Well my lake is still flooded, but has come down enough to go boating. Problem is my marina has pulled the power and they say it may not be up until after Labor Day. So I want to buy a generator to power my boat lift and I need to know how small of a generator I can get away with. I would also like to be able to power a refrigerator or margharitta machine. How big (watts) of a generator do I need? Would 2500 watts be OK? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Does anybody know if Autozone or Lowes or Home Depot rents out generators?

Thanks in advance.

volt times amps equals watts , check all the amp ratings on your appliances and multiply by the volts

A lot of the boat lifts are 220 volts, or at least the ones at my marina are. Running less than 220 can kill the motors.

I think we run 50 amp breakers.

I was told there's some kind of trick using cordless drills though.....

We have a 7000 lift for the fishing boat that has 2 1/3 HP motors. When the motor went out a couple weeks ago we were able to take the cover off and spin the larger wheel which in turn lowered the boat (VERY VERY SLOWLY). Based on the size of thos motors I would think a 3-5K gen would easily power them. Ours are simply plugged into a regular 110 circuit on our dock.

Obviously, there are different ways to power a boat lift. Here at LOTO most use air to evacuate the water from the tanks to lift the boat, to go down no power is needed. All 110V and have heard nothing more than a vacuum cleaner motor so I'm sure not much power needed. So guess it just depends.

All depends what he has.

True. Congrats on that!!!

However, I seriously doubt that the man wants to spend $2000 to get his boat off of the lift until Labor Day........so kindly just go back to not having a phucking clue about anything and making stupid posts!!!! You'll be at 10,000 posts before you know it!!!

Pretty funny stuff. Yep $2,000 is a bit much to spend to get a boat lift up for 3 weeks. But it looks like I can get a good lightly used 3500 watt generator for around $300. I've got a good old HydroHoist http://www.boatlift.com/product.aspx?ID=1&PT=1 It doesn't require any power to let the air out, just to get it up

Thanks

Check with your local construction rental company; and see what their month long rate might be on a commercial generator.

Some Lowes and Home Depot have tool rental departments, but they are usually a little pricier than the commercial places, and more along the lines of weekend project rentals. They do usually sell used equipment as well.

Does anyone close to your slip have a decent sized on board Genset? You could string a heavy extension cord 50-100 feet and probably still pull enough amps to run the pump. A pump system like you have does not require the amp draw like a motor/cable/elevator lift.

I know,...I read that and said...he so full of chit...then I said, you know what..he's ACTUALLY right... A post whore that knows just a little something on electrical.