Buying a shore station

That makes perfect sense. Hard to get sun on a north facing shore.
My cabin in No. Idaho is 5 miles off-grid. I am self sufficient with the exception of propane to heat water and run our fridge. I have a small, but pretty elaborate solar system there. I am a big proponent of that stuff. It is surprising how much power you can get from a little sun, even on a cloudy day, or in the dead of winter. In the summer I never have to use my backup generator, in the winter I need to run it for a couple hours every 3rd day or so.

I have a Commander 12V motor on my Shorestation. I have it hooked to a solar panel and only have to give it one manual charge per season in about mid-August when the sun is headed south again. I have had great luck with this unit. I had one of the Shorestation units with the rubber wheel prior to this. It was decent but I still had the wheel on it, and I had to plug it into the boat whenever I wanted to lift it.
With respect to solar possibly not being adequate, my solar lift is on my 5000# lift for my SAN, which also has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 lbs of ballast left in it. It doesn't even struggle. It will not have any issue with a 2000 lbs boat. I manually crank up the Mustang to the top in one round of wearing out my arms.

canuck wrote: Hey 8122pbrainard you said you electrified your shore station - how does that work? Is there an electric winch? 12 volt or 110 volt? Might be the answer for mine.

I built mine using a 90 volt DC gearmotor. I'm about 150' from the house and was worried about the 120 volt voltage drop over that distance. Motors don't like it when they have to run on lower that 10% off the nominal. I've seen lawn sprinkling lake pumps burnt up because of low voltage. With the DC speed control down at the lift, if it puts out less than the max (90 volt) then the DC motor simply runs a little slower.

I didn't want to deal with battery charging if I used a 12 volt system nor did I feel solar charging was a option.

I kept my original winch and wheel just in case I needed to get the boat on or off during a power outage.

From the gearmotor I used a roller chain drive. The driven sprocket at the winch shaft is connected via quick disconnect "T" handle pins giving me the means of connecting or disconnecting the DC drive from the winch/wheel.

This whole project does require torque, HP and speed calculations with the gear ratio and sprocket drive ratio. If you can do this or find a friend with mechanical engineering skills, it's a great project.

The alternate is buying a commercially made electric drive from your lift manufacturer.

Hey 8122pbrainard you said you electrified your shore station - how does that work? Is there an electric winch? 12 volt or 110 volt?

Might be the answer for mine.

canuck wrote: I have an old 36110 steel shore station Does anybody else find these shore station lifts a very heavy load to turn the wheel (by hand) to hoist the boat? Or is there something wrong with it?

Check all your pivot points and the condition of your winch cable. Also as I mentioned previously, the rod ends on the tie rods connecting the front and rear cradle frames are a common wear point. One side always seems to wear more and this now binds the cradle as it's raised. Proper leveling so the complete frame isn't twisted is also key to it not binding.

Yes, they aren't the easiest to hand crank but age rust/wear will add to the problem! I electrified my Shoremaster years ago and that was still when I could crank it by hand!!

You should start looking for a used aluminum.

It gets pretty heavy when you get it out of the water. Im a small guy and even my big friends are a little winded after lifting the nautique up enough to clear the prop and rudder of the water. Yours is all steel which probably adds considerable weight to the cradle. Mine is augerd into the ground under the water and it sits in ice every winter. Ofcourse, we are channel front so there isnt major ice movement like lake front. As long as you had the cradle outta the water id say your fine.

Yay a mopar sixer. Leaning tower of power:). Aside from that I have a 2600lb shore station for my 2001 and it holds it great. Its probably an early 90's model and it has only had one cable replacement. Its had various boats on it a 74 ski nautique an 87 SN and a few different pontoons. I dont use the guides but im just carefull. It has for hinged pads that conform to the hull.

skierox wrote:    Reminder that the old metal are called 3698's They are solid, but very heavy!

Curtis, I have to disagree with Scott's recommendation here. Maybe it was all of the old steel Shorestations I had to struggle with (Scott is correct - they are heavy!!) way back in the late 60's early 70's at Watercraft Sales or loosing so many of the feet hauling them across the lakes with the work boat!! The biggest problem with the old steel ones is rust. I've seen them collapse because the most common point of failure is the tie rod ends that connect the front and rear cradle frames. We used to weld on new ends have them blasted and painted and 3 years later they would be in the same condition!

There are simply too many used aluminum ones out there that the steels (if you can still find one around) just aren't worth it. Nows the time - with the economy the way it is there are lots of lake homes on the market and lots of lifts not going into the water this summer!!

skierox wrote: I agree with mike on the old foam white trailer guides on the shorestations.

The muskrats really enjoy them.

I agree with mike on the old foam white trailer guides on the shorestations. They really do not last and can cost as much as $20 per guide to replace. Reminder that the old metal are called 3698's which means 3,600 pound capacity and 98 inches wide between poles! The beam of your boat could be up to 98 inches! You can normally get a used steel with canopy for less than 1,000. They are solid, but very heavy!

I have a 3000# Shorestation for our Mustang. 18ft. canopy. Perfect fit.
I am a big fan of Shorestations. I have one for my Super Air, and had one previously for my other two boats. The one thing I have always done differently with them is to get the Shoremaster guide ons. The Shorestation ones suck.

Crock,
      Sounds like I have the same boat, but mine is a bit of a project right now! If you look in the 1968 reference section it says that the Mustang weighs approximately 1600 lbs. I would guess that the Skier weighs a little less due to having a slant 6, but I could be wrong!

Edit: Lets see some pics of your boat....wel love pictures around here!