Electric hatch lift

[joel3078]

Ok spring is here and it was time to lift the hatch on my black widow. Naturally the batteries are not dead but not at full charge either so the hatch opened up very slow.

Question is, how do you get the hatch open if the lift motor dies, battery dead, switch breaks etc?

[Jamesbon]

If you have a 12v. receptacle or cigarette lighter plug, make an adapter to plug a charger or battery into the 12v. receptacle, this will in turn energize the 12 v. system. We do it all the time here at work.

[mrfixxall]

Ok spring is here and it was time to lift the hatch on my black widow. Naturally the batteries are not dead but not at full charge either so the hatch opened up very slow.
Question is, how do you get the hatch open if the lift motor dies, battery dead, switch breaks etc?

on most hatch lifts theirs a longated slot the upper pin goes through..mst people close their hatch until they hear a ratching sound,dont colse the hatch til you hear this sound...colse the hatch till it is colsed....then if your batterys go dead all you have to do is lift up on the hatch and pull the pin and open it by hand ,charge batterys then run the hatch lift up and reattach the pin..like i said some boats have a differand style lift cylinders..

[joel3078]

Good idea on the cigarette lighter adapter. I can make one of those. I always worry about backfeeding power into a circuit however. Never know when you are gonna blow up an electronic device.

I'm more worried about if the lift motor fails, then how do you open it? It seems to me if you would try and force it open that something would break. Like for instance how the lift is attached via screws into the underside of the hatch.

[mrfixxall]

look at ware the cylinder attaches too,,,,the one i installed on my formula has a 5'' longated hole in it that the pin slides into,,if the battrerys go dead i lift the hatch the 5 inches reach into the engine comp and pull the pin and wammo the hatch in open.......

[Cuda]

look at ware the cylinder attaches too,,,,the one i installed on my formula has a 5'' longated hole in it that the pin slides into,,if the battrerys go dead i lift the hatch the 5 inches reach into the engine comp and pull the pin and wammo the hatch in open.......
My Formula has basically the same set up. Some boats have leads to the batteries under the rear seat, which wouldn't help if the motor burned up.

[joel3078]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. I have a lighter socket adapter from my Harley that I can use in the future if need be to repower the Donzi temporarilly. I'll have to check later for the mount/clevis/rod setup. It does NOT have a 5" slot like the Formula so no cheating to get er open and pull a clevis pin. In fact if you go too far up or too far down when it's powered and working right, you will break things quickly. The previous owner warned me about this. The electric cylinder does not have any over travel limit switches on it. I guess they figure if you own a boat like this, you should know what the hell you are doing. If not, have another beer and start asking.