NuCraft/Craftlander Lifts

[Vikingstaff]

Anyone have any experience with NuCraft lifts?  How do they compare to other lifts for quality?  My dealer said they sell the following package for the 24' S-series SSBXP 200hp Mercury, SPS Tritoon I have on order: 


"4,500lb Nu Craft brand hoist and canopy made right here in Roscommon county. Lift Mate 12 Volt drive with remote, solar panel, 10 watt, battery tray and DC24 battery. As mentioned below price is $9,514.00."


[SIZE=14.666666984558105px]Does that seem like a fair price for what's in the lift package, and what I would need?   [/SIZE] :huh:  


[SIZE=14.666666984558105px]I have searched the forum for lifts, and read most all of the posts.  Don't recall coming across anything on NuCraft lifts, and I am hoping someone has knowledge and insight into them.[/SIZE]  I am also open to other suggestions if you are familiar with NuCraft, but think something else would be better for the price...or for less money.  


Pushing 10k seems like a crazy amount, but I am interested in a lift, canopy, and powered hoist, so I am guessing there is nothing cheap about going for all of that.     Thanks in advance for any thoughts and input. 

 

[Pittsburgh]

        I too have been in the market for a lift and was shocked to hear 10,000 for a motor driven AC Power lift with canopy. Sounds like you are getting a much better product than was presented to me. I am in contact with a marina who services a multitude of Lakes , he said he could find what I need for half the cost USED. We will see this summer if he delivers. Something like below would be perfect for my needs but with the motor driven lift.

 

[goldnrod24]

Anyone have any experience with NuCraft lifts?  How do they compare to other lifts for quality?  My dealer said they sell the following package for the 24' S-series SSBXP 200hp Mercury, SPS Tritoon I have on order: 


"4,500lb Nu Craft brand hoist and canopy made right here in Roscommon county. Lift Mate 12 Volt drive with remote, solar panel, 10 watt, battery tray and DC24 battery. As mentioned below price is $9,514.00."


[SIZE=14.666666984558105px]Does that seem like a fair price for what's in the lift package, and what I would need?   [/SIZE] :huh:  


[SIZE=14.666666984558105px]I have searched the forum for lifts, and read most all of the posts.  Don't recall coming across anything on NuCraft lifts, and I am hoping someone has knowledge and insight into them.[/SIZE]  I am also open to other suggestions if you are familiar with NuCraft, but think something else would be better for the price...or for less money.  


Pushing 10k seems like a crazy amount, but I am interested in a lift, canopy, and powered hoist, so I am guessing there is nothing cheap about going for all of that.     Thanks in advance for any thoughts and input. 

How reliable is NuCraft? How long in business? Can you sniff around the lake and see who has one? I'm a fan of local businesses, but only if their quality and service compares with the big dogs.


I usually go back to the old adage, "Quality, Service, Price. Pick two."


Can you walk into their factory with a busted whatever and get fixed up? Or do you have to deal with a dealer 5 miles down the road that might as well be 500 miles down that same road?

 

[lakeliving]

I have one and love it! I did have an issue with the pulleys shortly after installation and they came right out and jumped in the water to replace them. Here is how mine is setup which has their custom load guides and 3 sets of 12' bunks. I have a 28' canopy which is just long enough. It's the 4500 capacity, 10' wide model you are mentioning. I have the high top canopy with the end that zippers open if needed. Overall I am very happy with the lift and customer service through nucraft/craftlander. Mine is only a manual lift but it works great for me. One day I'll upgrade to a DC setup. We're going to be going on our 4th season in a couple months with it.


If you zoon in you'll see I have bunks used as loading guides as well so I have no carpet or maintenance.

My friends dad has a craftlander and he is happy with his as well.

 

[Michiman]

There you have it, another satisfied customer!

 

[lakeliving]

The place we got the lift from was a garbage outfit come to find out but the manufacturer stepped up and took care of us directly. Made me a customer for life.

 

[Pittsburgh]

 

[Vikingstaff]

How reliable is NuCraft? How long in business? Can you sniff around the lake and see who has one? I'm a fan of local businesses, but only if their quality and service compares with the big dogs.


I usually go back to the old adage, "Quality, Service, Price. Pick two."


Can you walk into their factory with a busted whatever and get fixed up? Or do you have to deal with a dealer 5 miles down the road that might as well be 500 miles down that same road?

I feel good about both our local cottage area dealer and the direct company (which is also local for our cottage) from a service and support perspective.  They seem like a good quality lift and materials, but then we are new to boats and lifts, so I am not at all a good judge.  I hear a lot about other companies like Shoremaster, and others, but had not heard anything substantial about NuCraft outside of this area.  Around our cottage they are pretty highly regarded, and their local which is always a plus in my book.  However, I was concerned that there might be local bias, and was hoping for outsiders opinions if any have had them, or know of them.

 

[Vikingstaff]

I have one and love it! I did have an issue with the pulleys shortly after installation and they came right out and jumped in the water to replace them.


My friends dad has a craftlander and he is happy with his as well.

Thank you Lakeliving.  This is very reassuring, and your picture is a huge bonus!  If it were spring, I'd try to bribe you with beer for the opportunity to check it out in person before making a decison.     I haven't gotten any good pictures from our dealer (Spicer's out of H.L.) yet.  I also like that you have an almost identical pontoon to what we have ordered, and that you have the lift being recommended to us by our boat dealer.  It looks very good in your pictures (as does that very nice pontoon of yours!), and your endorsement is very much appreciated.  I am certainly keeping this NuCraft as a possibility on our short list.  


It seems like your canopy comes down nicely on the sides.  Do you find that really nice for helping keep the boat in the shade, and better protected? It seems like a very nice canopy too.


I also need to follow up with the company making our dock - MADS just north of Harrison, MI.  They deal with Shoremaster and two other brands.  They were pushing the Shoremaster as my best option in November. I need to follow up with them on specifics now that I have our boat on order.  Back in November everything was "hypothetical", so they couldn't quote many anything specific with a specific boat model, make and size.

 

[lakeliving]

No beer necessary to take a look! If your going to be out this way let me know. Our lake level is down 3'  for the winter so right now you can walk right around it and see everything. 

 

[Vikingstaff]

No beer necessary to take a look! If your going to be out this way let me know. Our lake level is down 3'  for the winter so right now you can walk right around it and see everything. 

I will PM you. I appreciate the opportunity to check it out.  Another follow up as you have a 24' S-series with a 200hp - similar to what we are getting.  I (insert my wife...lol) would be curious about fuel consumption per hour.  I realize there are a lot of variables, and we are getting a 200 hp Mercury Verado instead of the Yamaha F200 you have, but I figure your numbers are probably a good enough ball park.  


My wife asked about cruising and WOT GPH.  I looked at her like your curious about GPH?...all I've been thinking about is MPH.    That's what happens when you are married to an accountant.  

 

[goldnrod24]

She's too smart for your own good!

 

[goldnrod24]

Tell her it gets 500 SPG. Smiles per gallon!

 

[JTaylor]

Another follow up as you have a 24' S-series with a 200hp - similar to what we are getting.  I (insert my wife...lol) would be curious about fuel consumption per hour.  I realize there are a lot of variables, and we are getting a 200 hp Mercury Verado instead of the Yamaha F200 you have, but I figure your numbers are probably a good enough ball park.  

I have a similar boat and it uses 4 GPH at the best cruise setting of 3000 RPM (speed is around 17 MPH).  I've found my speeds and gas usage very closely tracks with the Yamaha Performance Bulletins.  I just google'd them again and see that the WOT fuel flow for a 200hp on a similar boat is listed at 18 GPH, not that I spend a lot of time cruising at WOT.  This should give you that ballpark point of comparison.  

 

[Vikingstaff]

I have a similar boat and it uses 4 GPH at the best cruise setting of 3000 RPM (speed is around 17 MPH).  I've found my speeds and gas usage very closely tracks with the Yamaha Performance Bulletins.  I just google'd them again and see that the WOT fuel flow for a 200hp on a similar boat is listed at 18 GPH, not that I spend a lot of time cruising at WOT.  This should give you that ballpark point of comparison.  

Thanks for taking the time to share this with me and look into it.  I followed up, and found what I think was a similar Mercury performance bulletin.  It looks like the Merc's are basically the same.  Gives us some good ballpark efficiency numbers to plan for.

 

[JTaylor]

It's a very efficient cruiser -- with the 32 gal fuel tank you can go a long time on 1 tank of gas.  Love it!

 

[tcpip95]

With my boat and the tritoon SPS w/Yamaha F150 and full lifting strakes, my optimal is 4 GPH, with just under 4 MPG, at 3150 RPM.  This is on a flat GoM, on a nice day.  Typically I get about 3.4 MPG at this speed though.  At WOT I'm doing about 33 MPH, 15 GPH and just about 2 MPG at 5,800 RPM.  With my combined 51 gallons of fuel I could stretch it out to about 125-130 miles of range on full tanks.

 

[Michiman]

My advise is to not think about fuel consumption specifically. Just like most any activity, there are costs associated with doing things. I can tell you that we typically burn about 15 gallons a day, with the majority of the time spent sitting at a sand bar. HL is a fairly good sized lake, so just going from one end to the other is quite a distance. If we happen to be tubing/skiing/wakeboarding we could burn twice that (depending of course on how much we're doing).


Personally, I keep a half-tank (approx. 25 gal) as my base-line. Each day we go out, I stop at the gas station and fill three five gallon cans. If it's a normal day, I end up back around half a tank. If we end up doing a lot of water sports, I've still got plenty of reserve. I've rescued my share of boaters who have run dry so I do my best not to join that club.


IMO, boating is not an inexpensive passion but one worth every penny!

 

[Vikingstaff]

She's too smart for your own good!

That's for sure!   :huh:

 

[Vikingstaff]

Personally, I keep a half-tank (approx. 25 gal) as my base-line. Each day we go out, I stop at the gas station and fill three five gallon cans. If it's a normal day, I end up back around half a tank. If we end up doing a lot of water sports, I've still got plenty of reserve. I've rescued my share of boaters who have run dry so I do my best not to join that club.

I really love the advice Michiman since you are on the same lake.  Your experience and advice is very helpful to us.  So to follow you on this: You top off for the day when going out on the water, AND carry three 5 gallon cans as back up?  A half tank is base line in regards to what you would normally expect to go through in a normal day, but maybe pushing twice that if doing a lot of water sports? Do you have some 5 gallon cans that fit under a couple of the seats and are strapped down somehow as your backup?  Am I misunderstanding anything?