Hydraulic Boat Jacks

I'm in the process of completing a 31' Lake Michigan cruiser made of 5086 marine grade aluminum. It has been an excellent journey so far requiring numerous extra tools that I had to make for the fabrication. One necessity (if you don't have a large crane) is some method of lifting the boat so the trailer can be moved into place for fitting. Since I wanted to build a custom trailer I decided I needed to build the jacks to lift the boat. Commercial jacks are quite expensive, and rightly so, there is a lot of work and expense to make them. I figured I could fabricate a set which was a compilation of the best commercial designs. The pictures below are the jacks I built. I've substantially increased the thickness and size of some of the members to make them sturdier. The main post is 3 1/2" X 3 1/2" steel tube, 1/4" wall. The bases are 3/4" steel plate. The hydraulic jack boxes are 1/4 steel tig welded for strength. The rollers which ride along the support posts are 1 1/2" steel with bronze oilite bushings inside for bearings. Each jack is equipped with an 8 ton long stroke hydraulic jack from Northern Tool. The jacks have worked flawlessly, easily picking up a 7,000 boat like it wasn't even there. I had the jack assemblies hot dip galvanized to make them weather resistant in case they had to be left outside. All in, I built them for about a third of the cost of commercial models.

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Those jacks look great! Really well-made and obviously up to the task. We'll get them added to the site shortly.

As a boat homebuilder, you might be interested in perusing our companion site BoatBuilds.net - lots of great projects and ideas in there…

Have you got a website for the project? I'd love to follow along with your progress.

Ken

Ken, not sure if the last message was sent. I don't have a website but I do have lots of build pictures. Am going to be installing the windows and electrical work this spring.

Was going to mention BoatBuilds.net too. Three boat tools posted today; well done sir! :beer:

Thanks Iliketobuild! We've added your Hydraulic Boat Jack to our Jacks and Lifts category, as well as to your builder page: Iliketobuild's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

<div id="blocks"> <div class="block b1 pngfix"> <div class="bimg"> <div> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/hydraulic-boat-jack"><img src="http://www.homemadetools.net/uploads/137354/hydraulic-boat-jack.jpeg" /></a></div> </div> <div class="head pngfix"></div> <div class="left pngfix"></div> <div class="right pngfix"></div> <div class="blockover b1 pngfix"> <div class="title"> <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/hydraulic-boat-jack">Hydraulic Boat Jack</a> <span> by <a href="/builder/Iliketobuild">Iliketobuild</a></span> </div> <div class="tags">tags: <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/portable">portable</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/jack">jack</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/hydraulic">hydraulic</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/boat">boat</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/cylinder">cylinder</a>, <a href="http://www.homemadetools.net/tag/casters">caster(s)</a></div> </div> </div> </div>

Mr. Ililetobuild do you have the plans of your jack for sale? I’m interested.

Hi ,How can I have plans to use or my boat this great project?