What decides the lift
Three things, in this order.
- What the boat actually weighs. Dry weight is the number on the brochure. The number that matters is dry plus fuel, plus water, plus the batteries and the gear that lives on board all season. Boats are consistently heavier than their owners expect, and a lift sized to the brochure is a lift running at its limit.
- What the dock will carry. The dock has to hold the boat and the lift together, in weather. This is the part that most often changes the answer, and it is why we look before we price.
- How the slip sits. Depth through the year, how exposed the frontage is, and whether it is covered. A lift on open main-channel water works harder than the same lift in a back cove.
If there is already a lift in the boathouse and the boat is the thing that is changing, the order is different and the slip gets a say of its own. Buying a bigger boat for an older boathouse →
What has to be true about the boathouse
A flat-plate lift does not stand in the water on this lake — it hangs from the boathouse. So before anything else, the structure has to be able to carry it.
- The header beam. This is what the lift actually hangs from, and it is usually timber. What it is made of and what size it is decides whether a lift can go there at all, and which one.
- Whether it was built with a lift in mind. Plenty of older boathouses here were not. A beam sized to hold up a roof is not necessarily a beam sized to hold up a roof and a boat.
- The posts and pilings. Sound, and still plumb. Settling and leaning are real on this lake, and a structure that has moved changes what should be hung in it.
This is a large part of why we look before we price. It is also where the honest answer is sometimes that the beam wants reinforcing or replacing first — which is work we do, because the lift needs it. Rebuilding a boathouse is not, and we will tell you plainly which of the two you are looking at.
To get ahead of it: a photo of the header beam and one of the posts underneath tells us more than any description, and you can send them with your details.
What goes in
Boat Hoist USA, fitted properly
We are a Boat Hoist USA dealer. Their lifts are what we sell, what we know inside out, and what we keep parts moving for — so parts are usually on hand rather than on order.
The standard build for most boats on this lake is the 1 HP heavy duty motor on a 6,500 lb plate. Heavier boats step up to the 1.5 HP on a 7,500 or 8,500 lb plate. The gear plate arrives with its drive belt, and the cable, clamps and thimbles go on new.
What we will not do is quote a lift for a dock nobody has looked at, or the same lift as the last job because it was to hand.
Before the quote, not after
We survey the slip before we price the job. That is not a sales visit — it is because the dock, the depth and the power at the boathouse decide the answer, and none of them can be established over the phone.
It also means the quote is built on what the job actually is, not on a guess to be adjusted later. A price quoted sight-unseen is exactly that guess — and the adjustment tends to arrive after the work has started.
Two things worth checking before we come out: whether there is power at the dock that will actually run a lift, and whether the dock is permitted. Older docks on this lake sometimes are not, and that becomes your problem when you apply.
Georgia Power has to say yes first
Lake Sinclair is a Georgia Power reservoir. Work on docks and the shoreline needs their approval before it starts, not after. A lift going into an existing permitted dock is usually a simpler case than new dock construction — but they are the authority and the requirements do change.
Common questions
What size lift do I need?
It comes from the boat, not the catalog. Dry weight plus fuel, water, gear and whatever lives on board year-round. Then the dock has to carry the boat and the lift together, which is just as often the constraint. Tell us the boat and we can usually narrow it down before we come out.
My dock was not built for a lift. Is that a problem?
Usually not a dead end. Plenty of docks here were never drawn with a lift in mind, and the answer is normally brackets, risers or structural modification rather than starting over. It does mean the survey has to happen before the quote rather than after. More on modifications.
What does an installation cost?
There is no list price, and anyone who gives you one over the phone is guessing. It depends on the boat’s weight, the configuration, and what your dock needs before a lift can go on it. We look at the slip and quote the job.
What kinds of boats do you handle?
Pontoons and tri-toons, V-hulls, wake boats and personal watercraft. Configurations include double bunks, low-rise pontoon brackets and pontoon risers — which are different things and are not interchangeable, whatever the internet tells you.
Do I need 240 V at the dock?
Most docks here run 120 V and always have. Whether yours is comfortable depends on how far the run is from the panel and what is already in the ground — a long run that was fine for an older, smaller motor can be marginal for a modern one. Our wire size calculator will tell you where you stand before anybody quotes anything.
Where we work
Installations anywhere on the lake
Lake Sinclair runs through three counties and we work all of them.