Belt Drive Boat Lift - Belt Change

[amartin]

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum, but I figured that this is maintenance, so what the heck!

Does anyone have any experience changing the belt on one of these? The belt is starting to slip when raising the boat.  I don't know how long this belt has been on here, as I have only owned this lift for about 18 months.

I assume that it is geared such that if I remove the belt that I don't take a quick ride down into the water?

Any other tips?  I am still waiting on the replacement belt, but figured that I would start to plan for this

[Sixball]

Take the belt to any good hardware or automotive store and they can match them up.  It as looks like you could see the name and part number on the old belt. Most can cross reference them. 

[amartin]

Thanks.  Belt was tough to find locally, but in fairness I didn't search too widely as it didn't seem "essential"!   $5 on Zoro, just waiting for it to arrive.

[justgary]

7 hours ago, amartin said:

Not sure if this is the appropriate forum, but I figured that this is maintenance, so what the heck!

Does anyone have any experience changing the belt on one of these? The belt is starting to slip when raising the boat.  I don't know how long this belt has been on here, as I have only owned this lift for about 18 months.

I assume that it is geared such that if I remove the belt that I don't take a quick ride down into the water?

Any other tips?  I am still waiting on the replacement belt, but figured that I would start to plan for this

The big gear should not be able to back drive the worm, but if you are worried, you could let the boat down first to remove the load.  Or, you could put a C-clamp through the big gear and tighten it on the plate just to make sure you don't let the wheel turn.  My vote is the first, because I would try to pull and place the belt by prying it out with a screwdriver and then turning the pulley.  I'm kind of lazy that way.

By the way, that belt looks OK from here... did the last owner change it but then not tighten it correctly?  If it's not frayed and flopping a couple of layers of cord around, I'd just tighten it up....

[amartin]

Thanks for the ideas.  Easiest way to reach this is to be standing in the bow of the boat, so I would prefer to leave the boat on the lift for this.

Tightening might do the trick, but it has been fine for the last year that I have had the boat on it and just recently started acting up.  I figure that once I am up there, changing the $5 belt was a no brained, even if only preventive.

[amartin]

Update:

As suspected, the lift is geared such that it does not move without being forcibly turned, i.e. with the belt off it isn’t going anywhere.  The design on these is pretty poor though, as there is no mechanical  way to tension the belt.  It is a pia to hold the motor tight and tighten up the bolts holding the motor.  Takes about 3 people, but it is a pretty small work area and tough to get more than 1 person to it.  I ended up doing some creative prying to get the belt tightened.

The old belt was aging more that wearing - rubber had begin to become brittle and slick, causing the slippage.