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some Qs about floating boat lifts


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I'm about to put an offer on a home with a boat lift.... I know nothing about these things, but it looks like the kind that has big white floating pontoons on the side that got filled with water to lower it and got empty to raise it...

Neighbors around the area tell me that the main issue leaving the boat in the water on that place is not only growth but the electricity from shore power on other docks eating the sinks and metals like crazy.

I have some questions and I was looking for you opinions...

Is the type of floating lift mentioned above, a good option??? are they known for having a lot of issues??? Any issues???

Advantages?? Disadvantages???

Does it need city permits to be used? (I do not think so because they are not fixed, but you never know)

Are they better than fixed lifts??? Or worse???

The owner claims that the lift can take up to 20.000 pounds and the motor in it is new. My boat is at the most 8.000-9.000 pounds.

He is asking for $2.500.for the lift.

Is that a good deal???

Or is it better to hold on for some time and save some money for a fixed Lift, permits for it, and all that crap????

Thanks in advance

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First call the city building dept. to make sure there is no moritorium on dock / lift building at the sight. If so then the float lift is priceless. If no moritorium then wait for a proper High Tide or General lift and do it right.

Besides, those things are friggen fugly!

I KNOW!!!! very UGLY... but I'm putting all my chips on my biz and on the home right now...

What is that moratorium????

How much are those High Tide or General lift around???

I want to do it right, eventually, but I was thinking to get away with that float lift until I can afford the good ones....

Other than ugly, Are the floating ones bad??? I assume they are slow...

Thanks!!!

PS: The head project on the boat is coming along awesome!!! you should see it, I'll send you some pictures next weekend.

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from a friend that HAD one...they are tippy...this is NOT a joke...he fell off his a couple times walking around, cleaning boat...over time they grow barnacles that get heavy and lowers height...he had his scraped every 6 mos...for temp use it's OK, like you said, plan for fixed lift in the future...offer less, it's a pain to move them and hard to sell them used... :504_shrugging:

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Those lifts are a nice option when cash is tight. But they are not pretty. But if this is for the house we were talking about you can put it on the side out of sight.

The city won't require a permit because its not a permenant structure. Its no different than floating another boat behind your house.

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Those lifts are a nice option when cash is tight. But they are not pretty. But if this is for the house we were talking about you can put it on the side out of sight.

The city won't require a permit because its not a permenant structure. Its no different than floating another boat behind your house.

Same house... I went there to see it yestarday,and its awesome.... putting an offer today.

Will try to include the lift on the sale.

Thanks everybody for your comments...

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a quality 4 pile lift will cost around 1 dollar per pound installed. ex. 10k lift around $10,000

Thanks!!!! nice to know... at least it gives me a ball park, to know how much to save...

This house has 240 feet of new dock.. The owner is not willing to leave the lift...if I get it I think I will rent it and let the dock pay for the lift :605_thumbs_up: LOL

post-81-1242258726_thumb.jpg

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a quality 4 pile lift will cost around 1 dollar per pound installed. ex. 10k lift around $10,000

Thats true, but.......you know you can't buy a lift for the boat you have now, you need to buy a lift for your next boat. It would be a kicker if you built a 10,000 lbs lift for your boat then decided to get a new boat a couple of years later that required a 15,000 lift.

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I have a Sunstream floating lift but it works completely different than yours. It does collect barnacles and I need to call a diver out to scrape 'em all off, but it works really well and is really stable. I have a neighbor with the one that fills up with water and he has problems all the time. Permitting wouldn't allow us a lift because of width into the canal and our floating lift is even wider, but legal. Idiots that run the City of Fort Lauderdale. The floating lift costs 2x as much but is faster and actually solar powered not that I really care. It picks up a 13,000 lb. boat and it is just about maxed out.

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