Can you upgrade your shoreStation lift capacity?

[dellsboater]

Read on forum somewhere its only the cables that matter. Have a 3 year old 3000lb lift, want to buy a 3200lb boat, can I just get heavier cables?
Thanks

[mrfixxall]

Read on forum somewhere its only the cables that matter. Have a 3 year old 3000lb lift, want to buy a 3200lb boat, can I just get heavier cables?
Thanks

t dont think 200 lbs will kmake a differance,,my friend puts a 4000lb boat on a 3500 lb lift..if you have a 3/8 ss cable the braking stregnth is 12k,5/16 is 9 k and 1/4 is 6400k

[Pismo]

I agree, it is plenty strong enough as is. The margin of safety is probably 100%

[gcarter]

Read on forum somewhere its only the cables that matter. Have a 3 year old 3000lb lift, want to buy a 3200lb boat, can I just get heavier cables?
Thanks

Unless you've actually weighed the boat, I'd probably add 500-700# to that number.
Folks are always leaving junk on the boat.

[Rodger]

Shore Station (brand name) capacity ratings are deceptive. If the unit is rated for 3600 lbs.; that is for even distribution...1800 lbs. at each end. We all know that, by far, the majority of the weight is at the tail end for an IO. At the Chicago Boat Show a number of years ago, a Shore Station factory rep told me that my 22 was overloading my 4000lb. Shore Station. He told me to use the lift very carefully...never shock-load it, keep extra weight, such as people, out of the boat when on the lift and only raise the lift as high as a single layer of cable on the winch spool will allow. Don't overlap the cable onto itself which doesn't allow me to raise the lift all the way up. For 13years it's been OK but I have changed the winch cable a couple times at first sign of fraying.

[dellsboater]

Why if you changed the cables did you not get thicker cables? Is not possible?

[Rodger]

Why if you changed the cables did you not get thicker cables? Is not possible?


To really upgrade cable capacity, I would need to change all the cables not just the winch cable. There are 4 cables for a Shore Station. The winch cable tends to fray after a while because it has to wind on the spool. The other cables don't have as much tendency to do that although I have seen them show signs of fraying on very old units. I don't think the pulleys will accept much larger diameter cable and maybe no increase in size at all...I'm not sure. On larger capacity lifts I believe the pulleys, sheaves and other hardware is also heavier duty. So, to upgrade capacity requires quite a bit.

[VetteLT193]

In my experience with lifts in general the cables are rarely the weak link. Assuming it is powered, the motors might be too weak.

More often than not though, the cross members are the weak link. The beams that run from one side to the other. The rear cross member will more than likely be your failure point. My Dad's Formula 34PC broke our lift, which was 20,000 pound capacity.

It wouldn't have been all that bad if the front of the boat was tied off to something strong, but it was not. So, it blew the back cross member into 2, and that made a ramp of sorts that launched the boat into the river. We were lucky because we were home and I had a sea doo at the time to retrieve it before it hit anything...

So... if you over weight your lift, at least tie off the boat well!

[dellsboater]

We have problem with the river rising, this summer or should I saw fall we had the highest water level in 50 years. Many boats floated off there lifts. Thanks god an old timer warned us years before to always tie it off to the peir as well.....