it does this too. But I don't see how you could stop it either. You certainly wouldn't want your hands in there if something happened.

Ah good catch. I was definitely replying assuming the overhead boat house type lifts. I know nothing about the ones which sit on the bottom. Just the overhead lifts you want to spool on the metal, not the cable.

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IIUC, tensile strength on the galvanized is higher, given the same diameter cable. Also, it seems as though with galvanized, you can see the visible degradation better--with stainless it isn't as easily seen.

Some things I have learned:

changing the cable under water REALLY bites.

Vertical lifts should be VERY level, to avoid any binding and exponential increase in load

When in doubt, change it out, because. . .

changing the cable under water REALLY bites.

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MalibuNation
IIUC, tensile strength on the galvanized is higher, given the same diameter cable. Also, it seems as though with galvanized, you can see the visible degradation better--with stainless it isn't as easily seen.

Some things I have learned:

changing the cable under water REALLY bites.

Vertical lifts should be VERY level, to avoid any binding and exponential increase in load

When in doubt, change it out, because. . .

changing the cable under water REALLY bites.

Made me laugh

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Well I got everything done. I pulled the lift up closer to the sea wall so I could use waders. It did take all day Its a big job if you have no help. I don't know how many times I jumped on and off the dock. Walked around the lift. No place to put tools down. I only drooped one bolt and it was in shallow water and I found it. Yahoo.gif Got the lift back out but did not get the boat back in the water. No one to take the truck back home from the launch site. Oh ya I did have some help. The Little devil.

post-2931-1242175657_thumb.jpg

Well I was walking up to the garage to get something he ran by and bit my waders. Yep have a leak now. Left leg had a lot of water in it at the end of the day.

The galvanized cable was junk it would not have made it through the year. Most of the worst places were inside the tubing not visible.

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Well I got everything done. I pulled the lift up closer to the sea wall so I could use waders. It did take all day Its a big job if you have no help. I don't know how many times I jumped on and off the dock. Walked around the lift. No place to put tools down. I only drooped one bolt and it was in shallow water and I found it. Yahoo.gif Got the lift back out but did not get the boat back in the water. No one to take the truck back home from the launch site. Oh ya I did have some help. The Little devil.

post-2931-1242175657_thumb.jpg

Well I was walking up to the garage to get something he ran by and bit my waders. Yep have a leak now. Left leg had a lot of water in it at the end of the day.

The galvanized cable was junk it would not have made it through the year. Most of the worst places were inside the tubing not visible.

Sorry for the late post, but incase anyone else has a problem I wanted to mention how my problem was solved.

My cable broke twice in 3 years. I contacted a new lift guy and he carried a larger diameter cable for my 4000 lb lift. Basically I was running a 6000 lb cable on a 4000 lb lift. Never frayed or caused any problems whatsoever.

Changing the cable is not to tough unless you drop wrenches in the water frequently. Maybe 1 hr with 2 guys. Toughest part is getting inside and connecting it to your spool indie the crank mechanism.

Good luck.

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MalibuNation
Well I got everything done. I pulled the lift up closer to the sea wall so I could use waders. It did take all day Its a big job if you have no help. I don't know how many times I jumped on and off the dock. Walked around the lift. No place to put tools down. I only drooped one bolt and it was in shallow water and I found it. Yahoo.gif Got the lift back out but did not get the boat back in the water. No one to take the truck back home from the launch site. Oh ya I did have some help. The Little devil.

post-2931-1242175657_thumb.jpg

Well I was walking up to the garage to get something he ran by and bit my waders. Yep have a leak now. Left leg had a lot of water in it at the end of the day.

The galvanized cable was junk it would not have made it through the year. Most of the worst places were inside the tubing not visible.

Little cutie pie ... think you and JAF1063 should meet up - or should I say your dogs should meet up.

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