Do you guys keep it up all winter long?

[LoopSki]

Should have asked back in November. Went to put boat on the lift for the season and realized the bunks spent all winter in the water. Looked scary coming out. Is it better to leave it up or in the water during off season. I do recall doing some maintenance during the summer and the cable got out of whack lifting it without weight on it. Thinking that's why I left it down.

 

[DW]

When my lift is in the water with no boat on it, I leave the cradle out of the water. I prefer to keep as much dry as possible.

[Orlando76]

Terrible title. Back in the days before my blood pressure was 220/80 I could.

 

Time to get the pressure washer out.

[Rednucleus]

I'm pushing 62, kind of a mean thing to be asking IMO.

[thager]

Nope, about 2 1/2 minutes

[Horton]

@thager your wife told me it's more like 90 seconds

[LOTW]

I struggle with this every fall. I used to leave my old lift in the lake with the cradle up but one year, the parts that were in the ice cracked and I had to get it welded. Big hassle so I started pulling the lift onto the beach every fall, not easy and required several people.

New house and new lift, larger and much heavier and not practical to pull it out. this fall the water was so high that even fully lifted, the cradle was in the water. I had a bubbler going all winter and huge hydro bills but the lift looks ok. Both aluminum lifts. I wish that I didn't need a lift but the boats get super scummy from algae so no go.

Sorry for the rant, don't get me started on the docks! Another huge nightmare on my lake.

[thager]

@Horton getting old sucks!

[skimtb]

Also consider that when bunks are out, pulleys are generally out too.

So, up for winter. Just be glad you don’t have to remove from lake annually for winter.

[Zman]

More than 4 hours, call your Doctor.

Summer or winter.

[teammalibu]

Sleep in a bed every nite, wake up in a pup tent every morning!

[jercrane]

I called Sunstream technical support with the same question last fall and they told me it is best for the pistons to leave them fully compressed and the bunks under the water for the winter. He said to lower them all the way, decompress lines, disconnect, and leave them disconnected for the winter.

 

fwiw

[LOTW]

I guess ice thickness is a factor, we get 4-6' so up is best here.

[LoopSki]

No ice , doubt water temp gets too much below 50

 

[skimtb]

Hydraulic or cable lift? I was thinking cable.

Hydraulic sounds better to follow @jercrane info above and plan to replace bunks at some point

[LoopSki]

Cable

[MISkier]

@LoopSki,

 

If the water temp stays above 50, why in the world isn't the boat on the lift and frequently in use?

[jercrane]

Oh yeah I'm only referring to Hydraulic piston driven lift. Things may be different by manufacturer too. I'm just speaking to what the engineer at Sunstream told me to do with my SL4. FWIW he also said if it ices up it shouldn't matter and the pistons are better protected when fully contracted in that case as well. Mine sits in pretty shallow water so I had asked about this as well. Also mine's in NH so yeah we get ice :D

[GaryJanzig]

@LOTW If you have ice on your lake in the winter. I highly recommend Hewitt Roll-A-Dock. They are pretty easy to roll in and out. We have two of them and they are 36 feet long. We use a lawn tractor and utility trailer with an electric winch to pull them out. We have a shore that is covered with rocks so we use the ramps that you use to put a tractor or quad in the back of a pickup truck to get them over the rocks, and there are wheels that you can attach to the shore end of the docks. To move the lift there is a product called boat lift helper which allows you to float your lift out. http://www.boatlifthelper.com/ and https://www.hewittrad.com/

[LoopSki]

@MISkier because of the wind, rain , fog . Plus no reason to rough it , when 8 months of no wetsuit.

[ral]

Title reminded me a Swedish fisherman in a bridge joke...

[libertylake]

On Cable style lifts you can leave bunks out of the water. You also end up with less cable in the water if cantilever style lift.

 

On hydraulic lifts, they recommend leaving them down otherwise you build up a layer on the rams at the water level. This results in potential damage to the seal unless you clean prior to use but sometimes they will pit and it will still damage the seal. I sell Hewitt lifts and still learned the hard way. Hewitt recommends hydraulic lifts to be lowered as much as possible so the least amount of ram (chrome portion) is exposed.