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Boat Hoist Failure & Now Replacement


Slayer

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As some of you know, I had a complete structural failure of my old boat hoist. It was an older Lakeshore hoist, vertical lift. I've made an insurance claim because I can't get the parts I need to repair the hoist. I'm expecting a check next week. My water conditions dictate that I get a vertical lift. That said, here are the brands I'm looking at.

  1. Shorestation
  2. Hewitt
  3. Starr
  4. Max
  5. Great Lakes

I'm looking for some comment from those who've used or currently use any of these. I'm looking at a 4,000#, 120" hoist. TIA.

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Since you're in southeast MI, check out Lakeside Lift Corporation. They are in Waterford.

I got a great price on my 4500 lb, 116" beam lift and have no complaints after two seasons of use.

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I really like my Craftlander, and you can get more lifting capacity for your dollar with them over shorestation. I had an older Shorestation before this and it was nice, the Craftlander is just as nice.

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I agree with Braindamage, I have a Shorestation vertical #4000 120". Lift has been trouble free going on 7 years,. I got a manual but quickly added a Lift Tech marine electric motor with 2 12V batteries wired in series to double the speed.

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Love our Floe but they are pricey. Tons of the Shorestation brand in our area as well.

Definitely more expensive, and different than a normal cable lift. Folks have a Floe dock, and many neighbors have their docks and lifts.

If price were no object, I'd get a Sunstream - father inlaw and boss have those, but they are 3x what a normal lift costs.

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Since you're in southeast MI, check out Lakeside Lift Corporation. They are in Waterford.

I got a great price on my 4500 lb, 116" beam lift and have no complaints after two seasons of use.

I have a friend with one and he had nothing but good things to say about it. I'll check them out.

I like the Max lift as well. It seems very well built, made locally, and is designed to make maintenance easy. I also like the Shorestation as well. I will have to look into the craftlander. Floe is out of the question based on cost.

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What was the failure on your old lift? Also how old is it and do you leave it in the water year round? I bought a new Lakeshore in 2014 and don't have any regrets yet but I keep seeing negative comments on them. The guys that installed mine service just about everything and said nothing was immune to issues so ease of service was the key item.

I have a shore station under my pontoon, it's 12 years old, sits in the water year round and seems pretty robust. The only reason I didn't get a shore station for the Malibu was the side entry access on the shore stations just wouldnt fit our long term needs. Even with the drop down on one side it wasn't enough clearance.

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As I said in PM, I have a Floe canopy on top of a Hewitt lift. Try to take a look at the Floe canopies at least, because they are not out of the box on cost like the lifts are. It's so nice during a windy rain to see my the sides of my canopy not moving while all the neighbors are blowing sideways.

I just talked to Diversified on US23 last week about some accessories for my lift. They no longer sell Floe, but apparently have something similar. You might want to give them a call.

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What was the failure on your old lift? Also how old is it and do you leave it in the water year round? I bought a new Lakeshore in 2014 and don't have any regrets yet but I keep seeing negative comments on them. The guys that installed mine service just about everything and said nothing was immune to issues so ease of service was the key item.

I have a shore station under my pontoon, it's 12 years old, sits in the water year round and seems pretty robust. The only reason I didn't get a shore station for the Malibu was the side entry access on the shore stations just wouldnt fit our long term needs. Even with the drop down on one side it wasn't enough clearance.

My old hoist was a lakeshore. The failure was in the structural frame below the cradle. It was an older hoist and the parts were no longer available.

I'm not a fan of lakeshore based on the experience of addicted2wake. I was told by the guy who services my hoist that if I went the insurance claim route that I should get a better quality product. His recommendation was shorestation.

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I've had a Midlander hoist for 15 years or so, just replaced my second lift cable. It has served me well enough, but if I end up getting another someday, it will likely be a Shorestation. Those lifts seem bulletproof.

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As I said in PM, I have a Floe canopy on top of a Hewitt lift. Try to take a look at the Floe canopies at least, because they are not out of the box on cost like the lifts are. It's so nice during a windy rain to see my the sides of my canopy not moving while all the neighbors are blowing sideways.

I just talked to Diversified on US23 last week about some accessories for my lift. They no longer sell Floe, but apparently have something similar. You might want to give them a call.

I have always wondered about mixing and matching lifts and canopy frames. Was this difficult to do?

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Simple to do, as the widths and extruded aluminum pole sizes were exactly the same. I didn't do the installation myself so not sure if they had to make adjustments front to back.

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So I know you said vertical lift - but I just got a Sunstream Sunlift (hydraulic lift) and I would never go back to cables. 15-second up or down 6000lb lift is so awesome! (wireless remote control)

Mine is 10 years old and is a beast. I love it!

Edited by jonredcorn
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We have a Porta-lift and hate it. Great canopy coverage and design, but the lift stinks. Broken cables a few times, noisy, bunk broke off this summer, etc.

In order of popularity by us, Floe screw drives are running away with the market. Shorestation and Hewitt would be the other top two, but every year I see a few new Floes on the lake.

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60 inches of travel! Wholly crap that's a lot. I was looking at options on your list of brands and you might have to step up to an 8K pound lift to get that much travel.

Or step up to a floating lift. You might get lucky end of year and find a used one that fits your budget. The Sunstream FloatLift that my father inlaw has in Florida is a pretty good setup especially with variable water depth.

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