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Boat lift wheels


05hammerhead

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Looking to add wheels to my boat lift so its not such an event to get it in and out of the lake. Whatcha guys got?

I like the way these work, but Ive got a Hewitt lift that I swear weighs a ton and Im having a hard time believing my drill will lift it.

Ive seen other cantilever type wheels but seem kinda cheesy.

Any input?

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Looking to add wheels to my boat lift so its not such an event to get it in and out of the lake. Whatcha guys got?

I like the way these work, but Ive got a Hewitt lift that I swear weighs a ton and Im having a hard time believing my drill will lift it.

Ive seen other cantilever type wheels but seem kinda cheesy.

Any input?

Just make sure that you either completely remove them or that they lift high enough that there is no weight on them in the water. My brother inlaw put fixed wheels similar to that last year and crushed them both since the lift would sink into the mud and spread the load onto them. It was stuck so bad that I had to hook a tow strap up to my truck and take repeated runs to jerk it out of the muck.

Edited by oldjeep
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I have a pair of these. They have worked pretty well. I use a Bosch 1/2 drive, 18v drill.

you have to lift them up and leave the lift on the pads when lift is set in place.

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I like this setup.

I have wheels from FLOE and they have worked well. Some notes:

The company that installed the wheels drilled holes into the wheel since they installed them after the lift was in the water. The wheels help create lift when trying to move the lift in and out of the water. Now there are holes, it defeats that purpose - don't drill holes into the wheels.

If you are going with this set, you will not be using a power drill under water to actually raise and lower the unit. On land, maybe.

Having one pair of wheels makes the operator balance the lift. Depending on your slope, this may be a challenge and you may be better off with using two pairs.

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If you are going with this set, you will not be using a power drill under water to actually raise and lower the unit. On land, maybe.

you would use an extension. Pretty worthless setup if you can't lift the wheels back up once you put it in the water

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looks good but I need smarter. They need to step up a 4 1/2 foot sea wall! If I had a better entry I would have something like them.

Couldn't you use a couple of ramps like for loading a motorcycle in a truck? Might need to have some additional support in the middle. And something to pull the whole mess up hill.

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Looking to add wheels to my boat lift so its not such an event to get it in and out of the lake. Whatcha guys got?

I like the way these work, but Ive got a Hewitt lift that I swear weighs a ton and Im having a hard time believing my drill will lift it.

Ive seen other cantilever type wheels but seem kinda cheesy.

Any input?

I feel like this is always a big event no matter what I do each year to try and avoid it.

I have a Sunstream Sunlift (hydraulic lift) and the cantilever wheels, and it does a great job going from legs to 3' high on the wheels in ~2 seconds...

I use the wheels (balanced perfectly in the center) to wheel it out into the water, where the fun begins... I strap a raft to the top of it and use the lift's own power to pull its legs up... then float it ~100 yards down the shore to where it sits @ 5' deep at its shallow end... Because its so deep, I feel like it would be impossible to ever move without floating it, so the hydraulic lift is by far my favorite addition to my boat stuff.

I don't know where I'm going with this - All of the wheels are expensive - and almost worthless if you have a mucky shore. Floating it is the way to go

This year was the easiest yet - still not that easy...

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Like jonredcorn said this is a big chore. Putting mine in and taking it out is the biggest job I do all year long. I have a drop off and muck at the deep end.

I have something like this and use large car tires and then take them off once the lift is in place.

http://www.veveinc.com/shop/Boat-Lift-Wheel-Mount-Kit-IWP-65.html

I also had 2 heavy duty lift bags made by these folks and they work great ... on a much smaller scale of course

http://carterbag.com/salvage.html

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I feel like this is always a big event no matter what I do each year to try and avoid it.

I have a Sunstream Sunlift (hydraulic lift) and the cantilever wheels, and it does a great job going from legs to 3' high on the wheels in ~2 seconds...

I use the wheels (balanced perfectly in the center) to wheel it out into the water, where the fun begins... I strap a raft to the top of it and use the lift's own power to pull its legs up... then float it ~100 yards down the shore to where it sits @ 5' deep at its shallow end... Because its so deep, I feel like it would be impossible to ever move without floating it, so the hydraulic lift is by far my favorite addition to my boat stuff.

I don't know where I'm going with this - All of the wheels are expensive - and almost worthless if you have a mucky shore. Floating it is the way to go

This year was the easiest yet - still not that easy...

I use a raft too to float it out, still have to get it from shore to floating. Currently we use a bobcat every year and just push/pull it, sliding it on 2x6s, but its an afternoons worth of work loading up the bobcat etc. Im thinking with some wheels, Ill just use the hydraulics to lift itself onto wheels and should be easy enough to then push around, but like someone said earlier, Im not sure my beach will make this much easier. I suppose I could just tow strap it to my truck. With wheels I could probably make it work.

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There's been a "business" on my lake for many years that gets passed down from one guy to another every 4 or 5 years. Successive owners start as a member of the local high school football team, have access to a pickup, and have a bit of entrepreneurial spirit. They hire 8 or 9 of their fellow linemen and go around in the pickup wearing chest high waders. They just pick up the lifts and haul them out in the fall and walk them back in in the spring. Takes them 10 or 15 minutes max. They're even very good at hitting the right landing spot. Good competition for the local marina which does the same work using a work pontoon with a fork lift type apparatus on the front. Most of the shoreline is rocky - where the rip rap has fallen into the lake over the years - or mucky.

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Couldn't you use a couple of ramps like for loading a motorcycle in a truck? Might need to have some additional support in the middle. And something to pull the whole mess up hill.

That is what I do. I have ramps made but it is a job. The last three years I have been getting my lifts taken out. We have at least three guys that have pontoons set up with lifting booms. They have them out in a very short time. I have been putting them back in. I am on the water before most all of the lake users. some of the early fishermen trailer in about the same time as us. If the Ice is out we are looking to put the tugs in. The one thing that can slow us down is junk. ( trees, stumps, and such.)

I often do my docks and lifts on my own. I get excited and can't what for the rest of the crew. I wish they would retire!

  • Like 1
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There's been a "business" on my lake for many years that gets passed down from one guy to another every 4 or 5 years. Successive owners start as a member of the local high school football team, have access to a pickup, and have a bit of entrepreneurial spirit. They hire 8 or 9 of their fellow linemen and go around in the pickup wearing chest high waders. They just pick up the lifts and haul them out in the fall and walk them back in in the spring. Takes them 10 or 15 minutes max. They're even very good at hitting the right landing spot. Good competition for the local marina which does the same work using a work pontoon with a fork lift type apparatus on the front. Most of the shoreline is rocky - where the rip rap has fallen into the lake over the years - or mucky.

Theres money to be made if your a kid these days. I offered to let the neighbor boy mow my lawn, I give him $25 for my 1/4 acre of grass. Hes amped, Im amped, his parents are amped. I told a few other neighbors of this and they went in too. Next thing ya know, the kids doing half my neighborhood, clearing a few hundred bucks a day 3/4 days a week, more in the spring when it rains a lot, all in a few hours.

Ill have to get him and his wrestling buddies to put lifts and docks in next.

Edited by 05hammerhead
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I've been doing this myself for quite a few years now, so I have it down to a science. When I bought my lift, I had the manufacturer (Summit Marine) weld a 2" diameter by 2 foot piece of aluminum tube to each foot pad. Then I bought four dock wheels and a cheap queen size air mattress. I put the air mattress under the bunks and lower them using the hydraulics which then raises the lower portion of the lift. I then put the dock wheels on the aluminum tubes on each foot pad and secure with a lock pin (hole drilled through tube). I float it up as far as I can until the wheels start hitting bottom. I then use an ATV to pull it up on the beach (could use a truck or a winch) and use a bottle jack to lift each end to remove the wheels. Reverse the process to put the lift in the water in the spring.

I liked this so much, I wanted to use the same process with my dual PWC hoist, so I just attached 2" PVC tubes to each foot using u-bolts. The wheels provide enough buoyancy to float the lift.

I will second the recommendation NOT to drill holes in the wheels. I did that but found that I wanted the additional buoyancy, so I plugged them.

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