After looking over our finances and graciously passing on my new bathroom, Gary finally got his lift.  We had several people come out to give us bids.  It is funny how each person has their own idea on what we needed.  A few said a 10,000 lb lift would work, one said he wouldn’t install any lift on our pilings as they were too small and another said we needed a 13,000 lb lift but we needed 10 inch around pilings.  We only had 8 1/2.  Gary came up with the idea of adding another 8 1/2 inch piling so we could have the 13K lift.  Eureka!  What a wonderful idea!  So a decision was made.

We signed the contract before we left up north with the understanding they would wait till we returned.  On January 2nd, our lift was delivered

Oh Boy!

Then we had to find a place to put the boat while they worked in our slip.  Luckily we have a guest spot  and our boat fits real good there.

The next day, two guys came out to install the lift.  Hmmmm, it only took one guy to take the old one down.   

These new guys had to first put two big boards out to walk across 

and put the lift on the piling.  Notice the third pilings are missing?  They are going to be air jack in later because they can’t get a barge in between the two dock fingers to drive the pilings in. (And of course I had to go do taxes so I missed that part and Gary was so busy telling them to straighten out the pilings that he didn’t get ANY pictures.  Man!  The coolest part of the insulation and we have no pictures.  I’ll have to get a better back up photographer 😉 )

Next they carried the cross bars down the docks 

and then they string the cable thru the top beam  

and then string the cable thru the bottom beams 

Once they were done with both sides….I was still at taxes so I had to rely on Gary for more pictures.  He got this one picture of the finished product

Finished lift

I found this picture of our old lift

Old lift

Can you see the difference between the two lifts?  See the one on the bottom has those big white boxes on the front poles?  That is where the motor is to lift the boat.  See the lift above it?  The motors are on the top of the piling.  With our boat, we have very little room between the poles so we couldn’t have those big white boxes, the boat wouldn’t fit.  See our nice aluminum bunks instead of wood.  So many upgrades.  As you can see, a much better more beefier lift.

So now that the lift is installed, we have to wait for the next guy to come to adjust the lift for the boat. So…..sit tight