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Hydraulic lift owners


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Questions for you hydraulic lift owners. In 08 I purchased a hydraulic Hewitt boat lift. For all of 09 it was great but so far this year it has been a nightmare. This is the style of lift that the cylinders are underwater. I'm having trouble with the hose fittings corroding and failing, thus causing the pump to push all the "eco-friendly" oil into the water and running the pump dry and blowing out the gears in the motor. I believe the fittings are galvanized to help protect them. I have talked with Hewitt and they are not sure why its doing this and this is the style of fitting they use on all their lifts. By the way, they are NOT standing behind their product but that is another rant!!! The lift is in a river fed lake in Indiana, dirty yes, brackish no. Any thoughts??? I'm thinking about putting anodes on them to help protect them. I have considered Stainless but they are super expensive and not commonly used in this situation. Thanks.

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I've had a hydromax II from freighner and have been very happy with it. I'm going on my 2nd summer with zero issues. It has 4 pistons that are under water with the hoses under water and dont see any signs of bad corrosion on them yet. Freighter is a smaller company (than hewett, id assume), so their customer service and relations have been top notch, at least for me. http://www.hydromaxii.com/

As a last resort give them a call and maybe they can sell you a hose set that you could retro fit to use with your hewett? They are located in MI.

They have local dealers that typically deal with consumers, so you might want to see if there is one in your area? Or call the factory and see if maybe they can help you. A guy there by the name of Isiah has been very helpful to me several times, and Scott Feighner is the owner and head engineer, if your lucky he might be the one answering the phone if you call. He sure knows his hydraulics, but is a busy guy.

Ignore the missing 'i' in "malibu", its custom :unsure:

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Edited by chadwick02
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I have had a Summit hydraulic lift for the past 3 summers and have had the same experience as chadwick02 with his Freighter. I have had zero problems, and the company was so great to work with. I had some issues installing the lift for the first time - on a Sunday - and I called Jim (owner) and figured I would just get voicemail. No way; he answered and walked me through it for about 15 minutes. I would recommend calling Jim to see if he could sell you some new hoses and/or fittings for your unit.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but that's my best recommendation if Hewitt isn't helping.

My lift is in a lake, so pretty similar to your situation. Like I said, I have had no problems at all.

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Go with the stainless fittings. They will pay for themselves in the long run.

I would also check the replacement fittings you are getting. There are a lot of fittings that are being imported from China that are not up to the quality standards they are rated for. These are very prone to premature failure.

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My family had a Nyman Lift from Basta Marine. The frame of the lift itself was fine the entire time we owned it. But after a couple years in the water both the fittings on the cylinder and the painted cylinder housing itself showed signs of being in the water all the time. I'd replace the fittings asap if I were you. I always painted the cylinder housing on an annual basis. The lift has been sold because my boat is now too big for it, but it wouldn't suprise me if any of these lifts have issues at some point or another. I know the person who bought our lift and he did have to replace the cylinder (about 8 years old).

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Hey Capt,I have never actually seen a boat lift but I do own a hydraulic repair business and have worked in the industry for over 25 years so maybe I can offer a few suggestions. First off, I hope the fittings are not galvanized, that is a big no-no in the hydraulic world. Flakes from the galvanized parts travel thru the system and end up destroying pump parts and cylinder seals. As for your problem there are a few things to check and then a few options. I would assume the cylinders have a pipe thread port at the top and bottom of each one, and most commonly there is a fitting that goes from the female pipe thread to a male JIC. Then your hose will have a female JIC swivel fitting crimped on to it. If you do not replace both pieces, you will fight leaks. The JIC fittings are a tapered metal-to-metal seal and if one or both is corroded and pitted, it will leak. New fittings are generally zinc plated but will rust out over time. Stainless is by far your best option. If you take your hoses to your local hydraulic shop they could probably cut the crimped fitting off of your hose and crimp on a single, stainless, pipe swivel fitting that would screw into your cylinder and solve your problems, or they could crimp on a plated steel fitting for about half the cost and you could probably get several years out of it before it corrodes through. If you don’t want to take the hoses to a shop, you can cut off the ends and buy either steel or stainless “re-usable” fittings and do-it-yourself. Hope that helps a little.

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Wobblyshaft, you pretty much described it. I basically have a left and right cylinder under each bunk. Top and bottom pipe thread inputs. The top come into a T and the bottom into another T then back to the pump, then just two lines back to pump/tank. To replace all the fittings in SS I was looking at at big chunk of cash. I forget which ones had JIC ends, but one end had male NPT. Does it matter if I put all Pipe fittings or stay with JIC? I also agree with the zinc coating.

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Wobblyshaft, you pretty much described it. I basically have a left and right cylinder under each bunk. Top and bottom pipe thread inputs. The top come into a T and the bottom into another T then back to the pump, then just two lines back to pump/tank. To replace all the fittings in SS I was looking at at big chunk of cash. I forget which ones had JIC ends, but one end had male NPT. Does it matter if I put all Pipe fittings or stay with JIC? I also agree with the zinc coating.

Does the pump motor run when you are lowering the boat, or just when you raise it out of the water?

Edited by wobblyshaft
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Does the pump motor run when you are lowering the boat, or just when you raise it out of the water?

Runs both ways or I guess I should say that the pump runs one way but their is a manifold with solenoid that changes flow to direct up or down.

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Runs both ways or I guess I should say that the pump runs one way but their is a manifold with solenoid that changes flow to direct up or down.

Bummer, I thought that if it used gravity and weight to go down you could save some money, but since it powers in both directions you will need to stay with the hoses and fittings that you have. I agree that the SS is expensive and I probably wouldn’t go that route either. It does seem odd that the fittings are leaking already, I would have thought they would go several years under water before leaking. I don’t know about the anode idea, if it is inexpensive enough I’m sure it couldn’t hurt. As for JIC vs. pipe, JIC is much easier to work with because you don’t have to mess with t-tape or dope and I don’t think the cost is a whole lot higher than the pipe thread fittings. Personally, here is what I would do; replace all 4 fittings in cylinder ports with NPT to male JIC, good quality plated steel fittings. Replace both T’s with same plated steel male JIC fittings. Take old hoses and have new plated steel fittings crimped on. So, 2 T’s, 4 NPT to JIC fittings, and 10 female swivel JIC crimped hose ends plus a crimping charge,,, I would guess that to be about 100 bucks. Good luck!

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