55 Gallon poly drum lift

[Home Cookin']

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

I think I'd go for a drive-on design rather than a lift, or maybe a combo so you don't have to do much flooding/draining.

I would not count on my plastic and plumbing skills enough to pull the plug out of the boat and leave it out, but most people on lifts don't do that.

But if I owned the marina I would never allow a home-made rig like that.

why not just leave the boat in the water in the slip, as it was designed to do? Esp. if it's a floating slip.

 

[mavryk]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

I think I'd go for a drive-on design rather than a lift, or maybe a combo so you don't have to do much flooding/draining.

I would not count on my plastic and plumbing skills enough to pull the plug out of the boat and leave it out, but most people on lifts don't do that.

But if I owned the marina I would never allow a home-made rig like that.

why not just leave the boat in the water in the slip, as it was designed to do? Esp. if it's a floating slip.

Read previous posts.

Not interested in a drive on design.

Not interested in your lack of fabrication or plumbing skills. Not asking you to trust your boat on my lift.

I clearly stated I would get the marina owner's approval to use this lift.

Don't want to keep the boat in the water. Does this really require an explanation?

It is not a floating slip, never said it was a floating slip, stated it is a concrete slip where I plan to use this.

If you have some helpful information to offer, such as prior experience building or using a lift such as I am describing, please feel free to post.

Thanks

 

[gm280]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

I've read most of these posts now and i think everybody is over looking one important issue. While everybody talks about how little PSI pressure it will take and even talks about a good set up lungs do this and that, it seems everybody has forgotten that to build that little bit of PSI pressure will take a long time with most air compressors. You have to take into account the volumes of air needed to start building that little bit of PSI pressure into account. If it was that easy there would be tons of projects listed all over the internet to do just that. It takes a lot of cubic feet of air to start building the pressure. And the further down the tanks the more pressure it will certainly take. You have to equalize the pressures before any movement will take place... Look at how long it takes to fill a hot air balloon and refigure your time issues... While the pressures are low the volumes needed are very high...

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

Read previous posts.

Not interested in a drive on design.

Not interested in your lack of fabrication or plumbing skills. Not asking you to trust your boat on my lift.

I clearly stated I would get the marina owner's approval to use this lift.

Don't want to keep the boat in the water. Does this really require an explanation?

It is not a floating slip, never said it was a floating slip, stated it is a concrete slip where I plan to use this.

If you have some helpful information to offer, such as prior experience building or using a lift such as I am describing, please feel free to post.

Thanks

Back it down... home cookin didn't attack you. He just tried to offer some outside the box info.....

 

[UncleWillie]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

We might have a problem with the Blower (Shop Vac) design....

I just measured the output from the Vac to my Sand Blast Cabinet (Big Vac!)
The Fully Blocked exhaust measured just 35 inches of water column pressure (1.3psi) on a Magnehelic gauge.

These 62 year old lungs were able to muster 60 inches of water column pressure (2.2psi).

Another issue is that without a lot of air flowing through the Vacuum they will overheat.
The motors are cooled by the air the vac is moving.

 

[spdracr39]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

How in your design are you going to get the barrels to sink deep enough to drive up on and allow enough lift to get the boat out of the water? It doesn't seem like just the diameter of the barrel is enough. I don't know how much draft you need on a pontoon but I'm sure there isn't enough for my bowrider. I'm assuming the barrels are on their side.

 

[jdlough]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

You say "one company builds docks very similiar to what I envision using square, hollow poly tanks". Any company selling such a system would be glad to tell you how their system works, why it's safe, even provide you diagrams of seacocks, check valves, and whatever else needed to convince you to trust their lift with your boat. If, after seeing a successful boat lift company's plans, you decided to re-create it DIY and cheaper, fine. But this floating boat lift idea is not new. There's no need to recreate the wheel.

 

[NYBo]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

Sounds complicated, with many potential points of failure. I like the idea of using two pontoons instead of multiple barrels. That would simplify things greatly. Any derelict 'toons in your area you could pick up for a song?

 

[ondarvr]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

I've built systems using air compressors and shop vacs, well more like the electric blowers you can get most everywhere, but a shop vac will work. I made floating bulkheads that used the blower to raise and lower them, they weighed in at around 10,000 lbs and were floated quickly and easily. 1 ? “PVC was used to plumb them with ball valves, there were 4 chambers so the load could be balanced as needed. These chambers had no bottoms, they were just left open so there was no possible way to over inflate them.

When I worked with this same type of bulkhead that wasn’t originally design to float I made a rack with drums under it and a small air compressor. Each drum was plumbed to a manifold with ball valves so each could be filled independently if needed. The small compressor worked OK because there is almost no resistance at these low pressures resulting in a higher CFM.


Using the drums on a rack I could raise the bulkhead completely out of the water.

 

[johnj11]

Re: 55 Gallon poly drum lift

Just a thought but if portable high volume low pressure air is what's required then a 2 cycle Stihl industrial leaf blower comes to mind. More $ than a shop vac. but less than many compressors. Heck why not get a backpack model for propulsion , a surfboard and forget about the boat and moorage issue?