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Need boat lift advice...


dexcopper

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Hey Crew,

Have had a rough couple weeks at the lake. First, I dumped my non-insured, not waterproof cased iPhone 6 into the lake. Found it after around 5 minutes of diving, took it for repairs, but it's beyond help.

The next weekend, boat is on the lift, (09 VLX on a 4,000# Shoremaster 4009DVS vertical lift). I'm in the bow, taking the cover off, CRUNCH. Boat is on it's left side, boards that are in the rack are wedged against the lift wheel. Not sure if there is a giant hole in the boat as the bow is touching the water, the back end is still up in the air where it is supposed to be. I'm imagining a harpoon of a lift leg sticking up through the hull.

Sorry, no pics as taking pics was not the priority in my panic induced hysteria. My gorilla strong buddy and I are able to lift the bow enough for our wives to wiggle the boards out of the rack. Miraculously, no broken surfboards and the wheel still works. Not a great start to my vacation to say the least. Not sure if the boat is slowly sinking or not as my wife holds it at the end of the dock while we try to figure out where the lift broke.

The bracket that holds on the port side bunk at the front of the lift broke, causing the forward left roll. Probably my fat a** in the bow, combined with the borderline too heavy boat, combined again with having it too far forward on the lift.

I make some Saturday afternoon calls (closest dealer is an hour away, my dealer is 2.5 hrs away. By sheer luck my dealer (Saskatoon Watersports), who is AWESOME, found the two pieces I needed and I was able to have someone coming to the lake to grab them. Got it fixed and boat back on the lift.

After carefully guessing at the weight distribution, we now have the boat two feet farther back on the lift, and seemed to work great.

Yesterday, after a great day on the lake, lifiing the boat again. CRUNCH. WTF I think. Bunks still look good. Did it just slip off a chine maybe? Hmm, boat is leaning forward and right. As I am considering a molotov cocktail incident happening, my wife calms me down. Lower the lift, push the boat off, back to diving under to see what's up. Bunks all look good, no broken hardware etc, but leg on right front seems low. Thought it slipped off a rock, but couldn't find one.

Then, my wife noticed a cable at the back had tons of slack. So I have a look and the cable is snapped.

Clearly, I shouldn't go anywhere near the lift and boat on Saturdays.

So, I talk to the dealer, who sold me my boat and also sells Shoremaster lifts. He says my lift is 4,000lbs, my boat is 3,500 dry, should be good. (this was last week, BEFORE the cable broke).

I think I need a bigger lift and am wondering if anyone has legit knowledge of what limit lift I should have. Likely this will be the only wakeboard boat, but never say never right.

Thoughts??

Oh and by some miracle, the tiniest of a chip in the first gelcoat layer on the bottom and a couple very minor scratches on the port side wakesetter writing.

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Edited by dexcopper
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MalibuNation

Call me Mr. Overkill but I like my lift to be 1,000lb over my dry weight.

IMO Shore Stations are one of the beefiest lifts out there. I also like Floes.

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Call me Mr. Overkill but I like my lift to be 1,000lb over my dry weight.

IMO Shore Stations are one of the beefiest lifts out there. I also like Floes.

Agreed. Figure in gas, stereo, equipment, Yeti cooler, and perhaps a couple people and you're there.

I'm running a 6600b lift right now for my 23LSV.

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how old is the lift? Most likely you have a worn pulley which is causing more drag and/or mechanical binding. It may be as easy as replacing the assembly that holds the cable (est $500 for part and 4 hours to fix).

I do think that a 5000# lift would be a better investment.

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how old is the lift? Most likely you have a worn pulley which is causing more drag and/or mechanical binding. It may be as easy as replacing the assembly that holds the cable (est $500 for part and 4 hours to fix).

I do think that a 5000# lift would be a better investment.

The lift was here when we bought the place, previous boat here was a 2007 Nautique so I am thinking it's a 2007.

Would much rather repair than replace, hopefully dealer has parts for me when they open tomorrow...

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