Hydrohoist Water Depth Question ?
 

whats up oso, i just bought a used hydrohoist 6000# side tie "B" model approx 20 yrs old for $1500 (fair price?). the website lists 4.5 to 6.5 min water depth. i only have 4 feet at the dock. i want to park a 27' fountain on it and am concerned if this scenario will work. i will not back over the lift and will pull head on to it so i dont think in needs to go as deep. also i dont think the draft on my fountain is that deep as compared to say a cabin cruiser of the same size. anyone with knowledge on this setup think it will work? thank you.

To find out if you have a chance of it working you need two dimensions. The draft of your boat (I would measure it at the transom) and the dimension of the lift from the top of the beam that goes across the top of the tanks to the bottom of the tanks.

For example, if your boat draft is 16 inches, the cross beam is 4" tall and the tanks are 30" diameter, you are going to need at least 50" of water depth.

You will need more than 4 feet. I had a b lift and a 29 fountain. I had about 5 feet and had to dredge my dock. The web site is correct. Some times you can dredge your own dock by raising and lowering the lift multiple times.

If you are pulling in, I don't see why you need to account for the drive clearing the lift cross member. The drive should not be crossing over any framework, correct? Only asking because not familar with that style of lift, just my standard 4 arm style where drive depth is not a factor. I'd think no more than 2' is needed from top of bunks to waterlevel would be fine. ???

That adds up to 6' plus.

An additional potential issue would be whether you have a stepped hull. If the water level drops, the steps of the hull could get caught on the hoist bunks (been there,done that). I don't know what the bottom of your slip is, but with the sand/mud we have here, I blew my slip out every for the ten years I owned my boat. I used a couple of 3/4 hp bubblers/deicers mounted on an affair that positioned them on the bottom mounted horizontally. Worked the nuts...

A thing to remember is that a hydrohoist does not go straight up and down.
To launch you lower the rear first and then bring the front down.
If you try lifting or lowering the boat level you are in for a scary time ( guess how i know)