Boat in lift all winter

[Poke]

Anyone leave a winterized boat on the lift all winter?

It’s under a roof, with a cover, totally out of the water. In the northeast.

What’s the difference in it sitting on the trailer, winterized, with a cover on.

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

Shouldn’t be an issue if you have left the lift in the water and didn’t have any ice related issues in the past. My lift would get leveled by the drifting ice durning the breakup

 

[Bacho]

Been doing it for years in the Florida panhandle. Don’t even bother winterizing highly recommended.

 

[Takotruckin]

Some older boats don’t handle being held from the ends and will bow a little bit which effects handling pretty severely.

 

[Will12785]

One of my customers is a fan shop near the st Lawrence. Every spring he's got more work than he can accommodate fixing broken boat lifts that people left in the water all winter. Ice is tough on them.

If your going to do it, put a bubbler in so the water doesn't freeze.

 

[KrustyTJ]

The tubing of the lift left in the water can freeze up causing cracks I’ve welded up a few lifts left in the water for the winter some peoples laziness ends up costing them money and others can profit from that 👍

 

[bgaidan]

What kind of lift are we talking? I'm picturing the kind attached to posts where nothing stays in the water....

 

[KrustyTJ]

What kind of lift are we talking? I'm picturing the kind attached to posts where nothing stays in the water....

Yah not sure what type of lift he has or boat for that matter. There’s a few house on the lake where my parents live that have boat garages on the water some of those I believe the boats stay in year round.

The lake level also gets lowered every other year some people still pull there docks and lifts out every year some leave them in when the water level get lowered others leave them in no matter what and it shows seems costly to me but not my money.

I’m assuming the Op boat has a closed system I think most newer pwc are that way now.

 

[Captain Call]

 

[Poke]

What kind of lift are we talking? I'm picturing the kind attached to posts where nothing stays in the water....

Mine is a permanent dock. 10” metal posts driven down into the lake bed and filled with cement. The lift hangs off 5x5 1/4” welded frame. Then in the winter we put 4x4 .25” ‘gates’ that lock the sides together. So the dock cant separate or expand from ice.

My concern is the boat, not the lift

 

[KrustyTJ]

My concern is the boat, not the lift

Sounds like your not concerned about the lift or dock and is proven I take it’s been there awhile. What do you think would happen leaving the boat there vs the yard on a trailer ?

I pull mine out to give it a good wash and then winterize . How do you usually winterize your boat ? Myself it’s kinda a messy process not something I would do in the water.

 

[InDaRed2]

They do it all the time around here. Lots of people run bubblers or ice eaters though to keep from freezing around the lift pods.

Hell my uncle even left his John boat floating in the slip over the winter on the river. That was fun cutting out of the ice

 

[Poke]

Like that, but covered and winterized

 

[Takotruckin]

I’m gonna go with no problem at all.

 

[white-rhino]

Been doing it for years. Boat on the left is a Boston Whaler jet boat. Right is a pontoon. I used to do my Malibu ski boat also.

Important tip. If you have raccoons around, make sure you have it sealed up better than you think you need to. We had one get in the boat a couple years ago. Did $7000 worth of damage to our pontoon and totaled our neighbors pontoon.

 

[Poke]

Ok

 

[Squamch]

Been doing it for years. Boat on the left is a Boston Whaler jet boat. Right is a pontoon. I used to do my Malibu ski boat also.

Important tip. If you have raccoons around, make sure you have it sealed up better than you think you need to. We had one get in the boat a couple years ago. Did $7000 worth of damage to our pontoon and totaled our neighbors pontoon.

Same for mink and otters.