Re: Boat Lift
Welcome to the forum, BGibson. Yup, this place is awesome and chocked full of info about pert near anything you need to know about boats. A lift would be a great way to get a boat off of a trailer. Have you thought about some webbed straps , run under the boat? <br />If I were to build it, I'd make a 4x4 post frame with a couple 2x8s nailed together for the headers where the hoists went.If you weld, or have welder buddy, a pipe frame should work, too. Make it high enough to where you could put some spreaders where the straps came up above the boat sides. That way, you wouldn't stress the sides of the boat. You could use two hand hoists, just alternate cranking between the two to keep the boat some what level. When the boat clears the trailer, pull it out from under the boat.<br />Oh, yeah, just to be on the safe side, use saw horses or some sort of cradle to put under the boat. Not good to leave it hanging if you are going to be under it, or if you plan to leave it off the trailer overnight.<br /> This might seem really simple, but you should get the basic idea. You could get really fancy and rig it to where both end crank up at the same tome. That isn't as difficult as it sounds, but I prefer the more basic designs.To do it that way, you'd really need an electric hoist, or be preparred to do A LOT of cranking. You'd also need a lot of cable. The hoist would have it's cable would around the main axle of the lift and the cables running down to the straps would also be wound around the main axle. As the hoist pulled its cable, it would unwind the main axle, which in turn would cause the cables connected to the straps to wind up on the axle, in turn lifting the boat off the trailer. To lower the boat, gravity would be the main factor and the electric hoist would act as speed control and brake.
<br /><br />Any suggestions are welcomed
