A boat lift is a piece of equipment that you can use to get your boat out of the water in order to clean, paint, and, overall, maintain it. When not using your boat, you can use the lift to get it out of the water and prevent the effect of water damage (especially if it’s salt water).
However, in order to stay functional, boat lifts have to be maintained.
If they’re damaged or unreliable, you risk damaging your own boat, which is a significant problem. The cost of repair on a ship that was damaged by a faulty boat lift will surpass even a whole boat lift replacement, let alone a replacement of a part or a bit of lubricant.
This is why you have to take the boat maintenance routine very seriously.
Now, there are different types of lifts out there, and the more complex they are, the more difficult the maintenance. With a manual boat lift, all you have to do is inspect the crank, the gears, and the cables. This takes merely a second.
At the same time, a maintenance routine for hydraulic boat lifts is different, and it has to be performed regularly.
How regularly? Well, daily if you use it every day and pretty often if you don’t (since wear and tear is present even when you’re not using it). With that in mind and without further ado, here are a few daily maintenance routines for hydraulic boat lifts that you should absolutely be aware of.
1. Lift storage
Whenever a lift is not in use, hydraulic boat lifts should be in storage. You need to place it somewhere safe, somewhere where it won’t be affected by weather conditions, even though this is something that a boat lift is designed to endure.
The reason why this is so important is because it eliminates your need actually to tend to your boat lift on a daily basis. Instead, it gives you a chance to check its state and make a replacement or two regularly. Out of season, this will save you so much time, money, and trouble.
One thing you need to understand is that when you have the lift storage, you’re likely to put your lift there and avoid inspecting it for days and days. This is why the state of your storage has to be decent, as well. This is why it also has to be inspected to the best of your abilities. The reliability of that storage will make a huge difference, and reliability requires inspection and maintenance.
This doesn’t have to be a complex structure. Even a canopy with a cover over the lift could be good enough.
2. Perform a visual inspection
We list a visual inspection as a daily maintenance task because we don’t expect you to disassemble the entirety of the machinery in order to peek inside. All you need to do is walk past the lift and check if it shows any sign of corrosion, loose hose fittings, problems with seals, etc.
This can literally take anywhere from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes, which is why there’s no excuse for skipping it.
You also don’t have to be an engineer or someone who has spent their entire life around these boats. You can recognize that the cable is worn out or that there are signs of corrosion on the metal parts. Strange noise or visible shaking (unlike before) are quite hard to miss, as well.
The most important items you have to focus on are signs of visible damage and cables. This is something you should look at every time you are in front of the lift.
Ideally, you should inspect it every time you’re checking up on your boat. While looking at the lights and the hull, take a few moments to check up on the lift.
3. Cleanliness and lubrication
The next thing you need to take into consideration is the importance of cleanliness. Hydraulic boat lifts will work under difficult conditions, which means that they will always be plagued by dirt, sand, and marine growth. These will always get stuck in the lift components, especially moving parts and hydraulic cylinders.
Sometimes, these will require removal, and at other times, they’ll have to be rinsed with fresh water.
Keep in mind that while this kind of inspection doesn’t have to be done every day, the more often you can do it, the better. After all, while wear and tear happen over the course of time, with debris, it’s completely random. You could clean it all one day and have something stuck to it the next.
While inspecting for debris, chances are that you’ll take a good look at all the moving parts of the lift. We’re talking about pulleys, pivot points, etc. Apply appropriate lubricants to prevent rust and to ensure that everything runs smoothly.
4. Check safety mechanisms
One of the most important parts of any hydraulic boat lift, and boat lift in general, is knowing that you can trust the lift to stay in place when you’re not using it. You need to test the system and ensure that safety locks and stops are functioning correctly and that they engage properly when the lift is in use.
It’s also essential that you test emergency release. This is something that a lot of boat users see as unnecessary, but you would be surprised at how often it will play a big part.
Then, there’s the control unit, which will control the entirety of the lift. If the system is not responding, there’s no telling how big of a problem you’re in when you finally need to use it. Still, as long as the system is set up and not in storage, checking this should take seconds.
Also, keep in mind that even hydraulic presses have electrical connections.
Wrap up
The last thing you need to keep in mind is the importance of having a decent daily routine for checking on your hydraulic boat lifts. While doing this every day during the entire year may be seen as too taxing, you could, at the very least, do it during the season when you’re actively using your boat. Just checking these four factors, along with taking a boat for a regular checkup every now and then, should be enough.