Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

[jdlough]

I have two boat lift company reps coming out tomorrow, for quotes on a new 4-corner lift (right side of pic). I have a 130' pier, going out to the brackish river mouth at the Chesapeake Bay. This is for a future deckboat or bowrider, maybe 2500 pounds.

I need electric lines, and a water line, trenched and buried about 300' to the pier, then 130' to the end.

"Hi-Tide" has a 9000lb lift installed for $6900, but I'd have to get someone to run the power and water and all hook ups. All aluminum and stainless. 15yr warranty.

The "Magnum" guy, has an 8000lb lift, installed including burying and running power and water (plus giving me a standard 110v power outlet and water to the end of the pier) for maybe about the same price. His lift also has a catwalk on the opposite side of the boat, for easy boat cleaning and covering. BUT, his lifts are stainless fittings and GALVANIZED I-beams. 5 year warranty. The Nanticoke is brackish - a bit salty.

For the first guy, I suspect hiring someone else for the electric and H20 would be another couple of thousand.

How huge a deal is aluminum vs galvanized lift for brackish river applications? My galvanized dock bolts still look good after about 3 years.

Bonus question: Is $900 for a remote control worth it? (compared to, say, hydraulic steering?)

Any money I don't spend on this, I can spend on an actual boat.

ps, If you're bored, here's the reason for the needed boat lift (and why a 'starter' boat is a good idea)...
"Boat sank. OB 4 Sale. U (find and) Haul!!!"
http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=275872

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

#1 you can save a lot of money, going to home depot/lowes, renting a trencher, and doing the trench yourself, anyone can connect 1/2 pvc pipe together, and anyone can by a 500 ft roll of burial electric wire. that job is mostly labor that the contractor is going to triple the cost, due to his overhead and insurance cost. either do it yourself, or spend boat money on labor. then just pay a plumber & electrician to tie it in, if you do not feel confident to do it.

 

[pine island fred]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

My take. See lots of lifts, all sorts of shapes and sizes for different applications. The aluminum and stainless are real impressive with there plastic/ teflon bearings. My lift is an old galvenised iron ACE LIFT. Dont know how old it is but will probably out live me. Will it corrode? Yes, over time all metal will corrode except maby titanium which no one but the govt. could afford.
I am in serious gulf salt and the galvinised steel is just fine. My advice is keep it simple. Take a few moments and rinse the lift off after use as you rinse the boat and flush the motor. You will flush the motor, right? Remote control, leave someone on the dock to raise the lift after you get the boat off, tie up and drop the lift when you return. Remotes can be a problem with random radio signals If you do get one, be sure to turn it off after use or you run the risk of a missing boat and broken cables, burned motors if randomly triggered.
9,000 lbs is a substancial size, do you need that much ? Ditch witch sounds fine for burying the water/ elect. yourself but are you going to have to get your own permit to do all the work? Around here you need a permit to build a dog house. Permits are big hassels. Might be prudent to have someone else do it.
Question on your attached pictures. Do they normally push that barge/ crane assy. with that little MERC ? Before you jump, look into ACE LIFT and keep it simple. regards FRED

 

[Mark42]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

I'm always around salt water and all hardware is galvanized steel. Don't recall ever seeing aluminum hardware on a dock. I would be more afraid of aluminum corroding way faster than galvanized steel.

 

[jdlough]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

I'm going with the 8,000lb Magnum Galvanized.

I went and saw two 5-year old lifts on the brackish water, about 500' from each other. The Magnum galvanized looked fine - no rust. The other one - aluminum - was very pitted.

They are charging $500 for the water and electric trench, plumbing & licensed electric hook-up, building a station for spicket and extra electric outlets. I pay for the wire and pipes and such, bringing the total for the lift and wire and everything to about $7900.

The biggest surprise was the wire cost. The 6-3 UF underground wire is over $5/foot. So, $1500 for 300' of it. I'm going to shop that wire price around.

Also, don't be afraid to ask for a cash discount.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Jim

 

[jdlough]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

That wire price - I don't get it.

The internet has it for between $3.80 to $5.60 per foot.

I shopped it around and found it at a local place, E D Supply, in Salsibury, MD, for 1/5th the price. $.90 per foot. I rechecked three times to make sure we were talking about the same wire.

So I'm saving over $1,000 right there.

 

[jdlough]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

LIFT IS INSTALLED!!!!

So, forget about the expensive UF underground wire. The (licensed) electric guy said, for the same price he would run an upgraded 40 amp wire (instead of 30 amp) to the pier cut-off box, then a 20 amp circuit for the lift and an extra 20 amp line/outlets to the end of the pier, if he could skip the underground UF wire and use regular wire and buried conduit pipe. (I suspect in my area labor is cheaper than materials) He explained that the regular wire and conduit and labor were cheaper than the UF wire, and that UF wire was not upgradeable and made him 'nervous' about call-backs and future people with shovels and such. He left the string in the conduit in case I later wanted to pull yet another wire.

The lift only needs one 20 amp line.

I figure I get a separate elec line, and I don't like buried unprotected wire in my yard, and I like easy upgrades, and what-do-I-know, so fine with me.

The amazing bit to me was that he trenched, set, AND TOTALLY COVERED UP the conduit BEFORE pulling wire. After the conduit sections were all glued/attached to each other and buried, he tied a bit of rag to his blue/white-poly-pull-string. He stuffed the rag into one end of the conduit, attached his Shop Vac to the other, and sucked the pull-line thru 300' to the pier-land-side elec cutoff box. [took less than 10 seconds] (He said 1 in 100 times it wouldn't work with the Vac, but then he'd use an air compressor from the other side to push and that ALWAYS worked)

Normally, I agree with Tashasdaddy not to pay the pros for grunt work (digging trenches, etc), but this 8-man team worked like clockwork, had their system down, and my efforts would have just got in their way and increased labor time) Next year, if I find some decent used boat lift on Craigslist, I can install the 2nd cheap lift myself (I paid close attention on how to install a lift - simple) for the teenage boys' crappy boat, using the separate elec service.

As a bonus, for $100, with the trencher they dug out from my lawn a 36'x8' new garden patch for my wife, which I would have spent 2 days doing for not as well.

Thanks for your help deciding me on Galvanized VS Aluminum. You set this in motion. I see no reason NOT to stick with Galvanized.

So, Magnum 8,000lb SD galvanized lift w/outside plank, 300' buried elec and fat h20 line, two elec outlets at pier-end, poly-pull-line for possible future elec needs, h20 no-freeze HD spigot and and two railing-ready 6x6 posts for cut-off elec box and h20 spigot at land-side-of-pier, installed - $7,100.

Wife's 8'X36' new garden - $100.

I get to focus on finding/buying boats - priceless.


Jim

 

[Mark42]

Re: Boat lift install quoters comming. Any advice?

Great deal! Sounds like you had a top notch contractor working for you. And I agree with the cash payments. Never hurts to ask for discount for cash.

Looking forward to the photos.