Low down on boat lifts
 

Considering a boat lift for a 23 footer. Never had one and just starting to look at them, do they need to be removed for winter? Any suggest a manufacturer? I have heard around 12k does that sound right? Please share any and all info, appreciate it! Any special rules on the lake for these? It's not considered a dock correct?

water depth vs. height of lift
 

I didn't see this point raised in the other string of posts on this topic, but another important point to consider is the depth of water at your dock, vs. the height of the boat lift when it is down.

If you have shallow water at your dock--especially this time of year--you may be precluded from having a lift. The depth of the water needs to be at least as high as the height of the lift in its fully-down position, otherwise you can't get your boat on the lift, (or off, as the case may be)

Hydraulic powered are generally the top tier in both price and performance. Watermark is the local dealer for the Sunstream lifts. Ours is about 12 years old and have had zero issues with it. Can’t beat the convenience of a remote.

Technically you are required to get a permit from DES. See the DES website for details (https://www.des.nh.gov/water/wetland...areas#faq34821) Watermark handled the permit for us when we bought. But I got the sense that many do not obtain permits.

Lifts will need to be removed for winter in most cases, for both freezing expansion of the frame and ice flows. That is the main downside. The main exception I’m aware of is if you run a dock bubbler and are in an area where you wouldn’t worry about ice flows in spring you can probably get away with not pulling, but risky if the bubbler fails. Also, technically NH law requires it to be pulled for winter as it is permitted as a seasonal device. There are some creative ways to do this - a post on this forum a few years ago with a picture used 4x4s cantilevered over the dock chained to the top of the lift so the lift pulled itself up and was suspended over the water. Was pretty ingenious. But doesn’t work for all dock set ups.

We pull ours ourselves, but it is a project as I’m too cheap to pay around $500/year for a service to pull and drop.