Hoist question

Headed out soon to pickup my American Skier. Not having owned an inboard, are there any different adjustments I need to consider on my ShoreStation hoist that are not an issue with my I/O.

My father in law bent up a prop pretty good when he tried to lift the neighbor's inboard on his lift. The I/O that usually sits on the lift doesn't have anything under the boat. His I/O is about 5 feet longer than the inboard they were trying to lift so the lower unit was never close to the lift. Had they not pulled the ski boat up so far into the slip they may have been OK. His bunks are not very "tall" above the supports on the lift and the prop landed right on one of these supports. Luckily they caught it before the lift was all the way out of the water or they might have bent the shaft too. This is probably not a concern with an American Skier, but I'll bet the bunks on this particular lift would land right under the P.P. paddle wheel on my boat and probably crush it.

It is a vertical lift hoist...4500lb capacity. And it does have a "V" design.

Once I get the boat up here I'll see if I need to raise the bunks. It would appear this is all that would be necessary to allow clearance for the propshaft, etc...

Not sure how to post a pic...I'll figure that out and post the hoist pic.

Here are a couple pictures of my hoist. Don't know much about it, as it's my first hoist. I bought it from the folks next door. Midwest Industry tells me it's not older than 4 years, as determined from the color of the carpet on the bunks.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/allpics/>

It appears I still have some more vertical adjustment remaining on the bunks, but only one more notch which is only going to get me another couple of inches, which might not be enough.

I may just have some pilings driven in the spring, behind the angled portion of my dock and install a permanent lift for the ski boat, and keep this hoist for my I/O.

Well, all that sounds good. Prly mess around with it in the spring. Likely just grab the boat and store it.

Still working out the details, but it's likely I'll setup a jet dock or permanent hoist for the ski boat.

details, details....

I have looked into the hydro hoists, and they are nice. I likely don't have quite enough draft to sink a hydro hoist, especially later in the season as the water level drops. And they are quite bulky.

I think some piliings and a permanent lift will ultimately be the way to go.

Ultra,

I took a look at your lift and think you'll have problems if you don't raise your bunks.

I just finished building a lift for a 2005 196 SN and the design was set up on two 10' W6 by 15#/FT beams with a vertical hoist. The beams are spaced 9' apart perpindicular to the boat. The critical area is when the 3 fins drive over the rear beam entering the slip. This boat measured the fins at 13" below the trailer bunks so I welded 15" tall square tubing risers with the bunks bolted on top resulting in about 17" of clearance. Also a 3" by 3" by 3/8" angle as a side loading support tieing the square tubing to the beam for good measure.

Our 16' Mustang also fits in the lift as-is. The only adjustment (per individual boat) is the distance between the beams. Both SN's like support behind the engine (of course) and right behind or under the drivers seat...too far forward and you catch the "V" in the hull and twists the bunk. I made the front bunk support "rocker" so that just about any boat will lift in this set-up and SN's hulls are not exactly flat so allowing the bunks to rotate is essential.

We've picked up our 2 SN's and a cousins MC (sorry about that) as well as jet ski's to remove rope out of the impellors with this set-up and it's very safe.

Bolted to the top of the beams (15" below the bunks but on the outside of the hull) runing the length of the boat are 2" by 8" by 12' bunks so you can stand on the boards and wax the boat while it's in the lift and these boards have really turned out to be handy.

Good Luck

I'll try and get a few posted. I'm out of the country, but will have my cousin snap a few.

Sorry, but I'm a better welder than computer/camera guy...but I'll get you something since my description of what to do was probably hard to visualize.

Ultra,

Can you send me your email. I can't figure out how to post these pictures.