102 inch beam on a 108 inch lift?

[XC500mod]

Guys,

Just as the title says can I fit a 102 inch wide tritoon on a 108 inch wide boat lift. Obviously the number says I can, but has anybody done this in real life?

Back story is I have a 4,000 lb lift that came with my lake house. We’re not using it because I have an 8,000 lb lift for my MC. We want to get a pontoon, I found a perfect tritoon, and would love to use the lift we have rather than by new.

Thanks!

[MIskiboat]

I would think the math says yes so it should work.

Qualifiers:

Coming in anything but straight will be a bit tricky. Are you in big open water with potential wind / waves, or fairly protected?

You may bang up the side of the pontoon deck a bit. Assume that’s aluminum. Suggest maybe 1/4” thick pvc or urethane or something on insides of the aluminum vertical corners. Especially in the rear of hoist.

One way to find out....

[RxMC]

I think most would say a 120" lift for a big pontoon. But you'll be fine as long as you have someone in the water to guide you in.

[CottagerGreg]

Why not just mount a wider base onto the lift? I have seen people do a platform for pontoon boats.

get some aluminum beams to go across etc.

[EricB]

You can do it. I have the same situation and it works. It is tight, but enough play to make it work. I will also tell you that you do need to be relatively straight when you drive the toon on. Wind and open water can effect the drift, but it would on a 120" lift too.

To aid and assist in getting the boat on the lift, I have round PVC tubing running the length of the rear upright posts (lift has a canopy too). These will "roll" when you brush up against them and won't damage the toon or lift.

[XC500mod]

You can do it. I have the same situation and it works. It is tight, but enough play to make it work. I will also tell you that you do need to be relatively straight when you drive the toon on. Wind and open water can effect the drift, but it would on a 120" lift too.

To aid and assist in getting the boat on the lift, I have round PVC tubing running the length of the rear upright posts (lift has a canopy too). These will "roll" when you brush up against them and won't damage the toon or lift.

Eric do you have pics of this setup or can you draw a schematic? Do you have a pontoon or tritoon and what kind of bunks do you have?

[slalomjunkie]

Guys,

Just as the title says can I fit a 102 inch wide tritoon on a 108 inch wide boat lift. Obviously the number says I can, but has anybody done this in real life?

Back story is I have a 4,000 lb lift that came with my lake house. We’re not using it because I have an 8,000 lb lift for my MC. We want to get a pontoon, I found a perfect tritoon, and would love to use the lift we have rather than by new.

Thanks!

What kind of lift is it? Pic?

[XC500mod]

What kind of lift is it? Pic?

it's a shore station SSV40108. I don't have pics but it's easy to find them with the googles.

as suggested above, widening the lift is not an option.

[slalomjunkie]

it's a shore station SSV40108. I don't have pics but it's easy to find them with the googles.

as suggested above, widening the lift is not an option.

I checked the Googles lol...

So if you were perfectly centered on the lift, you'd have 3" on each side. The 2 things to think about is bunk placement, which they look just like any other lift with the 2 bunks, a bracket and a big U-bolt... I would also put the bunks up high on the u-bolts so that it always clears the lift. This might mean you'd risk being dry docked in low water situations, but at least your boat would never rub on the lift.

The other question is, will the sides of the boat take up 6 inches? I would measure the width from rubrail to rubrail, or if you have your boat on the water just try walking it on. As far as capacity, I would refer to the manufacturer's specs.

[EricB]

Never put a pic up here, so we'll see how this goes....
The lift is a Vibo aluminum cantilever style with canopy, so it has 4 upright posts.

On the back posts, there is the PVC tubing. You should be able to make iit out in the pic. The tubing acts as "rollers" and protects the lift and boat.

[XC500mod]

Rub rail to rub rail the boat is 103.5 inches so we’ll say 104 inches and thats measuring like I’d measure my Johnson.. That leaves 2 inches of clearance/side. It will be tight but doable.

I like the pvc on the posts, I’ll steal that idea.

[slalomjunkie]

I like the pvc on the posts, I’ll steal that idea.

Take this pvc design into consideration. This is how folks in my neighborhood have done it.