My neighbor is an engineer and I use his homemade system for floating/moving my lift. I'll try describing it, but it's pretty hard to describe. I'll be able to get pics in a few weeks - the pics will help - suddenly you'll see it and have that ah-ha moment!
Get some large sheets of styrofoam insulation (like they use on houses - pink or blue) - 4 foot X 8 foot, 2 or 3 inches thick. Cut each into strips about 18 inches inches wide. Glue several strips together until you end up with 8-foot long blocks about 18 inches by 18 inches. You'll need 2 of these - 1 for each side of the lift. (Depending on the size/weight of your lift you may need bigger blocks.)
Cut each block to length so that it fits in between the wheels of your lift, with a few inches of spare room. This is so the wheels can turn once you get it on land. So, at this point you have 2 blocks 18 inches by 18 inches by 6 or 7 feet (depends on how much space between the wheels.)
You need 2 sets of long
heavy duty straps. Each set should have some method of adjustably attaching together, that could be ratchet-style or the kind that loops through 2 rings.
Take the open end of a strap and
strongly attach it around the styrofoam blocks - you can rivet it, tie it, sew it, whatever. You want to have 2 straps on each block, near each end. Again, the straps have to be heavy duty and strongly attached to the blocks - there's a lot of force that the straps will need to hold. The weak link will be however the straps are attached around the blocks - neighbor had them sewn on but they ripped so now we just tie them.)
If you're puttinjg the lift in, the lifting bed should be up a couple feet. If you're taking out in the fall, make sure the lifting bed is down pretty low.
Place the styro blocks in between the wheels on the outside of the lift. Run each strap under the fixed bottom rail on the side, up over the lifting bed (what the boat sits on) and attach it to the strap from the other side (using the ratchet or looping rings.) What you're doing is attaching the ends of the 2 styro blocks together, running
under the lowest fixed rail and
over the lifting bed. Pull the straps as tight as you can. You should now have the 2 styro blocks attached to each other, side-to-side, with the straps running across the lift.
When you raise the lift bed up, the styro blocks are pulled down on the sides, floating the lift. When you want to set the lift in place, lower the lift bed and the styro blocks will raise up, sinking the lift down into place.
I also put an inner tube under the front and back lower fixed rails to help with stability - they keep the lift from tipping back & forth.
Not sure if this helps, but it's a cheap solution and really works great. The lift will float anywhere you want to take it, and raising/lowering the bed has the opposite effect on the lift - you can place the lift pretty precisely, and raise it up without killing yourself.
One more note - you want to have the wheels on the lift before you do the styro blocks - the wheels add a fair amount of floating power.
I'll post some pics once I can get at the neighbors stuff, but that will likely be a few weeks ... we still have at least 10 inches of ice on our lake
Hope this helps - it's cheap and easy, and will float pretty much anything if you use enough styro!
