Tweet
We have a '92 ProStar 190. Finally got the opportunity to live on a lake. Looking at a used Shore Station. Its a manual lift (budget). How hard is it to crank the boat out of the water with one of these? Ive never done it, never seen it done, always trailered in to the lake. I mean is it a real chore? Should I be looking at power lifts? Am I going to regret going with the manual? Its used, only $1K, so its a steal. Im not going to spend the money on new. But I did see a water pressure hydraulic lift for $3K... any advice from your experience is appreciated.
-
-
Manual lift is a chore. I would spend the cash and get something nice.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk -
Yes will crank easy. Especially w 2500 lb boat.
4000 lb lift has more gear reduction than 3000 lb model. More Cranking but easier.
You can add a motor for $900-1000 anytime you want.
See “lift tech marine” motors.
Shorestation hoists are nice. There other nice ones too but SS is good, and the one you found a deal on.
Canopy or frame?
91-94 is good ski boat. Nice job.Comment
-
Yes, manual is a chore and takes more time, but it isn't that bad. I put mine on a 3,500lb ShoreStation with a few upgrades that make it doable. I would hands down buy a lift with a canopy if available. That's the part I can't live without. When you're ready to upgrade, there's always a market for used ShoreStations.Hello, my name Ryan!Comment
-
<rant mode on> i hate shore station. the engineers all design their garbage to be as difficult to work on as possible. When not if, but when the cable breaks if you decide to change it out good luck. If you have whoever the local place is do it most of the time they pull the entire lift because these things are designed so as normal people can not work on them.<rant mode off>
i would say if you are looking into a lift possibly a hewitt or a cantilever lift they are a little easier cranking and when you have to replace the cable it is a 20 minute job without removing the lift from the lake. cant comment on the other stuff i just hate with a passion the engineers management of shore station.Comment
-
I've owned 2 Shore Stations, each for about 10 years. These are my thoughts about lifts in the 3500 to 5000 lb range, when you get above 5000 the game changes immensely.....
All lifts have good and bad aspects to them and all of them will break eventually. I have friends with several other brands. Some have been good (Shorestation, Hewitt and Flow), some not so good (Lakeshore). All of these have broken some how over the years, none of them have been cheap to fit and all of them are difficult to work on. I believe the difficult aspect of working on these has more to do with understanding them more than anything else.
Around here Shore Stations will maintain value and be more desirable in resale than most other lifts. To this point I bought my first Shorestation lift (108" width, 3500lb) for $3K used with a Shorestation 12 volt lift motor, used it 10 years and sold it for $3K without the lift motor. During that time I put a winch tube on it for $600 and new bunks for about $60. The new to me lift is a 120" width, 4000lb that I paid $5K for used which I installed the lift motor from the previous lift on. So far I've put a winch tube on it for I believe $650, upgraded the bunks to poly bunks for $450 this year and rebuilt the optional side bunks this year also which cost me about $100. So after 10 years of use I'm into this lift for $1200 in upgrades and maintenance. Wish I could say the same about most other things I have that sit outside all year.
The weak point on most vertical lifts is going to be the lifting mechanism as it's what taking the load. Both the Floe and the Hewitt had similar issue after about 10 years of use. The lift tube is the part on the Shorestations to watch and look at carefully when you go to buy one. There's a guy here locally that sells used ones with new cables for $450. For the extra $200 I buy them new with all new internal components. Putting a new lift tube on is not that difficult with 2 people and I've personally put one on each of the lifts while they were in the water and the second one on my current lift by myself. While I managed to do that one by myself I wouldn't recommend it and probably wouldn't do it again.
On Hydraulic.... From my experience the there are only 2 types of hydraulic lifts..... the ones that are leaking and the ones that will be leaking. We have friends with these on the lake and I've help rebuild these as well. One of them for the second time in 5 years. They seem to work very well for about 5 years then start leaking. The ones I've worked one had to come out of the water completely to fix and it was super heavy.
On cantilever.... I know there's cantilever fans out there but the ones I've had experience with have been very heavy and ungainly to move in comparison to my Shorestation. The one I have experience with is a Lakeshore and we dread moving this beast every year. There are cables and places to get caught up in what would seem everywhere you would want to pull or push on when moving the lift. The owner has had cable and alignment issues with it from day and still does. I'm probably jaded on these lifts due to this but these style would be my absolute last choice for any boat.Comment
-
I have a hydraulic cantilever Shoremaster 6000lb lift. Works well. After running it for 5 years (bought used) I have bought a new pump motor ($80) and hyd pump ($100) and changed the hyd fluid every year (10min and about $10 per year). I have had zero leaks.
The biggest downside to a hyd cantilever is that it doesn’t have the range of lift as a vertical. I can withstand about 24” of water fluctuation before I need to move the lift.Comment
-
I used to feel like these were crappy lifts until I started using other people's boat lifts.
Harbor Master - Hudsonville MI
Comment
-
They don't have fancy leveling, they're kinda wiggly. But the cradle rides up the angled aluminum bars on rollers, this means that the majority of the actual weight of the boat is just riding up a ramp. As such the wheel of these things is a one finger or two finger pressure.
My brother stands between our two boat lifts and cranks both of them counter rotation from each other and can raise both boats 2 feet in 30 seconds doing that. I'm not quite heavy enough to use his method but in 30 seconds of intense cranking I can bring the boat up 2 feet.
Very minimal depth requirement. Very light.
Whey I used to think they were crap is the rear uprights are unsupported aluminum tube - ours bent from hitting them with boats and aren't square so our rear legs don't move easily. Makes use a PITA - except once we have them in and leveled they're so much easier to use than a shorestation or other vertical lift. Literally 1 finger cranking.Comment
-
The weak point is the numerous cables and hidden pulleys.Originally posted by bturner2 View Post
The beauty of the cantilever is it's simplicity and almost zero maintenance requirements. It's just one cable. But for an inboard I still wish I had a vertical despite their inherent complexity, higher cost, and maintenance.Originally posted by bturner2 View Post
OP, if you go the cantilever route make sure you have enough water depth. The inboard will require deeper water because you need to have the bunks raised so tracking fans can clear the rack. I think we've got about 3' at the front of our cantilever and about 5' at the back and it's just enough.
We have an older ShoreMaster 30108 that still looks and works like new. I think I've replaced the cable once in fifteen years. That's it. They're not heavy, I believe ours is 330lbs.Attached FilesLast edited by RxMC; 09-26-2020, 03:17 PM.Comment
-
-
The way the verticals suck.
Most verticals have 3, 4 or 5 separate cables.
One of these cables under tension directly lifts the front of the cradle.
The rest "force" the cradle to be level by criss crossing upper front to lower back, lower left to upper right and so on.
This means that a significant amount of force goes into these other cables trying to force the cradle to rise level, any imbalance any out of level loads these other cables. So unless it is perfect vertical lifts start to really suck.Comment
-
Sounds to me like someone is selling cantilever lifts. I haven't heard these kind of negative comments on a product since the last boat show I went to.
All I can say is that in my personal 20 years of ownership and my personal experience working on lifts throughout the years, I have not had the issues or experiences being stated here.Comment
-
Look at floe verticals and VSD’s. Floe allows you to level all 4 corners within a 1/4”.
Some other lifts with screw drive legs will have a similar experience
Sent from my iPhone using TapatalkComment
-
Not really. I said I wanted a vertical lift.Originally posted by bturner2 View Post
Well, I need one anyway. I don't think anyone would choose a vertical lift if a cantilever fit their boat and water conditions.Comment
-
I like this aspect of floe. Others have add on kits to do this.Originally posted by osmonet View Post
I love my craftlander. Ordered online, showed up as parts on a pallet, assembled myself and saved some $
Built really stout.
Boatliftanddock.com
Sent from my SM-G960U1 using TapatalkEveryone Dies, but not everyone lives
2004 Prostar 197, ACME 843Comment
Comment