Estimates are free
Worth saying first and plainly, because it is the question people are too polite to ask: it costs nothing to have us come and look at a dock on Lake Sinclair. No call-out fee, no assessment charge, nothing that turns into a bill if you decide against the work. Further afield we agree it first, so nobody is surprised either way.
If it is something we handle, we come out, look at it properly, and tell you what it needs and what it would cost. If it is not something we handle, we will say so — and we can usually point you at somebody who does.
How it goes
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You tell us what is going on
Call, text, or send it through the form. Photos help more than a paragraph — one of the slip and one of the lift usually tells us more than ten minutes of description.
If the lift is out of action with a boat on it, say so. That changes the order things happen in.
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Often we can narrow it down on the phone
A fair number of calls get answered without anyone driving anywhere — a flat remote battery, a belt, a motor that is being asked for more cycles than it can take. That is what the troubleshooter is for as well, if you would rather work through it yourself first.
We are not going to invent a site visit for something we can talk you through.
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We come and look
For anything we would actually be quoting, we come to the dock. The dock, the depth, the boat and the power at the boathouse decide the answer, and none of them can be settled from a description.
This is the free part. It stays free whether or not you go ahead.
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You get a number and what it covers
Priced on what the job actually is, not on a guess to be adjusted once the work has started.
Then it is yours to think about. We would rather you took a week over it than felt rushed into it.
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Paying for it
Check or cash in person, or an invoice through QuickBooks if that suits you better — that route takes card or bank transfer, so almost anything works.
The invoice says what it is for. No line items that appeared after the fact.
Why we will not promise you a day
This is the honest bit, and it is geography rather than evasion.
Lake Sinclair is about four hundred miles of shoreline wrapped around a shape that makes no sense by road. Two docks can sit two miles apart across the water and be well over an hour apart by truck — out to a main road, around the arm, and back down somebody else’s peninsula.
So we group visits by area. It is the only way the work gets done without half of every day spent driving past water we cannot cross, and it is the reason we can charge nothing for coming to look in the first place. When we are on your side of the lake, we are on your side of the lake.
What that means for you: we will tell you when we can get out, and we will tell you honestly rather than optimistically. If something is urgent — a boat stuck in the air, a cable that has started to go — say so, because that does move.
Who you are dealing with
Authorized Boat Hoist USA dealer
We sell, install and service Boat Hoist USA equipment as an authorized dealer — which is why this site can quote their nameplates and their own published guidance rather than repeating what the rest of the internet says about boat lifts.
It also means the parts are the right parts. A gear plate that matches the motor, a belt that came in the box with it, brackets drawn for the beam they are going on.
Warranty, stated plainly
Boat Hoist USA warranties its motors and gear plates directly, and we follow their terms. We are not a layer between you and that — if a part fails inside their warranty, it goes back to them under it.
On our own work: we stand behind it. If something we did is not right, tell us within a year of us doing it and we will put our work right — that is our workmanship and our labor, and the parts carry their maker’s warranty rather than ours.
The reasoning is published
The wire calculator and the motor troubleshooter on this site show their working — the Code rules, the manufacturer’s own figures, and the arithmetic behind every number.
Check any of it yourself, or hand it to an electrician who will. It is the same reasoning behind a quote, and none of it asks you to take our word for anything.
What we do not take on
Said up front so nobody wastes a phone call. Boat lifts are the work — sales, installation, repair, cables, motors, gear plates, brackets and the modifications a lift needs to sit properly on a particular dock.
Structural work is in scope where a lift needs it: reinforcing where the load lands, picking up a beam, moving brackets to somewhere that will hold them.
Dock building and shoreline work are not what we do. If what you need is more of that than it is a lift, say so early and we can usually point you at somebody — generally somebody we already work with.
Common questions
Does it cost anything to have you come and look?
No. On Lake Sinclair an estimate is free, and it stays free whether or not you go ahead with the work — no call-out fee and no assessment charge. Somewhere further out, we agree what it takes before anyone drives.
How soon can you get out to me?
We will tell you when we call you back, and we will tell you honestly rather than tell you what you want to hear. It depends on where you are on the lake and what is already booked on that side of it.
Lake Sinclair works against you here: two docks two miles apart across the water can be an hour or more apart by road. Grouping visits by area is what keeps the looking free, so a dock on the far side may wait for the day we are already over there. Something urgent — a boat stuck up, a cable going — is treated as urgent.
Do I need to be there when you come?
Not necessarily, as long as we can get to the dock and you are reachable on the phone. Plenty of what we look at belongs to people who are not at the lake that week. Tell us how to reach the water and make sure it is yours to give — we go to the dock and nowhere else, we do not open anything locked, and you get a call or photos afterwards saying what we found.
Is the boat lift under warranty?
Boat Hoist USA warranties its motors and gear plates directly, and we follow their terms — a part that fails inside their warranty goes back to them under it, and we handle that with you rather than leaving you to it.
Two things worth knowing, because in our experience they are where claims get refused: a winding burnt by running the motor past its rated time, and damage from a supply that could not hold voltage. Whether either is covered is BH-USA’s call rather than ours. Both are avoidable, and both have a page on this site explaining how.
Do you stand behind your own work?
Yes. If something we did is not right, tell us within a year of us doing it and we will put our work right — our workmanship and our labor. Parts carry their maker’s warranty rather than ours. Past the year, ask anyway: we are a local outfit on a lake where everybody talks to everybody, which is a stronger incentive than anything we could print here.
How do I pay?
Check or cash in person, or an invoice through QuickBooks — that one takes cards and bank transfer, so it covers most things. Whichever is easier for you.
Do you work on lifts you did not install?
Most of the repair work we do is on somebody else’s installation. Flat-plate hoists are broadly similar across the brands and parts for the common ones are not hard to come by.
When you are ready
Tell us what is going on
Photos and a sentence are usually enough to get started. If you would rather work out what is wrong first, the troubleshooter will get you most of the way there.
Send the details → Work out what it is → See our work →
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