Hewitt aluminum boat lift - bought it, now questions

I'm looking at buying a used Hewitt aluminum boat lift. As part of the price, the seller has agreed to transport it to my home for me. Next summer, I would plan to disassemble it and transport it 175 miles to the lake where I will use it.

I haven't seen the lift yet, I'll be looking at it on Saturday, so I'm not sure which side the winch wheel is on. Am I correct in assuming that the wheel can be put on either side, depending on which side of the dock it will be used on? I've been around lifts owned by relatives & neighbors, but never really looked at the construction much, or thought about that aspect. Seems it would be a pretty straighforward change to make?

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

I guess if you dig deep enough you can find just about whatever you're looking for. If this will be useful to anyone, here's a link to several Hewitt products assembly instructions:

http://warnersdock.com/Hewittpdf/

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

I bought the lift and it has a crack in one of the cross members and a half-***** repair has been applied. (Turns out the winch is on the correct side for my dock.) I'm planning on making a more permanent repair, either having it welded or using angle aluminum & bolts.





The lift was delivered today & I was trying out the mechanism. It works OK, but I'm having trouble figuring out where something is out of whack. The corner where the repair is, opposite the winch, sags in the lowest position and that corner upright is not quite vertical in the up position. I measured the top frame and it is only out of square by 3/8".

Partially lowered:



Almost fully lowered (it lays pretty flat when fully lowered):



Full upright position:



Rear corner opposite the repair, everything looks pretty square:



I know something is out of whack, so my question is, because of the way the cable is threaded and rigged, is it normal for the corner opposite the winch to sag at all, or should everything be square and true throughout the lift operating range?

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

Re: Hewitt aluminum boat lift

I straightened things up using a tree, a timber and a come-along, so things are nearly square & straight now.

I need to replace the boards & carpet on the cradles & while working on that today, I noticed that the clevises holding the pulleys on are just the $2 parts from HD or Lowe's. Should there be something stronger in place of those? What about stainless steel?