Boat lift stuck

[david_quail]

I’ve come to rely on our auto stop feature on our boat lift. Lift it up until it stops. Done.

But the stop failed and I was on the trigger a second too long before I realized it. As a result the Pully system is all jammed up and the lift won’t lower.

 

Anyone been through this? I could try some heavy duty straps and ratchets to try and get the weight on the frame, and lower the cable a few inches to free up the Pully?

 

Jacking a boat up in the water doesn’t seem exactly easy.

 

This sounds crazy, but the lift dealer I just talked to, who serviced them, said as a last resort they cut the cable and replace it. He says it’s scary as hell seeing the boat drop, but it doesn’t damage anything. He’s done it for massive surf boats, so ski boats are nothing. Seems so sketchy.

 

[oldjeep]

Should just be able to let some tension off and use a long screwdriver to pry the cable back into the pulley groove.

[david_quail]

@oldjeep How to get the tension off though? Either jack from below? Connect heavy duty straps to the corners and ratchet up?

[oldjeep]

Tension off the cable - by telling the lift to lower. I'm assuming that there is tension on that top cable from a winch.

[oldjeep]

But alternately - if you had a farm jack - Hi-lift you should be able to put the jack between the carriage and the base and jack it up a little.

[BraceMaker]

How deep are you in? I use a high lift jack https://hi-lift.com/hi-lift-jacks/ to service my dock and lifts - you can use it between the lower frame and the cradle or the ground and the cradle near the place where its jammed.

 

But with vertical style lifts I would think if you slacked the main lift cable a bit you could use something like a pry bar just to gently try to nudge the pulleys/cables and hoist frame itself till things slipped a bit in which case it will drop back on the main lift cable and not all the way down.

 

Check if one corner of the lift frame is inappropriately high compared to the others - sometimes you almost need to go to the far side and pry part of the frame down because the balance cables that criss cross the frame can pull it out of square.

[wski1831]

Inner tides to under the boat to take the load off n pry or cut a bolt?

[david_quail]

Good points. Probably about 4 or 5 feet of water.

The winch literally stops when I try to lower it any more (I can lift it up an inch and then lower it to this spot). So can't create any slack.

[BraceMaker]

Look up in the winch spool - to me it sounds like you've gotten enough cable on the drum that maybe the cable is rubbing inside the winch housing or even slipped over the edge of the winch spool.

 

What I'm seeing with that cable by the pulley should not be enough to jam it as that's on the outfeed side of the pulley.

[oldjeep]

Could also be that when the lift jammed up that the outer wrap of cable got jammed between a couple other wraps when it got pulled hard. And when you are trying to drop the lift the cable just isn't coming out from between them.

[skihacker]

I don't think I would trust ratchet straps, can you come up with 4 come-along's? 1 at each corner?

[oldjeep]

Depends on your ratchet straps. A good 2" ratchet strap is good for 10,000 lbs

[DavidN]

I would go the opposite route. Pulling down instead of lifting up.

Put a cable hoist (ratchet puller/come along) between the cradle and the lower lift frame (underneath where the bent pulley is in your picture). Lower the cradle a bit, using the lift winch until cable has a little slack and use the come along to pull the cradle back down and the bent/stuck pulley back where it should be. What goes up has to come down, right?

[UWSkier]

Whatever you do, please exercise caution. Falling boats and cables under tension are not things to take lightly.

[DavidN]

@UWSkier

I totally agree, but isn’t that obvious?

[UWSkier]

Yeah, but I've seen things... lol

[BraceMaker]

@DavidN have to be careful doing that - if it has too much cable on the spool so that it came off between the housing and the winch then when you pull down that cable can get pinched in there even worse.

 

With vertical lifts there is a very high tension in the main lifting cable vs. cantilever hoists because it doesn't get to leave weight stored in the frame.

[Moved2ski]

I have seen boats lifted by Inflating tractor tire inter tubes. You’ll have to build some kind of platform to push against.

[Mark Petrie]

Go to Harbor Freight Tools and buy 4 lifting slings and 4 1 ton chain hoists. Lift the boat and cradle to release tension and then re-route cable. Recommend replacing cable. It is relatively inexpensive.

 

[DW]

As for the cut it and let it drop solution, that would work and I have been next to a lift when the main lifting cable snapped and yes, it is pretty darn exciting! Hopefully you don't have to resort to it and the element I would be most concerned with would be if the cradle ended up wedging itself on the way down leaving more of a mess.

Two things - if you decide to go that way 1. video it and 2. need to yell 'watch this Verne' as you cut the cable:-). And don't forget to put the plug in.

[Orlando76]

Like suggested, Why not just jack it up with 4 bumper jacks? 2 might do the trick. Then massage cable loose.

 

And fix the limit switch and add a redundant one.

[swc5150]

I was in a boat when the lift cable snapped. Yes, very exciting to say the least. No damage to the boat though, so that part is also likely correct. I would exhaust all other options before resorting to that. Do you have a local dock/lift installer who could come out with their barge and maybe take some weight off the boat using the lifting rings?

[BraceMaker]

@Orlando76 - one should do on a vertical lift - in operation if you lift one end of the cradle the other 3-4 cables are there just to force the cradle to be level. Only 1 cable actually carries the true load.

[Orlando76]

@BraceMaker true. Either way, seems a no brainer vs. cutting the cable under load.

 

Funny how boat lift construction and techniques vary upon region.

[klindy]

The real risk of cutting the cable and letting things fly isn't the boat and isn't even hurting someone (assuming they aren't standing under/in the lift or close enough for either end of the loose cable to slap you - it could be enough force to remove a limb). The real risk is the cable unwinding out of enough of the boat lift that you can't figure out how to reroute the new cable! Make sure you have instructions handy and take pictures before!

[david_quail]

Going out today to try to fix.

1. Will try to move the cradle to the side just enough to free the pulley from the bolt/other pulley and hit “down”.

2. If that doesn’t work, will ratchet the boat and cradle up with heavy duty straps. Remove the pulleys, lower cable a couple inches. R-attach the pulleys.

3. If that fails ... call the professionals ...

[mmskiboat]

Well we are waiting..... :-)

[david_quail]

We managed to suspend the lift using multiple cable come alongs, heavy duty straps, a chain, and several metal pier stands underneath the bunks. We were over the top careful making sure that it wasn’t going to come down like Thor’s hammer once we started fiddling with the pulleys.

Once we did that, we lowered the cable a bit to generate slack, then took off all of the pulleys, got them unstuck, and then put everything back on track.

The bad news was that the cable is severely compromised in the process with a lot of fraying. Too risky to put the boat back on. So I trailered it and am waiting on a new pulley kit.

What a pain. I’d say that process was about 3 hours for 5 of us. As I said though, we were over the top careful and spent a bit of that running around grabbing chains, pier stands etc.

Looking for ward to having that fixed on Thursday and our new slalom course installed on the weekend (old one had a bunch of damage and was unusable). Definitely a slow start to our already short summer. But will squeeze everything out of what’s remaining.

[jetpilotg4]

Pictures and video of any work please

[mmskiboat]

Thanks for the follow up and glad that all is safe. Better to get the job done right and then you will not have to worry about it again.

[david_quail]

This is a picture of the frayed cable. And bent bracket. Both after getting everything back on track.

Wish I had a picture of the lift suspended and the 5 of us working. New pulley and cable system installed in a few days.

le

 

[Jetsetr]

Good job...smart way to do it...

[david_quail]

And for good measure ... the old pvc from our course I had to chop up and remove. New one goes in a few days after the cable and pulley. Thankfully it’s not quite yet “summer” up here in Canada so I’ll have some time to enjoy.

Moral of the story ... don’t rely on the auto shut off / limit switch of your boat lift.

 

[BraceMaker]

Good result - I love the quality of Floe - but they are overly complex beasts.

[david_quail]

@BraceMaker yup. In the future, I’d love to own a hydrolic. From what I can tell, so simple. So efficient. But ... so much $

[PatM]

@david_quail Hydraulic lifts have a bunch of headaches also. they are fast and efficient but a pain in the ass and expensive when something goes wrong - especially when it is in the water already.

[harddock]

While your at it, You may want to order a new lift stop switch! Funny thing about lifts, they never screw up in the water position, always in the air position!

 

[BraceMaker]

@"Pat M" - not that I find them extremely high quality but if you can get Harbor Master Elite lifts locally they are the easiest/most serviceable lift I have found. Very light - and as a side benefit easy to crank up. They have a single lift cable that is exposed other than where it enters the hoist housing. And the final thing - if you mount 2 short chains with a logger hook you can raise the boat up, hook it, lower it onto the chain and have a 100% fall proof boat lift - which if you aren't at the lake every day to keep an eye on a boat is a lot of peace of mind.