Wheels on 5000lbs lift

[Cadesun]

Has anyone here used the wheel kits to put your boat lift in/out? Our lift servicer is over a month late getting ours in the lake and I have had enough. Any kits better than others? How many people do you need to get the lift out? Any other tips greatly appreciated. The bottom starts firm/rocky but the lift definitely sinks in several inches into the silt/muck where the it sits for the season.

[XBIGPUN66]

We used to put a sheet of marine plywood under each foot. It kept it from sinking in the muck too much

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[shag]

Can you strap some 55 gallon plastic drums to it, then float it where you need?

[Cadesun]

The problem with the barrels is still getting the lift into the water without a small army if helpers.

I was thinking something like this kit:
https://www.boatliftanddock.com/prod...-assist-system

[XBIGPUN66]

We used to walk it in with 4-6 guys and place it

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[mpost]

I have 4 wheels on my 4500# lift that I can raise and lower. Makes it easy to roll in by myself even with a not quite hard bottom. 4 wheels does make it harder to turn it in any direction tho.

[LakesideRec]

Made my own wheel kit that temporarily bolts onto the frame and uses the lift itself to lift itself onto the wheels. Uses two wheels - one on each side. They are a bit off center on purpose, so the weight stays on the shore-ward side. Two pepople can push it in going down-hill into the lake.

Dragging it back out, I hook a two-wheel hand truck under the middle of the front bar and hook a tow strap to the upper part of the hand truck handle. It pulls the front bar of the lift up onto the wheels of the hand cart as I drag it out using a tow strap connected to a small rtactor on land.

A giuy I know just uses his boat to drag his lift down into the water with no wheels. Uses his truck to drag it back out. As long as the feet have a bit of upturn at the edges, that can work on a firm sandy bottom.

[bturner]

On the wheels.....
We (the guys I boat with) all went with the Smarte Jack set up (https://www.amazon.com/Quality-Mark-.../dp/B002IV4Y4M). This is not a cheap deal by any stretch but the results were game changing. I have a single set on my 4500 lb. ShoreStation which is plenty however if you have a 5000 lb. lift or heavier lift you'll want 2 sets. What sets this setup apart is the screw jack integrated into the wheel mounting that is operated by your impact driver (if you have one, if you don't -10 points on your man card and this will be an additional cost for the set up). Typically there's only 2 of us that do the installation and that meant using a tractor jack to install and uninstall the wheels on the lift to roll it into the water then remove them once in place which quite frankly was a bit dangerous. It was also a real PITA. Getting the wheels back on in the fall to remove the lift was just as much fun. With the Smarte Jack set up you install the wheels and they never come back off. You use the impact to raise and lower the wheels making installing a uninstalling the lift a much safer and easier process. We do all these with just 2 guys.

On the bottom.....
The rear pads on my lift sit in about 3' of muck. A good 12 years ago we placed 2 - 4x8 sheets of 1/2" marine plywood length wise under the rear feet. They've been sitting in the muck providing a solid base for the rear feet ever since and are probably about 6" under the surface of the muck. This set up has worked well for us. Once installed they never come out and since there's very little oxygen in the much they'll probably last longer than I will.

On moving the lifts.....
All but one of us have ShoreStations but the installation is the same for all of us, even the heavier lift of the group. Crank the wheels down, roll this lift in (typically done with 2 people), crank the wheels up..... Done. Pulling it back out mostly depends on the terrain and whats available. On mine and the BIL's it's pull straps attached to each front leg at the pads attached in a "Y" to a longer pull strap attached to the trailer hitch on one of our trucks. A nice slow pull and it's out in minutes. The other 2 we do we use a Ranger quad doing the same set up. With the Smarte jack set up we've cut the time to get the lift out and get the gear used put away to less than a quarter of the time. You don't install or store wheels and you don't need a ton of guys or jack to install the wheels.

[Cadesun]

Thanks for the insight!! Looks like I might be purchasing a Smartejack kit!