My parents have a neighbor at their cabin that has his boat stuck on his lift. The water level has dropped so much that he can’t lower his lift enough to get it off. My thought was to get the under side as wet as he can and pull it off with another boat. He didn’t like this idea. Anyone else have a better idea?
Dig around the lift to allow it to drop lower and hopefully float the boat off. If it is rock he is SOL
There was a video floating around of a guy on Mille Lacs doing 6 boats. He got a large inner tube, filled it and put a piece of plywood across it. He then lowered the motor and used the lower unit to get the weight of the boat off the lift and then pushed / pulled it back. Once the weight would teeter the boat into the water they got the tube and wood out and backed the boat off. The video is floating around somewhere.
No idea’s but I heard this is a huge problem on several lakes with some real big boats.
I’m in the same boat, I can almost move mine by myself, so I’m going to try two guys in the water pushing, and me on the throttle in reverse with the motor trimmed up a bit. I am lucky to have depth if I move the lift out a few more feet for this year. We need rain!!!!! My heart hurts for the farmers around here.
Dig around the lift to allow it to drop lower and hopefully float the boat off. If it is rock he is SOL
This has worked in the past for us. Alot of work but digging the four posts down seems to help, and then you get some guys to push the boat off.
Use a pressure washer to blast material out from under the legs of the lift until you can get the boat off.
My parents have a neighbor at their cabin that has his boat stuck on his lift.
Hey Rodwork where’s the cabin at? There is some good news on the rain front. Areas of eastern MN and western WI may receive up to 6 inches of rain by next Monday.
There was a video floating around of a guy on Mille Lacs doing 6 boats. He got a large inner tube, filled it and put a piece of plywood across it. He then lowered the motor and used the lower unit to get the weight of the boat off the lift and then pushed / pulled it back. Once the weight would teeter the boat into the water they got the tube and wood out and backed the boat off. The video is floating around somewhere.
Saw that video somewhere as well, and seemed like the correct type of redneck ingenuity the job called for. 
Had this issue on Leech Lake. We (2 guys) got the boat as wet as possible underneath and then pushed from the bow. Luckily we got the boat off.
We had to move the lift out deeper.
I have seen first hand (Battle Lake) people with the same problem. A few places had their lifts a quarter mile out all alone… Seemed very dangerous for boaters at night. Didn’t know if there was a beacon or some sort of hazard lights.
There was a video floating around of a guy on Mille Lacs doing 6 boats. He got a large inner tube, filled it and put a piece of plywood across it. He then lowered the motor and used the lower unit to get the weight of the boat off the lift and then pushed / pulled it back. Once the weight would teeter the boat into the water they got the tube and wood out and backed the boat off. The video is floating around somewhere.
No video and a few more years back but same principle. Inflate something or more than one something underneath. My uncle used a tube right under the stern. Remove any unnecessary weight from the boat.
You can pull with another boat. If it only needs a little help that’s one thing. If it needs more torque you risk damage to the bunk posts, bunks. they aren’t meant to flex laterally. If it needs a ton of torque, sorry to hear.
My boat came off the lift two weeks ago. It’s now trailered in and out for the rest of the season. We got it before big hassle was required.
Family fishhawk is sitting on a dock at leech completely out of the water.
Yikes.
Several of us and several cases of beer will come up with some type of solution next weekend when we go up on a rescue mission
The water has slowly been dropping all year… I can’t believe some people don’t use their boat enough to realize hey this is progressively getting more and more difficult to get off…
We didn’t even put the lift in the water it was so low from the getgo. But regardless, you’re in trouble. Get the bottom of the boat wet, get an auger that is meant to hold big boats in the water. These screw into the bottom. Or get a really good digger anchor if you have really hard ground. Then get a come-along and get some tension on it and start wiggling the boat back and forth. It should start moving. Keep someone near the come-along and keep tightening as someone keeps shaking the boat.
We’ve used a tow strap and a side x side to pull someone’s boat off a lift. It’s an extremely shallow Shoreline for about 150 yards and we could drive a Wheeler basically to the drop off.
Would a dock service safely be able to budge a lift with a boat on it using one of those big pontoon barges with the hydraulic lift? Or would the added weight of the boat pretty much make it too front heavy?
Use a pressure washer to blast material out from under the legs of the lift until you can get the boat off.
^^^ this works extremely well! No effort.
DTW
Done the inner tube thing to float the lift out in the spring. Go to tractor supply and get a couple that will fit under and fill er up! Should work to get it off.
I have seen first hand (Battle Lake) people with the same problem. A few places had their lifts a quarter mile out all alone… Seemed very dangerous for boaters at night. Didn’t know if there was a beacon or some sort of hazard lights.
Was around West battle over the weekend, if people figure out how to get their boats off the lifts then they will also need to find an access other than the main public one on the West side. It is extremely shallow right now.
Get the bow end of the lift tipped up a foot or two to ramp it down. Get a couple of the long heavy duty 2inch wide ratchet straps, attach one end of each to the bow eye and the other end to a solid piece of structure on each side the stern end of the lift(so the straps are in a ‘V’ formation). Wet the bunks well and start ratcheting each side equally. Will need to reposition the strap in the ratchets a few times but should be able to walk it off.
Fingers crossed for rain, but I’m going to be dealing with this in the next 2 weeks. Our pontoon and my BIL’s boat are getting tough to get off their lifts. At our lake, I’ve resorted to launching and walking my boat about 100 yards before I let the FW put it in gear. Gotta keep my prop/prop repair budget under $1k for the summer. 
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