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Floatair Vs Boat Floater Boat Lifts


Beautifulday

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Anyone have feedback on FloatAir lifts? Had Boat Floater ordered and they are running 8 weeks behind schedule and dealer recommending Floatair. Thoughts?

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I have a Boat Floater and a hydrohoyst. Work great, would highly recommend both. I don't have any experience with the FloatAir. From what I see on their website is that they use big cube floats instead of long tubes. Not as good for wave action or stability in my opinion. Also I would be very cautious about  an end mounted lift. I had one flip over. Never again. You would need a huge over-engineered dock to support it. I also don't think the the bow heavy ergonomics of our wake boat hull are well suited for them.

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My family has been using Boat Floater brand since sometime in the 70's.  We have had great results with the Classic design, don't know much about the Free Floating design like HydroHoist.   We currently have 4 of them in service, and many neighbors that use them as well. 

6600 Classic with with poly tanks for a SeaRay 240 Sundeck

6000 Classic with Galvanized round tanks for a Malibu 23 LSV

4500 Classic with poly tanks and service platform for a Ranger R91 Bass Boat

3500 Classic with Galvanized round tanks, this one has a wooden top to make a platform for parking a SeaDoo on.

 

I see FloatAir makes 2 styles, the 4 point attachment and the front attach.  The 4 point looks similar to the Free Floating Boat Floater or HydroHoist.  The front attach is popular on our lake and seem to work well up to a certain size of boat, wouldn't be my personal choice for the added stress that they put on the dock.     

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Do the front mounted lifts depend on the dock to support the front of the boat when its lifted or are there floats along the entire length of the lift and it just hinges in the front so that it sinks deeper in the rear? I would think the boat would be fully supported by the lift and the front hinge point is just simply that a hinge point. Seems this would be the answer for those with docks in shallow waters.

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18 hours ago, tbullard said:

Do the front mounted lifts depend on the dock to support the front of the boat when its lifted or are there floats along the entire length of the lift and it just hinges in the front so that it sinks deeper in the rear? I would think the boat would be fully supported by the lift and the front hinge point is just simply that a hinge point. Seems this would be the answer for those with docks in shallow waters.

Correct they don't require the dock to support. Floats along the entire length support all the weight. No special reinforcement was required for installing in an existing floating slip in the example I know of.

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23 hours ago, drh said:

Correct they don't require the dock to support. Floats along the entire length support all the weight. No special reinforcement was required for installing in an existing floating slip in the example I know of.

Have you used one? From my experience this is only sort of correct. While it is reasonable to say the floats support the whole weight of the boat while lifted, loading a boat onto a front mounted lift inflicts huge stress on the dock. And it is all on the one mounting point. Both the front mount, and 4 point side mount put the full weight of the sunken lift on the dock. The difference is that with the side mount the lift is fully submerged and you can float on. With a front mount you end up driving up the slanted lift putting the full weight of the lift, the weight of the boat, and the forward momentum all onto the edge of the dock. I'd do it with a sturdy dock and a bass boat, not a wake boat.

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On 5/1/2021 at 10:11 AM, barefootpaul said:

Have you used one? From my experience this is only sort of correct. While it is reasonable to say the floats support the whole weight of the boat while lifted, loading a boat onto a front mounted lift inflicts huge stress on the dock. And it is all on the one mounting point. Both the front mount, and 4 point side mount put the full weight of the sunken lift on the dock. The difference is that with the side mount the lift is fully submerged and you can float on. With a front mount you end up driving up the slanted lift putting the full weight of the lift, the weight of the boat, and the forward momentum all onto the edge of the dock. I'd do it with a sturdy dock and a bass boat, not a wake boat.

Yes. It doesn't appear to add any stress to our slip. It's not like power loading a boat on a trailer - you just float in the slip and when the lift starts to raise it catches the bow, then stern and pops up. I'm sure it depends on the boat and water depth. This is with a Mastercraft NXT20 and on average 7-8ft of water at the back of the lift. They adjust the rails to accommodate your specific boat.

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On 4/29/2021 at 3:56 PM, tbullard said:

Do the front mounted lifts depend on the dock to support the front of the boat when its lifted or are there floats along the entire length of the lift and it just hinges in the front so that it sinks deeper in the rear? I would think the boat would be fully supported by the lift and the front hinge point is just simply that a hinge point. Seems this would be the answer for those with docks in shallow waters.

My understanding is the front mount requires deeper water than the side mounts. I have both types and it does seem the lift has to drop farther on our front mount.

 

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