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Shorestation Cable replpacement


MalIbuCPA

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Went skiing this morning and putting the boat on the shorestation and the cable to the winch snapped.

Now the boat is a 95 and the cable is as old as the boat. I know i should have replaced it when I saw a little fray but now here i am.

The boat is anchored, and I am at work freakin out about my boat and where it might be when i get home!

Know the real question, I know that I should replace all the cables but the station is in the water and I just want to replace the pully cable.

How hard is that to do? can i do it in the water? does anyone have instructions?

Thank you,

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Pop the cover off the winch and it is probably self explanatory, and easy. Depending on the capacity of your lift, you will have cable that is 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", etc. Stainless, of course. Local lift guys should have plenty in stock.

I just replaced the cable on my Harbormaster cantilever lift last week, took less than 1/2 hour. But it's a cantilever which may be a different set up than yours, one 21'6" cable that is all exposed.

And it is in the water.

Edited by Michigan boarder
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Pop the cover off the winch and it is probably self explanatory, and easy. Depending on the capacity of your lift, you will have cable that is 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", etc. Stainless, of course. Local lift guys should have plenty in stock.

I just replaced the cable on my Harbormaster cantilever lift last week, took less than 1/2 hour. But it's a cantilever which may be a different set up than yours, one 21'6" cable that is all exposed.

And it is in the water.

Yeah I wish this was the case...

Talked to the marina and they told me that if it broke on the winch side I need to replace the entire pulley system. They are telling me it is $500 in parts.

Does this seem correct? I thought I would only need a cable.

Please let me know if you think I am being taken...

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Mine happened that way a couple of years ago too. Scary to have that just drop your boat but no one is hurt so we just went and got the replacement made for my lift. It is galvanized for me though - just get what you need for your lift so the end connectors are right. Easy job and can be done in the water.

While you are at it, check the chain in the gear box, I had that break last year ... also a fairly easy fix.

Mike

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Mine happened that way a couple of years ago too. Scary to have that just drop your boat but no one is hurt so we just went and got the replacement made for my lift. It is galvanized for me though - just get what you need for your lift so the end connectors are right. Easy job and can be done in the water.

While you are at it, check the chain in the gear box, I had that break last year ... also a fairly easy fix.

Mike

Yeah scared the crap out of me glad my wife was not half in half out getting equipment out if the boat.

So you replaced the cable while it was in the water?

The marina said i needed a new pulley system at $500 in parts and needed to pull the station out of the water. This is an older model shorestation but I have a hard time believing I need all new pully system. They said i need the entire new bar that you have to step over to get in the boat?

Is this correct?

I am willing to do it but it seems really expensive. Just thought I would buy a cable and be back in business...

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I have heard that its not just the cable but the whole side tube on the shore station vertical lifts.

Can't picture that. I'd start with removing the cover and looking at what went wrong. It's a simple mechanism, so it should be obvious.

I wonder if, for that price (assuming the marina is correct) you could upgrade to something electric.

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MalibuNation
Pop the cover off the winch and it is probably self explanatory, and easy. Depending on the capacity of your lift, you will have cable that is 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", etc. Stainless, of course. Local lift guys should have plenty in stock.

I just replaced the cable on my Harbormaster cantilever lift last week, took less than 1/2 hour. But it's a cantilever which may be a different set up than yours, one 21'6" cable that is all exposed.

And it is in the water.

Yeah I wish this was the case...

Talked to the marina and they told me that if it broke on the winch side I need to replace the entire pulley system. They are telling me it is $500 in parts.

Does this seem correct? I thought I would only need a cable.

Please let me know if you think I am being taken...

I just priced a "winch tube" that you can't get to the insides of and it was $514.00 and that included all new cables. Mine is a 2003 and his is older than mine and I think his is 3000 lbs. Price sounds right.

Edit: I think Sixball just replaced his cable on his Shorestation ... by himself and in the water ... well, he had the help of his new puppy.

Edited by MalibuNation
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I am not familiar with your lift but I don't understand why you would need to replace side rail. May be they want you to use new pulleys and bushings? I would go with a stainless steal aircraft quality cable they last years. I tried a galvanized cable and it broke in less than two years. Yep I replaced my main cable on a Midlander in the water early this year. The cable cost me $375.00 from my local marina. I did some checking and marinas pricing varied by over $100.00 bucks. I also checker and will be buying a spool of cable and tool for putting the ends on. The spool of cable will cost about the same as one cable. 300' so i should be able to replace my cables for the rest of my life for the same as one change. I felt like I was abused Mad.gif

I did pull my lift into shallow water. Take a large bucket to put tools and parts in. Just not many places to put things down.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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We had a lift break very similar to yours. It was a 3000lb Shorestation. You can replace just the cables if it breaks in the cross brace you described. It is a pain the butt to get the cables where they need to be and aligned and then reassembled without everything moving. Its a 2 person job and we had it out of the water. Many choice words came out of my mouth in the process. I think the cables alone were about $100.00. For the hassle and the ability to fix it in the water, I might go with the new cross brace including cables for $500.

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We had a lift break very similar to yours. It was a 3000lb Shorestation. You can replace just the cables if it breaks in the cross brace you described. It is a pain the butt to get the cables where they need to be and aligned and then reassembled without everything moving. Its a 2 person job and we had it out of the water. Many choice words came out of my mouth in the process. I think the cables alone were about $100.00. For the hassle and the ability to fix it in the water, I might go with the new cross brace including cables for $500.

Thank you for all the insight...

Shorestation has got it right. If you buy just the cable it is almost impossible to thread it through the crossbar mostly because of the ends on the cable that attach to the carriage. So, for $400 more you have to buy the crossbar. The marina basically showed me you need a special tool and no one makes a special tool.

I stopped by the marina on the way home and discussed in length about why I was spending $500 on a broken cable. The good news that came out of the discussion was that I do not need to take it out of the water. I am just going to have a couple friends over to lift up the carriage and I am going to slip a rowboat underneath.

I just need to figure out how to make the part without patent infringement for about $400 and i will be able to take on shorestation, haha.

I also figured (being the CPA i am) the lift is 13 years old $500/13 is a pretty small number. I will replace the tube and hopefully it will be easier to crank!

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Good to hear you have found the solution. As I recall, when we re-strung the cables inside the tube, we had to undo the pulleys inside to get the cables to go through with the threaded ends and loops, etc. It was ok getting them through, but reinstalling the pulleys in the tube while ensuring the cables were in the right place was almost impossible. We did it, but looking back, I would have rather had the weekend back we spent fixing it and spent the $500.00 on the 1 hr fix. I guess my dad has more patience than I do. I think it was about 30% dumb luck we got the whole thing lined up, back together and in the water. It works perfectly now.

I forgot to mention that the lift belonged to a neighbour who gave up on it and wrote it off as useless. He bought a new one and gave us the old one for parts. We now have a perfect working 3000lb lift for about $100.00. Not too bad considering how much these things cost. In the end, I guess it was worth it. The worst thing is that my Bu wont fit on that lift. Its 108 inches wide. I also have a 120 inch hydraulic Shorestation that works great so no problem.

Good luck with the repair.

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  • 2 years later...

Digging up an old thread. I am in a similar situation where my rear cable is taunt and front cable has slack in it. I have a shorestation 3600 lb vertical lift. I have been told $500 for a new cross beam. I am going to take it a part first and see if I can fix it. Not sure how to get to the pulleys out since everthing is enclosed. Any helpful hints will be appreciated.

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