boat lift

So I'm contemplating getting a boat lift. One of those simple, standalone, on the bottom next to the dock with the big crank wheel kind of lift. Before pulling the trigger...what I'm currently hanging up on is ... how bad is it to load an SN on an open public lake not protected in any bay or cove or breakwater where the lake can get rough?
My intention would be to not use an anchor when I'm not there. I currently use whips when I'm there. I swim out to get the boat sometime after we arrive at the lake. Then I swim it out to the anchor when we leave. My question has to do with loading in rough water when leaving or as it increases in roughness while we're there to get it off the whips.

Thanks for any real world experiences with lifts. Would it be a foolish waste of money in this kind of scenario?

I'm not sure how big your lake is, but there are some factors to consider. Does the lake freeze? Does the ice move as it melts---if so...lift has to come out every year and you need a place to keep it. Then,,,how much water level variation do you experience? If it is more than a foot or so, it can mean having to adjust the height of the lift, or moving the lift I to deeper water. Some lifts made today can be leveled with a power drill. Floe and Shore Station (and probably many other brands) have that feature. Depth is a factor too...don't want to be in too ,I have more than 6 feet or so of water, or it gets a lot harder to set up, and they do tend to sway a lot when the legs get really long..

Waves....bottom line is you don't want waves washing your boat off of the lift...so you will need to be able to keep your boat high enough to prevent that. If you keep your running gear dry on the lift, it will take a huge wave to carry it off....but I don't know what kind of lake you're one. People who keep their boats on lifts along rivers have to deal with cruiser (and the unmentionable surf) wakes so that could mean an even higher position would be desired.

I'm still new to boating and lifts, but I've had to learn a lot from my friends and neighbors along the way. You may want to keep learning a bit more before you buy a lift. There are several kinds....vertical. Cantilever, hydraulic, and then you might want to motorized your wheel like Ive done to make it easier on the wife or even yourself.

I love my lift now, especially since it is motorized, driven by my boat battery via a quick connect cable.

Keep learning....keep asking...you'll wind up getting the right solution.

Last I knew Floe was the only one with easy adjust screw jack legs. Flow makes a 24 wolt super smooth and quiet lift. They also offer a remote control so you can start lowering the boat while walking down to it. I have owned Shoremaster,, Nyman and Floe and I am sold on Floe just for the features mentioned.

IMO it would be easier to pull onto a lift then alongside a dock to hook up lines and whips in rough water conditions. If the lift is equipped with side bunks or guides that will help guide you in, bunks should be high enough so the tracking fins won't hit the cross member regardless, so that should be a non-issue. You will need to take care not to overrun the lift though or your running gear could be damaged from hitting the cross member, this should not be an issue with a little common sense and even the slightest driving skills. Once the boat is in the lift over the bunks a few cranks of the wheel and the boat will stabilize, if you have any others on board they can help hold the boat steady until stabilized.. As Kevin mentioned, if you go with a hydraulic lift most have remotes available for convenience, they are much faster and generally quitter as well. Cable lifts work very well and are typically cheaper, if you go motorized your best bet is a motor that spins the wheel not replaces it.

Kevin you are correct, Floe is the only one who offers the screw jack legs which is a very nice option but those Floe's sure aint inexpensive!!

8122pbrainard wrote: quinner wrote: if you go motorized your best bet is a motor that spins the wheel not replaces it. This is a key point. If for any reason the powered lift fails, you will still be able to get the boat on and off. I did have a issue with a power outage once due to a lightning storm. I was glad I could get the boat up and out of the water before the storm got worse.

This past spring I motorized my lift (after 12 years of cranking the big wheel) with a lift tech AC motor (link below). In case of power failure you use the included bit in your cordless drill to raise/ lower the lift. I tested it and it works but you need to have a strong, fully charged battery.

Link to Liftech boat lift motors

-Brad

quinner:
Your input on the bunks being high enough...I was wondering about even the possibility of the skegs hitting the bunks too while bobbing and weaving in waves...not just hitting cross-members.
Sure it would be nice to be rich and have a high-speed hydraulic lift and all. That seems to be the prime lift. Short of having a boat house on pilings or built up from the bottom and then using the lifting rings. If one could leave a boat house out in a lake that freezes over and yet again be rich to build such a thing then sure.
I ain't rich.
So I'm looking at getting in for less money. Maybe stretch for the wheel motor. It seems I would have to get vertical guides.
Still and all with any standalone lift fancy or not...I'm not yet comfortable with what I've heard with the boat bobbing and weaving in rough water. Maybe the fact that people are NOT saying it's a problem...maybe I'm making too much of a deal about my concerns about hitting things or not being reasonably balanced on a lift. quinner is touching on something about getting the boat stabilized. That's good. That helps narrow down the focus. That's where my focus is. That time of chaos between floating, bobbing and weaving in the waves and being stabilized on the bunks. Then the boat gets nicely lifted out of the water with no worries. It's the in-between time that I'm wondering about.

Hmm...infinitely...I really like the whips. Quick and easy to release and re-hook. No re-tying knots. Just hook loops on (and un-hook) cleats and you're done. And no bumpers. As water gets rougher though they do get a workout. Or a surfer/wakeboarder goes by :(

Because I wouldn't want to leave the boat on the whips while I'm not there, I want the lift to not be swimming or rowing out and back to the anchor. That and to not have the boat in the water the entire season to avoid what I call the bathtub ring around the water line on the hull. I'm not interested in trailering the boat each time either.

I'm glad to hear it's idiot-proof. I've been sure it was in calm water. It's just that chaotic time between floating and resting on the bunks in rougher water.

Quinner has definitely been there for me when I needed help and advice. He and Hollywood got my lift working when I first got it and since then I've been slowly tweaking it towards perfection. It's definitely difficult for me because we have a community dock and my boat slip is 10 feet wide perpendicular to the dock. Getting on is easy for me because I'm tall. My wife has to hop onto the bow a bit and pivot into the playpen area of our open bow SS. It's working well now, and next season I'm raising the lift to its highest point to allow for raising the cradle high enough to get Quinner's rowboat jig under it to do my own removal and placement.

Hey Quinner ....Shore Station now sells Lift Level'R legs that are backwards compatible with all of their lifts. This only substitutes for normal leg length as they don't yet have it for their deep water legs, but they do have it. I just looked again on their website before writing this note.

If I bought a new lift, I'd definitely get this feature because adjusting those damn pins under water is a complete Royal PIA.

Thanks again for your input.
For me, the pattern of boat usage is currently:
1. arrive back at place
2. contemplate swimming or rowing out to get boat...probably not 'til the next morning if it's warm enough and calm enough (out of shape old fart fair weather skier)
3. use whips at dock
3. enjoy boat a little while there
4. if strong winds come up move boat from whips to anchor...just because
5. leave it there until next use or swim/row the boat out before leaving

What I'd like to do is:
1. arrive back at place
2. lower the boat in the morning for that possible ski
3. continue to use the whips while enjoying the boat when we're there 'cause they're fast and easy and convenient
4. if strong winds come up then move boat from whips to lift...just because
5. leave it there until next use or move boat to lift before leaving

Basically wanting to stop using the anchor. That and minimizing bathtub ring as a bonus.

So the rough water would be when moving it in higher winds and maybe at the time before leaving.

No I wouldn't intentionally have a "19' inboard competition ski boat" out in rough water. lol

8122pbrainard wrote: 96SNEFI wrote: 3. continue to use the whips while enjoying the boat when we're there 'cause they're fast and easy and convenient 4. if strong winds come up then move boat from whips to lift...just because 5. leave it there until next use or move boat to lift before leaving Someone, I feel once you get used to the lift, using it to park the boat for short periods of time is just as easy as mooring it at the dock. For short periods of time you don't need to raise it all the way and It frees up you dock space. You must be on some big water that gets pretty rough?

I recently bought a used lake lift with a cover. I will park the boat in the lift without raising if we won't be using the boat for a couple of hours, but want to keep it covered/dry if we get a unexpected shower, and it does have the advantage of freeing space at the dock..

74Wind wrote: Rather than letting it float in the lift, think most folks run it up partway while not in use, it only takes a minute, and then no worries about a quick storm or surf boat banging it around.

Jeff,
You must have periods of ADD like I do!

8122pbrainard wrote: For short periods of time you don't need to raise it all the way

Honestly, it really doesn't take much to get the boat stable. How big do the waves get and how often do they get that big? Like Pete said, I think you will find parking on the lift, and then raising it maybe 3 to 6 inches will take you about 2 to 3 minutes, a lot quicker then messing with bumpers and ropes. Then if the waves start building, you spend another 2 to 3 minutes to raise it another 6 inches. Repeat as the surf builds until you have your boat high and dry.

What lake are you on? What Province?

Go with the wheel kit. I have a universal fit all kit on mine. The installer put them on and detaches the wheels taking them to his next customer. Some lifts even have detachable tongue kits so you can hook up any type of tow vehicle to putt it out of the lake.

BTW, When cranked up, it would take a tsunami to even move the typical inboard on the lift.

after we got the boat back to safty