RhinoHoist Shoremaster Lift Leaking?

[swatski]

Looks like my (newly installed this year) RhinoHoist Shoremaster lift is leaking...

It appears to be a slow leak, probably exaggerated by recent drop in temps, the lift drops by about a foot per 2-3 days now.

I wonder if I need to track down the installers and negotiate some warranty repairs or if there are simple few things to check first? Ironically, this is my first nice new lift and the first time I have a leak!

I guess I need to hop on the beast, tighten all the clamps to start with, just wonder if anyone here has a lot of experience with those things and could give me some guidance as far as probable causes. Basically, I'm hoping its a loose clamp - hope those big polypropylene tanks don't leak very often, do they?

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[robert843]

I'm no expert by any means on these and not familiar with this brand. When I noticed mine was leaking though it was that that the frame had slid a little and was blocking one of the drains. If its under warranty just call them and have them deal with it.

 

[Mainah]

Looks like my (newly installed this year) RhinoHoist Shoremaster lift is leaking...

It appears to be a slow leak, probably exaggerated by recent drop in temps, the lift drops by about a foot per 2-3 days now.

I wonder if I need to track down the installers and negotiate some warranty repairs or if there are simple few things to check first? Ironically, this is my first nice new lift and the first time I have a leak!

I guess I need to hop on the beast, tighten all the clamps to start with, just wonder if anyone here has a lot of experience with those things and could give me some guidance as far as probable causes. Basically, I'm hoping its a loose clamp - hope those big polypropylene tanks don't leak very often, do they?

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Not the model you have but I completely rebuilt a floating lift including hoses and converted from manual valves to electric ball valves and a remote. Given temp drops seem to be associated I would check fittings into the tanks first, then clamps, then valves. Are your valves manual or electric? I intentionally went with electric ball valves that store power in a capacitor so that if power is shut off they close. Soleniod valves are known to have various issues caused by temperature, being dirty, etc.

Temperature has swung quite a bit where I am at and no drop in my lift. I don’t think the tanks expand or contract enough with temperature to cause a displacment height difference that can be seen with the naked eye. Granted temp changes will cause a air pressure difference and that trapped air pressure is keeping the water out of the tank creating the displacement but It is very low pressure and very high volume. Your lift would likley need to be on the ragged edge of capacity for normal atmospheric temperature changes alone to have a noticeable impact.

 

[swatski]

Not the model you have but I completely rebuilt a floating lift including hoses and converted from manual valves to electric ball valves and a remote. Given temp drops seem to be associated I would check fittings into the tanks first, then clamps, then valves. Are your valves manual or electric? I intentionally went with electric ball valves that store power in a capacitor so that if power is shut off they close. Soleniod valves are known to have various issues caused by temperature, being dirty, etc.

Temperature has swung quite a bit where I am at and no drop in my lift. I don’t think the tanks expand or contract enough with temperature to cause a displacment height difference that can be seen with the naked eye. Granted temp changes will cause a air pressure difference and that trapped air pressure is keeping the water out of the tank creating the displacement but It is very low pressure and very high volume. Your lift would likley need to be on the ragged edge of capacity for normal atmospheric temperature changes alone to have a noticeable impact.

Very helpful! Thank you.
I need valves that would work with no electricity if I need to pull the boat off the lift - in emergency. This happened once or twice - when my river floods it is not pretty.

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[Mainah]

Very helpful! Thank you.
I need valves that would work with no electricity if I need to pull the boat off the lift - in emergency. This happened once or twice - when my river floods it is not pretty.

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My dock loses power sometimes too. I have an inverter on board that can power the lift but lets say my batteries were too weak for that. The valves and remote control board are 12vdc on a single 12vdc barrel plug normally powered by a power supply. I have a barrel plug cord with battery clamps in case I ever end up in that pinch.

 

[swatski]

Not the model you have but I completely rebuilt a floating lift including hoses and converted from manual valves to electric ball valves and a remote. Given temp drops seem to be associated I would check fittings into the tanks first, then clamps, then valves. Are your valves manual or electric? I intentionally went with electric ball valves that store power in a capacitor so that if power is shut off they close. Soleniod valves are known to have various issues caused by temperature, being dirty, etc.

Temperature has swung quite a bit where I am at and no drop in my lift. I don’t think the tanks expand or contract enough with temperature to cause a displacment height difference that can be seen with the naked eye. Granted temp changes will cause a air pressure difference and that trapped air pressure is keeping the water out of the tank creating the displacement but It is very low pressure and very high volume. Your lift would likley need to be on the ragged edge of capacity for normal atmospheric temperature changes alone to have a noticeable impact.

Darned, should had thought of all of this before latest snow fall, lol. When we first got that new lift installed, I had a sneaky feeling those clamps are going to be just like my jet boat fittings. Little leaky.

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[swatski]

My dock loses power sometimes too. I have an inverter on board that can power the lift but lets say my batteries were too weak for that. The valves and remote control board are 12vdc on a single 12vdc barrel plug normally powered by a power supply. I have a barrel plug cord with battery clamps in case I ever end up in that pinch.

Okay, so if you do that - do you have the lift in remote control? It would seem like it would be an obvious step at that point?

May need your red/green button start/stop for my lift!!!! (Man, Kate loves that thing, no messing with the keys are everything stays on!)

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[Mainah]

Okay, so if you do that - do you have the lift in remote control? It would seem like it would be an obvious step at that point?

May need your red/green button start/stop for my lift!!!! (Man, Kate loves that thing, no messing with the keys are everything stays on!)

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Exactly. I have a 6 channel rf remote control. Channel one turns on the blower through a relay. Channel two opens the dump valve for manifold (I built my own manifold). Channels 3-6 open the valves for each corner or the lift. The blower, manifold, valaves and electronics all fit in two battery boxes that I have mounted directly to the lift on a pole. Only the side ties (side tie lift) are mounted to the dock. Less than 60 seconds down and about two minutes up. The remote is pretty sweet as I can pull in after a day on the water and raise the front of the lift a bit while still in the boat to secure the boat while everyone gets off at dock level then resume raising and covering.

 

[swatski]

The remote is pretty sweet as I can pull in after a day on the water and raise the front of the lift a bit while still in the boat to secure the boat while everyone gets off at dock level then resume raising and covering.

Man, that part is sweet!
I may need to look into it some more. Sometimes when I trailer I can get myself in a pickle when joggling my truck on the ramp, boat on the lift, and a bunch of local boaters drinking beer and speaking Missourian. Which is a local language/dialect, often used around my marina, lol. I’m still learning it, btw.

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[PEARCE]

bunch of local boaters drinking beer and speaking Missourian

Is that similar to the Pennsylvanian dialect?! Lol! My wife's family is from Johnstown, PA and her dad says yenz like we say ya'll here in Texas. When I first heard them all get together when my wife and I were dating it was an education in language. Pretty entertaining too!

 

[swatski]

Is that similar to the Pennsylvanian dialect?! Lol! My wife's family is from Johnstown, PA and her dad says yenz like we say ya'll here in Texas. When I first heard them all get together when my wife and I were dating it was an education in language. Pretty entertaining too!

No. I really can not accurately describe it here as I would break several forum rules, lol.
But if you ever in these parts I can introduce you to my fellow club members of “Jon Boaters of Franklin County”, an awesome bunch.

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[PEARCE]

I bet they are @swatski ! Same goes here too!

 

[Gym]

Exactly. I have a 6 channel rf remote control. Channel one turns on the blower through a relay. Channel two opens the dump valve for manifold (I built my own manifold). Channels 3-6 open the valves for each corner or the lift. The blower, manifold, valaves and electronics all fit in two battery boxes that I have mounted directly to the lift on a pole. Only the side ties (side tie lift) are mounted to the dock. Less than 60 seconds down and about two minutes up. The remote is pretty sweet as I can pull in after a day on the water and raise the front of the lift a bit while still in the boat to secure the boat while everyone gets off at dock level then resume raising and covering.

What channel is the game on? Any pics of your lift @swatski? I'll bet if you call the installers they would have some quick tips for you before triggering a service call.

 

[swatski]

What channel is the game on? Any pics of your lift @swatski? I'll bet if you call the installers they would have some quick tips for you before triggering a service call.

I may do that. I have a feeling it just needs clamps to be tightened up... I hope. I doubt they will want to work on it now, we just got 6 inches of fresh snow. Won't stop me!

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[robert843]

@swatski its funny the lift he rebuilt was my lift it was rough he learned a lot I'm sure from that project.

 

[swatski]

Any pics of your lift @swatski?

I posted some pics in this thread (it is a standard RhinoHoist):
https://jetboaters.net/threads/new-dock-dry-slip-w-rhino-lift-hands-free-operation.17544/

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[Mainah]

@swatski its funny the lift he rebuilt was my lift it was rough he learned a lot I'm sure from that project.

I learned I am getting too old to move/fix things that large and heavy.

 

[swatski]

I inspected the lift hose connections, some were pretty loose, hope that tightening those up will help. But I'm not sure if I should install an extra pair of valves in the blower hoses?




Tightened those for
both tanks:


One always sits lower, but it's been like that since new:


The motor/fan assembly inside the control unit is mounted on top of this rubber connector... And just sits there. Weird. I tightened it up but seems like a poor design to me:


Here are the valve assemblies:


What I'm debating is to install extra shut-off valves here, to prevent leaks when the boat is up on the lift for longer periods:


That way if any of those internal valves in the control unit have any leaks, the shut-offs would isolate the tanks?

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[Mainah]

Those valaves are 3 way ball valves with a very low chance of leaking. I would be more concerned with the imbalance particularly if that is the maximum height with the boat on it. Not too much reserve displacement on the starboard side if so. Possible cause is the hoses being longer to that side. The hoses should be the same length. If one side has a shorter hose that side gets more air faster and its displacement keeps the other side down a bit. The pivot point attachments are another possible cause if not square on all 3 planes.

I made this mistake when setting up my lift and compensated by adding ball valves. The restriction of a fully open full port ball inline valve alone did the trick because of the ball valve barbs decreasing the diameter. I also used empty 5 gallon buckets sealed with food grade gasket lids to compensate for the weight of my control box on one corner of the lift and the weight of my big batteries, inverter, and kegerator on the opposite corner. My tanks are the older round fiberglass type so I have a crossmember running underneath them. I ran the bucket handles through the holes on the lower cross member and each bucket added 40 lbs of boyancy compensation. My lift is a side tie model with valves/hoses for each corner so the weight imbalance is less of a concern with a front pivot tie but the tank air displacement imbalance should be corrected by either making the hoses the sane length (ideal) or with valves (works also but prefer the later if doing it again).

 

[swatski]

the tank air displacement imbalance should be corrected by either making the hoses the sane length (ideal) or with valves (works also but prefer the later if doing it again).

Very helpful! Based on what you are saying I'm going to leave the control unit alone and focus on hose attachments.
I always run the blower until I have air bubbling hard from underneath the back of both tanks for a few seconds or longer, and then shut off both valves in one motion (with both hands). I assumed that would fill both tanks with air to capacity displacing all the water... I did notice the level difference but it was after the install crew already left. The boat is leveled side-to-side in the water with lots of stuff in the helm but dual batteries in the port comp, so the imbalance must be intrinsic to the lift.
The lift is rated for 6,000lbs IIRC and the size was recommended, I did not want to go smaller or "shallow water" model precisely to have some buffer. Well, maybe these boats are heavier than I thought the "wet weight" would be.

I will see what I can do!
Trying to picture your compensatory bucket devices, and imagine/figure what do those do... but it must be too late... I'm going to have to look at it in the morning.

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