Boat Lift - Newbie

[brnewbie]

Pardon my newbie ignorance. I bought a craftlander boat lift for my 2001 bayliner 195 so I don't have to trailer my boat in and out of the water every time we go to our lake house. Never owned a lift before and was wondering if anyone could give me any tips or ownership suggestions.

Some questions:

- the methold to putting it on the lift is a simple as easing up to it and grabbing the support bars to stop the boat and center on lift?

- any rhyme or reason as to how high to crank it? Enough to get boat and engine out of water.

- I don't have a custom cover for the boat, so it was a hassle pulling the straps from under boat and lift to attach to other side of boat. Water was too cold to get in , so I used canoe to go on outside of lift and pass straps through and underneath boat. Do I need to cover boat when on lift? They are installing the canopy now that the boat is on the lift. Couldn't I just crank the boat up and also adjust the canopy heighth so that it is tucked under the canopy well?

Any other maintenance or advice? Nothing is too remedial. Thanks.

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

I recommend setting the cable lengths so that the bow is higher than the stern, about 10" or so. If rain does get into the boat the water will flow to the stern where your bilge pump can pump it out.

Did you get guide-ons for the lift? Those are very handy to get the boat lined up correctly on the bunks, especially when the wind is blowing you sideways. However, if you have a canopy over the lift then they can't be very tall.

Lastly, decorate the lift with flags, banners, lights, etc. Nobody seems to do that anymore but I think it personalizes an otherwise industrial looking machine.

 

[brnewbie]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

When I take the boat out, I lower the lift and drive off. Should I lower so that it does not touch the hull at all or do I lower it enough that I can back it off the lift and then when I come in, the hull will make contact with the middle hull supports kinda of like when I drive it up on a trailer. Or should it not make contact with the hull supports until I drive it in, turn off boat and then crank it up.

I do have the carpeted guides on the outside. They are great, but you can still manage to be a bit off the bottom hull supports if you have the front off to the right and the rear of boat off the left or vice versa.

Hope this makes sense. Not trying to complicate it.

 

[cjmcfall]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

I have many of the same questions, so thanks for posting.

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

When I take the boat out, I lower the lift and drive off. Should I lower so that it does not touch the hull at all or do I lower it enough that I can back it off the lift and then when I come in, the hull will make contact with the middle hull supports kinda of like when I drive it up on a trailer. Or should it not make contact with the hull supports until I drive it in, turn off boat and then crank it up.

I do have the carpeted guides on the outside. They are great, but you can still manage to be a bit off the bottom hull supports if you have the front off to the right and the rear of boat off the left or vice versa.

Hope this makes sense. Not trying to complicate it.

You don't want to drive on/off like you do with a trailer, you might damage the lift components or cause a cable wrap situation that is not good to have. Drop the lift down until the boat floats, then drive off. Coming back, glide slowly over the submerged lift and then raise it. I invested in a GEMS remote controlled controller unit that's mounted on a dockside piling, cuz I live off the intracoastal waterway (i.e. tides). Indispensable and worth every penny! If I leave dock on an ebbing tide and come back to find the bunks above water, I just lower it from the key fob controller. Sweet!

Just curious, when you mention the carpeted guides, do you mean the carpeted bunks (the wood parts that the hull rests on)? If so, that's not what I meant. Guide-ons, or guide posts, are like what you see on the rear of some trailers, the white PVC pipes that rise vertically from the rear corners of the trailer. On a lift you can have a pipe at each end and on each lower beam. When your bow passes through the first set as you drive on, once the beam of the boat meets the posts it centers the boat on the bunks. Same when you pass the second set of posts, at which point the first set of posts is now at the stern of the boat. So basically all four posts hold your boat straight on the bunks. In tidal areas they're almost a must-have so that if you come back during a flooding tide and your bunks are well below water where you can't see them, the posts show you exactly where to align your boat, sort of like runway lights for airplanes.

 

[gstanton]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

No one has actually said to put it in reverse when you get over the lift. You don't have to grab anything to stop the momentum of the boat... let the engine do it for you. Then raise the lift to meet the bottom of the boat.

 

[caldwell54]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

Do you have a cantilever lift or vertical ? If cantilever there is a lot of pressure on the cables if you only crank it part way up. For overnight or longer I always crank it up all the way so the pressure is off the cables and the weight is on the frame. I do leave it cranked up part way for short periods during the day.

If you have a covered canopy you don't really need a cover depending on size of boat and size of canopy (ie does canopy do a good job of covering the entire boat). I do not use a boat cover while I am at the lake house, but when I am leaving for a week or more I do put the cover on even with the canopy to keep the wind from blowing tree crud, bugs, etc into the boat. A custom snap on cover is ideal so you don't have to deal with straps under the boat. I have a jet boat so the cover has a strap that can be tightened around the edges versus under the boat.

When I lower my cantilever lift it has carpeted wooden bunks that will float on top of the water once you are off. When I come back I go very slow and the floating bunks will actually provide a little drag to slow you down. I stand up and grab the top of the aluminum canopy bars to help manually position myself from there. Use something on your boat like position of window frame, or tie down cleat to memorize how far forward your boat should be on the lift so you can position correctly each time you come in.

Good Luck

 

[cjmcfall]

Re: Boat Lift - Newbie

Those are all good points thank you.

By the way I just bought some of the those LED solar lawn lights for on top of the outside posts of my lift. I paid $4 for each and it should give the yahoos enough light not to hit it. Let's hope so anyway.