Hoist Advice
Hoist Advice
joebks ... lkbum knows his stuff and has offered good info.
Allow me to elaborate a little, offer you some advice and provide a few options.
For your $2100 option I have two pair of pontoon bunks that we pulled off a lift at my shop. They are used but the wood, carpet and steel are in like new condition. I'm sure I can save you some money even after figuring freight. They are an easy bolt-on design and if I were you I would simply leave the v-hull pads on there so you can lift both v-hull and pontoon style hulls. We have performed this upgrade for a number of customers who have a pontoon boat they use in the summer and a bass boat for fall and winter. Regardless, your lift will be more marketable to a larger audience if you ever decide to sell it and nobody will likely pay you anything for the old v-hull pads. You might as well keep them. The majority of the used lifts you find will likely be setup for a v-hull.
If it truly is a 1995 model then you don't have to worry about it not being a level lift. Those boat suicide models were referred to as the H-model and not produced beyond 1990. I would not trust this answer unless it were from a H-hoist representative, even then roll the dice and cross your finger - around here they have a revolving door of management and employees so there aren't many true "experienced" boat lift veterans in their roster.
The air tanks will be made of fiberglass and held to the frame with steel tank bands. The older models (prior to roughly 2002) have 'steel in the water'. Contrary to their current marketing this is fine for 10-15 yrs here in our freshwater lakes. You will want to ask when they were replaced last, if at all. Again, look and feel for yourself unless they clearly look new. A good tank band will have 3/16" to 1/8" of thickness. The bottoms traditionally need replacing before the tops and you'll have to reach in the water and go by feel (assuming it's in the water now). I can drop-ship new replacement aftermarket tanks bands if you need them. My price would be considerably less money than buying them directy from the manufacturer. Rather than support their customer base with affordable replacement parts they have inflated them so high that it pushes any maintenance investment closer and closer to the price of a brand new lift.
For the 2006 tri-toon setup ... 5k seems a bit high even if it is their 6600# model. Especially after you figure the costs of relocating. If your local H-hoist dealer charges like they do here it will cost you double an install fee which will be somewhere in the $800-900 range plus freight if they have to move it more than a few miles.
You can hire an experienced independent installer like us for considerably less. Heck, you're only 4 hrs away (I'm just outside Charlotte, NC) I can send a guy to you with these used parts and judging by what you are being quoted we might could have the $2100 lift option setup with new bands and these used pontoon bunks and still put a seasons worth of gas money back in your pocket.
If you are considering a newer lift we offer that too. For not a whole lot more than you would pay for the $5000 version after factoring relocation and freight you will not likely have a warranty of any kind. If your budget can support a new lift we offer Poly Lift, Roto Lift or Galvalift brand lifts that all include a 5 year structural warranty and lifetime air tank warranty.
Call if we can help ... 803-242-5701. My name is Casey, we are WaterJack,
www.waterjack.net. At your service.