Boat lift damaging Speedometer paddlewheel - anyone else?

[SuperAirHokie]

The beams supporting the boat on my boat lift cradle are about 2.5 feet apart. If I don't position the boat just right, the paddlewheel that spins for the speedometer gets damaged (it sticks out below the hull). Any one else have this problem? What did you do?

The beams/boards mount on the inside of he angle-iron brackets. I am thinking about putting spacers on the angle iron brackets and mounting the boards to the outside of the brackets to pick up about 8" on each side, but I want to see if anyone has any experience with this and better suggestions.

[Kelly Gummere]

This happened to me on my Boatmate trailer. They had to do some cutting and welding on the trailer. I am in the process of getting a boat lift now so I may have that issue going forward

[Quinner]

Typically the paddle wheel is going to be closer to the center of the hull, measure its outside edge to the hull centerline x 2 = the minimum your bunks should have between them, ideally add a few more inches per side for any off center landings. Sounds like you need to spread your bunks apart however you can accomplish that. Any pics of your lift??

[SuperAirHokie]

Quinner - that's my plan - to spread out the bunks. My lift and bunks are pretty standard - bit of a design flaw to have the paddlewheel sticking out where it does.

[Quinner]

Sounds like your lift setup is the design flaw not the paddle wheel location, lol.
Trailer and lift bunks should, whenever possible, be directly under the stringers where the hull is strongest and it's unlikely to find any hull fitting/penetration/pick-up, etc.
Once you get those bunks spread out you should be all good!!

[lucky7t]

The beams supporting the boat on my boat lift cradle are about 2.5 feet apart. If I don't position the boat just right, the paddlewheel that spins for the speedometer gets damaged (it sticks out below the hull). Any one else have this problem? What did you do?

The beams/boards mount on the inside of he angle-iron brackets. I am thinking about putting spacers on the angle iron brackets and mounting the boards to the outside of the brackets to pick up about 8" on each side, but I want to see if anyone has any experience with this and better suggestions.

Had identical issue with our boat lift. We moved bunks and never hit again . I replaced the paddle wheel which wasn't cheap

[lukeaandrew]

I just marked on a pool noodle the distance the boat should be from the dock and I haven't crushed it again since...

I'm going to upgrade to GPS eventually to eliminate the problem though.


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