Flipping arms on a lift

[smuurph84]

My 6600 lb hydro hoist floats toward the rear ( open end ) of the slip when coming out of the water . Has anyone ever flipped theirs to float forward when rising ? Thinking this would help with better coverage of the rear of the boat and swim platform . Curious if this is an easy process ? 

[barefootpaul]

There is a fair amount of "it depends". The engineering is pretty straightforward. Nothing overly complicated, but there are about a thousand bolts.

First thing I would think about is if you need to turn the tanks around. Meaning can you just rotate the whole lift, or do you want to rotate just the arms and not the tanks. If you are fine rotating the whole thing, it might be as simple as unbolting from the dock, hold the arms up, float out, float back in. I doubt it will be this easy.

If you need to swap tank direction, do it on land. Or at least in very shallow water. That's essentially a disassemble/reassemble. Probably a day for 2 novice but handy guys.

https://www.boatlift.com/resources/installation-instructions/

[familyfun]

I considered doing this when ours was installed.  The problem is that in most cases where you are concerned about the coverage of the rear of the boat and swim platform (they are at, or extend beyond, the end of the dock) you won't be able to, or may not want to, do it.  Technically. you are not flipping the arms.  On a Hydrohoist, typically "flipping the arms" refers to turning them upside down to put the side rail/step below the water, rather than above it (to allow for wider boats in a narrow slip).  What you are considering, as barefootpaul said, is rotating the arms so that they point towards the back rather than the front.  Obviously it can be done (and is done according to our installer), but the problem is that this puts the frame and bunks further into the slip and may make it impossible for the bunks to be under the transom (obviously depending on your slip length, boat length etc.).

In our case it was not practical because rotating them and even attaching the "normality front" arms at the very opening of the slip it moved the frame, and therefore the bunks, to far forwards and it was not under the transom enough for me.

Edited May 2, 2022 by familyfun

[barefootpaul]

4 minutes ago, familyfun said:

I considered doing this when ours was installed.  The problem is that in most cases where you are concerned about the coverage of the rear of the boat and swim platform (they are at, or extend beyond, the end of the dock) you won't be able to do it.  Technically. you are not flipping the arms.  On a Hydrohoist, typically "flipping the arms" refers to turning them upside down to put the side rail/step below the water, rather than above it (to allow for wider boats in a narrow slip).  What you are considering, as barefootpaul said, is rotating the arms so that they point towards the back rather than the front.  Obviously it can be done (and is done according to our installer), but the problem is that this puts the frame and bunks further into he slip and may make it impossible for the bunks to be under the transom (obviously depending on your slip length, boat length etc.).

In our case it was not practical because even attaching the "normality front" arms at the very opening of the slip it moved the frame, and therefore the bunks, to far forwards and it was not under the transom enough for me.

Good point. No way I have enough length in my slip to have my lift arms point backwards and still have the lift under the correct part of the hull.

[EchelonMike]

I just used my lift for the first time this weekend, and I found that if I pull the bow of the boat over the leading edge of the dock before I hit raise, it brings the boat at least a foot farther into the slip, and gives me more shade/coverage at the platform.  I put a dock guard pad on the dock at the bow to prevent any scuffing during that manual "pull forward" process.  Worked great.  Good luck!

[smuurph84]

5 minutes ago, EchelonMike said:

I just used my lift for the first time this weekend, and I found that if I pull the bow of the boat over the leading edge of the dock before I hit raise, it brings the boat at least a foot farther into the slip, and gives me more shade/coverage at the platform.  I put a dock guard pad on the dock at the bow to prevent any scuffing during that manual "pull forward" process.  Worked great.  Good luck!

yeah I was thinking about that as my 16 t22 sits to low to get the nose over the front edge( already have the bumper in the slip.) thinking the higher freeboard with the newer model boats will be above the dock to pick up close to 1'? that's my hope anyway. anyone with a wahoo dock and a t250 that can comment?

[familyfun]

9 hours ago, smuurph84 said:

yeah I was thinking about that as my 16 t22 sits to low to get the nose over the front edge( already have the bumper in the slip.) thinking the higher freeboard with the newer model boats will be above the dock to pick up close to 1'? that's my hope anyway. anyone with a wahoo dock and a t250 that can comment?

We did this with out T23.  It was a bear to pull up, but we got an extra 8-10 inches by doing it.  We now have a 2022 25 LSV and with its much higher freeboard the nose extends over the front edge by 6-8 inches without even being lifted up.  I have not tried to lift the nose to see how much more I could get.  I do not have a wahoo dock, but even so, I doubt all wahoo docks are the same height so I suspect that it really depends on your specific configuration.