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Leave Lift and Dock in over Winter?


jedgell
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This is our first season with a roll-in type dock and a Shoremaster lift. Wondering if anyone on here that lives in a place where their lake freezes has any experience with a similar setup? We’re trying to figure out if we should leave it in the water or pull it. The rep from Shoremaster said that the freeze by itself won’t hurt the lift, but ice floating in the water in the spring when it stars to thaw could damage it.

 

Thoughts?

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Not sure where you are on your lake. If your shore is on an open part of the lake where large sheets of ice will move, I would remove it. I am tucked in a small dead end channel where the ice won't move in large sheets/chunks so I leave the lift in. My pier sits on pallets so I remove it. If you are new to your lake, ask your neighbors what they think.
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Yeper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The freezing is not the killer. The spring ice floats can kill A lift with no problem!!!!!!!!!! If you are in an area that is protected you can do it but I would not and don't. My lake can look open one day and a wind can move an ice float in and it may look completely closed in an hour. To costly to even think about it.
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Our local ski club does dock/lift removals and installs in NE Wisconsin as a fundraiser. We'll do around 160 units this fall so I have a lot, too much, experience with this.

 

If you're a gambling person and the loss of either or both your lift and dock is not a big deal then leave them in. We have customers who should remove, don't, and have been lucky for years. But it only takes that one breakup with the right wind conditions to take out everything. The power of moving ice, even if it is just barely moving, is staggering. It will bend aluminum like it isn't there and the same goes for steel.

 

As others have mentioned, a wheel kit can be a real back saver.

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If you have trees along your shoreline you can move the lift such that the front legs are on shore and then use a pulley system/come-along to lift the backend up and out of the water and leave it on a 45 degree angle. This is how some of my ski buddies handle it given their shoreline is so steep there is nowhere to put it.

 

I can grab a picture of the setup if that helps.

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Ice can damage your dick several ways.

1) ice jacking...ice firms around your dock and if the water level goes up or down while the ice has hold of your dock, it will easily mangle it.

 

2)ice movement...if the ice moves while it has hold of your dock, it can twist and turn your dock into a pretzel. This is especially true at break up.

 

3) ice expansion...if the snow cover melts and there is hot sun hitting the ice, the ice can expand up to 10 feet per mile. This will crush anything in its' path.

 

All of this depends on the local conditions in your location.

 

FWIW, I have a large steel floating dock specifically designed to be left in the ice over the winter. It has a ramp that connects it to a large fixed dock. The ramp gets disconnected and the dock floats with loose lines tying it to the fixed dock so that it can move with the ice. One year the guy putting it away for winter did a poor job tying it up. A rope broke and the dock swung out to where it froze in the ice bridging a pressure crack. Anyhow, the two portions of the ice on either side of that pressure crack moved independantly cutting one of the fingers in half. The steel looked like someone had taken a cutting torch to it.

 

If I were you I would take it out.

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We are on a private ski lake in Iowa and leave our Shore Station lift in during the winter. Never had any issues. It does have a heavily braced VW dock on 3 sides. On a public lake in north Iowa, all lifts were pulled for winter to keep the ice floes from destroying them, but in the small habours & canals they were able to leave them in.
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Thinking ahead a couple months here, but want to get some opinions. 

Pull the dock and hoist onto land, or leave it in the ice this winter in Michigan? Manmade ski lake and I'm along the side, but about at the end of the lake. 

I see a lot of hoists in canals and coves left over winter, some even with boats on them, but don't want to find out the hard way that I made the wrong decision. 

IMG_7022.JPG

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A few years ago I was sailing in the spring and came across a pontoon shore station laying on its side smack dab in the middle of the lake. It was really dangerous - a few inches below the water. If someone hit it at speed (or even slow) it could have caused some serious damage. it was obviously dropped there by the ice. I called the sheriff, waited around forever and they sent someone out to remove it. 

As a post script to the story - a few months later I came in hot on my stand up jet ski right in front of the marine deputies (rode in and stepped off in the shallows). Was ticketed on the spot, called the sheriff and asked him if he could do anything for my good deed, and he administratively dismissed the citation 🙂 Karma!

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@Mastercrafter no one test it yet?

I'd probably leave it.  If you can get a few long augers run them into the bottom and cable your lift and dock down to them.  This is for 2 things one is so small amounts of ice don't move it around, I don't think yours will be damaged but it might be moved around annoying amounts.  The other thing is in summer if you do happen to get a big wind lifts sometimes can flip if the boat isn't on them if they have canopies so we used to always recommend people buy the tie down kits with their lifts.  Made life better for everyone, trying to get a lift flipped back upright in a storm with a boat that's dragging an anchor slowly down the lake isn't a good feeling.

 

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We have the similar setup as you @Mastercrafter, in MT.  Have always pulled the dock out and left the lift in, until last year.  Had a great late Fall and were using it then Winter hit and we didn't get it out of the water.  On a private lake also, had some damage, replaced 1 section where the ladder was.  The ladder was frozen in the ice, then the level dropped and pulled/bent the dock section.  Also a couple other pcs have slight damage that we fixed.  Our lift also had some damage, 1 broken cross member and a tube that was cracked.  We did have a very harsh winter, ice was probably 2' thick.  Won't be leaving it in the water again...

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For that little bit of dock and a lift, I'd be pulling it for peace of mind (or run some bubblers).  I've got 150+ feet of steel dock and two lifts - now that's a chore, but would be a twisted mess come spring if I left it in.

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Completely depends on the lake.  We've lived in two places on our current lake.  In one we would all leave our lifts in year around and no one ever had an issue.  In this part of the lake there was a current that would open up the bay very, very early in the spring.  In the other place we all pull them or they'd all be trashed.  Damage can occur in one of two ways:

1. When the ice moves up/down it catches a horizontal piece of the lift's structure.  So if you do decide to leave it in you 100% want the cradle cranked all the way up so the only pieces of the structure that are in contact w/ the ice are the four corner down tubes.

2. When the wind moves the ice pack come spring it moves the lift with it and trashes it altogether.

One thing a buddy of mine does is leaves a bubbler in during the winter.  He's in a protected cove, but does this for a little extra insurance.   Gotta be careful if you're going to have kids on the ice.  Wouldn't never want to do a bubbler if kids want to skate or play out there.

Edited by mlange
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@Mastercrafter - Given you are even thinking about it, how much will you fret over every storm, wind event for 4 months if you leave it in?  How much is the peace of mind worth v. the effort to take it out.  The gang on Lake Theresa, north of you, leaves them all in with no issues.  They are on the inlet side of the lake and have some blockage from the wind.  Question - what brand dock, looks nice.

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