|
When customers are shopping for a new HydroHoist, the first question they usually ask is “what size boatlift do I need”?
While some customers only buy for their current needs, most customers purchase a boatlift with more capacity than they will actually use. If you ask, most boaters will tell you they have a personal plan to upgrade to a bigger boat in the near future. This bigger boat will likely require more lifting capacity than the current boat. Since upgrading later will have higher associated costs, it is easy to justify purchasing a larger boat lift in the beginning.
There are some quick and easy methods we use to match the correct capacity of boatlift for any given boat. We start with obtaining the boat’s dry weight. If the boat is new, the dry weight can usually be obtained from the manufacturer’s website. For used boats, www.nada.com can be used to obtain the correct information. In addition to the dry weight you will also have to consider things like fuel capacity, water storage, anchors, ski equipment, etc. Fuel is calculated at 6.5 lbs per gallon while water is calculated at 8.3 lbs per gallon. The miscellaneous equipment can conservatively be estimated to exceed no more than 10% of the boat’s dry weight.
Here is a quick example to demonstrate the math:
A particular customer has a 262 Cobalt that he is needing a boat lift for. Looking on the Cobalt website, we can see the dry weight of the boat is 5,425 lbs. Adding 10% for gear gets us to 5,967 lbs. Now we must include 73 gallons of fuel capacity and 10 gallons of freshwater capacity. Therefore we add 475 lbs for fuel and 83 lbs for water which gives us a total weight of 6,522 lbs. This tells us we will have no problem putting the boat on a 6600 UL2. However, if the customer thinks he might be trading for a bigger boat in the future, he might want to go ahead and start with an 8800 just to be safe.
This method of calculating boat lift capacity will work for any size and style of boat. It’s a quick and simple way to show the customer exactly what he needs. For those of you who aren’t scared of the math, here is the full equation:
TOTAL WEIGHT = (DRY WEIGHT x 1.1) + (FUEL CAPACITY x 6.5) + (WATER CAPACITY x 8.3).
Just practice it a couple of times or until you will feel comfortable. It will take all of the guess work out of sizing a lift. As always, if you need more assistance with this you can contact us at engineering@boatlift.com.
We are here to help.
|