Best boat lift for a Yamaha AR240??

[MIKEP]

Hi everyone..first post! Just bought a 2015 AR240. Super excited but it's going to be a long winter (MN snow) before I'll finally get to take it for the first ride! I'm curious if anyone has a good recommendation for a shore station/boat lift with canopy. The lake I'm on is about 3 ft deep at the shore and a good 10 ft once you reach 12 ft out from the shore. Pretty good drop off. We don't have an area to drag it out either since our bank has a decent pitch and good tree cover. Any help would be appreciated since I'll probably be buying the lift this winter at the boat show...hoping for a good deal. Thanks!

 

[Zarrella]

Best boat lift for your boat???........the one at my house!!

Welcome and congratulations on your new boat!

 

[SCSTWG]

You might want to hit up @motorboater who recently purchased what you are looking for in MN. Congrats on the new boat.

 

[GTBRMC]

Congrats on the great boat and welcome aboard!

 

[Evildwarf]

Welcome aboard Mikep!
I'm sure you will enjoy your new boat come Spring. We have enjoyed our Yamahas, great family boats.
As far as a lift goes, we keep our 242 on a Hydrohoist lift. Hydrohoist makes a shallow water lift which you may want to look into as it sounds like you are in shallow water when close to shore. How long will the dock be? What is the depth at the slip? Does your dock have power?
I think my lift is a 5500 lb model....can't really remember....
I would look into a used lift, save some money off new

 

[MIKEP]

Thanks for the info. The hydrohoist looks awesome but we wouldn't be able to attach this to a dock. It would be a stand alone structure. The dock that will be next to this will be a drive up dock (jet dock). Can't attach anything to it. We have a boat house with power.

 

[Flower]

Check out the Sunstream lifts.

 

[HawkTX]

I keep my AR240 on a hydrohoist. I've had it a year now with no complaints.

 

[motorboater]

Congrats on the new boat! I ended up buying a Max Lift VL Pro 5000lb verticle lift. Your situation might be different, but I like it and the price was good.. around $8000 with a 26ft canopy, bow stop and non-electric winch. I'll be adding an electric winch. Cranking it up every time will drive you crazy. You'll need a bow stop to keep from floating right through the lift... since our boats have no outdrive to catch the lift's motor stop. If I did it again I'd buy a longer canopy. With the tower, there was quite a bit of adjustment needed on the bunks and canopy to get it just right. Basically the canopy is up as high as possible, which mean less coverage at the sides and ends. You'll need the canopy with an open end to fit the tower when you back out. They do have an optional 30" canopy side extension which might be a good idea, but I didnt do it. We like to sit in the boat under the canopy on rainy days and without the extension you dont feel enclosed. Mine sits in about 3ft of water and works perfectly.

I'm not necessarily recommending this lift, just sharing what I experienced. We are new owners of a lake cabin this year so had to figure this all out. I also looked at Shorestation and a couple others. I thought the Max was built better and was priced about $2k less. I dont like floating docks and jetdocks so I didnt even look more into that option. I wanted a more traditional lift. 5000lb is plenty capacity, unless you want to lift the boat with the ballast full.

In the photo the boat is lifted as high as possible without the tower hitting the canopy. I keep the snap bow and cockpit covers on when we arent there. You can also see the front bow stop.

 

[whaler7626]

We got a 5000# ShoreStation solar-electric lift! Works great!

 

[GTBRMC]

We got a 5000# ShoreStation solar-electric lift! Works great!

Congrats! I'd love to have one of those.

 

[MIKEP]

Thanks everyone this is great information! It's harder for me to figure out what lift I want, than it was on the boat I bought! What's with that?? Thanks @motorboater lots of good info that I didn't think about

 

[motorboater]

We got a 5000# ShoreStation solar-electric lift! Works great!

Good choice! I think I'll be adding the solar/DC lift option to mine. The sales guy said I'd be back for it and he was right.

 

[Mikeyc]

Has anyone tried a 108" wide lift for the 24 footer? I'm looking for a used lift and can't seem to find anything 120" used. Just a few 108" lifts.

 

[biffdotorg]

Has anyone tried a 108" wide lift for the 24 footer? I'm looking for a used lift and can't seem to find anything 120" used. Just a few 108" lifts.

108" would work, it just leaves you little room for guide posts. It all depends on the lift. We have soft guide posts to put the bow between well before we get to the actual width of the lift. So by the time the bow gets in, the boat is well centered.

Getting a lift as narrow as possible is not all bad, as it decreases the width of the step from the dock as well.

Good luck,