2 post car lift

robinsoncrusoe

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been reading about people jacking up boats with bricks or digging trenches to work on lifting keels but wondered if anyone had used a 2 post car lift.

My mate runs a little garage down the road with one and I'm sure he would let me use it at weekend.

back trailer under it, swivel arms under boat, make up some kind of safe load distributing pads and it could be lifted up 6 feet off the ground in seconds.

:rolleyes:
 

Lakesailor

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Depends very much on how the loads are distributed and if there is the possibility of slip.
You don't say what the boat is.
Hate to think of pushing the arms through the bilge.
 

epervier

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been reading about people jacking up boats with bricks or digging trenches to work on lifting keels but wondered if anyone had used a 2 post car lift.

My mate runs a little garage down the road with one and I'm sure he would let me use it at weekend.

back trailer under it, swivel arms under boat, make up some kind of safe load distributing pads and it could be lifted up 6 feet off the ground in seconds.

:rolleyes:

Not wishing to piss on your chips here, but most two post garage lifts have width restrictions, the average road vehicle is 2 metres or less and the heaviest 2 post lift I know of is 5 tonne swl.
So it begs the questions, how heavy,long,wide is the craft you're thinking of lifting?
 

ProDave

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The only way I can see that working, is rather than trying to lift it on the 4 pads of the car lift, would be to sling two substantial strops under the boat and lift with that from the ends of the 4 lifting arms.

I'm sure that's not in the operating instructions of the hoist, so I am sure it would be entirely at your own risk.

You would be better trying to devise some modifications to your trailer to facilitate keel lowering on the trailer. I did a lot of work to my own trailer over the summer with that in mind. It was about 80% successful, I can now partly lower the keel on the trailer, but can now clearly see one more alteration that should allow it to be lowered fully (subject to possibly having to park over a hole in the ground) which I will do next summer when the boat is back in the water.
 
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electrosys

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The only way I can see that working, is rather than trying to lift it on the 4 pads of the car lift, would be to sling two substantial strops under the boat and lift with that from the ends of the 4 lifting arms.
+1

A mate of mine used to lift a 2-ton boat on and off a trailer using 2 fork-lifts and a pair of strops, a set-up which is pretty similar to that being suggested.
 
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