Moving a Hydrohoist boat lift

[waveman]

The boat that I recently purchased came with a hydrohoist boat lift, but the lift is installed a few miles from where I need it to be. Its on Lake Lanier and I figured that I would just call Marine Specialties and get them to move it. When I called though, they quoted me $1050! I called another place though, and got about the same price. Does anyone know of any companies (big or small) in the Lake Lanier area that you think would be chaper? I know its alot of work (which is why its not really something I want to do) but $1000 seems high to me. Any referals would be appreciated.
Jason

[TX-Foilhead]

You've already got a good tow boat, have at it. I have a friend that used to move docks on Travis, he would just tie up in the slip and drive them to their new spot. A hydro hoist should be like pulling a big tube, I bet most of that price was for hooking it up when it got to you, but that should be very hard unless you need to run electricity to it.

[GCSuper]

When we bought our boat last year, it was too heavy for our current hydrohoist, so I put it up for sale and bought a new one. I put the old one on my flat bed trailer and ran an add for sale. The guy that bought it was at another lake, so I hauled it over there, floated it off and he used his boat to tow it to his dock where I helped him do the install. They're really not hard if you're handy at all. A couple of keys are to be sure to plug the holes so it won't sink during transit. The small size butter tubs work great for this. The other is to use ratchet straps to tie it together BEFORE you unclamp it from the dock.

[Lvnspeed]

YES PLUG the holes.... I had one roll over while it was being towed and sank.

[Miljack]

I have moved a couple, the above advice is good, plug the holes in the bottom, or bring the airpump and a generator to run it while you're moving.
If you are moving a "front mount" type of lift, you'll need extra floatation at the front frame pivot points. those lifts are heavy and not as balanced as the four point lifts.
Also recommend either a HD racheting strap or come-along for a four arm lift to keep the pivot points up in the air until you're ready to mount it to the dock.

[jonfo]

for the basta or sunstream style lifts you can either 1) strap your boat to them and contract the lift and drive it to its new spot, or 2) use 3 50 gallong plastic drums and strap it to them and float it over. I have seen both work very easily.