Boat lift owners... boat lift width clearance?

[Moe Szyslak]

What would boat lift owners suggest as a minimum clearance between lift posts to boat beam? Is a 83 inch wide boat on a 87 inch width boat lift (between posts) too tight?

[leech~~]

It depends a lot on what kind of wave action you may get when your coming back in and if you want to put some foam padding on the uprights. I'm on a good size lake and when the wind and waves are up it's like trying to hold down a bull at a rodeo before I can crank her up on the bad days. I like having a little bigger opening to hit when riding the rollers on the way in.

[Moe Szyslak]

Im in a shallow section of the lake that is fairly blocked from wind. Rarely are their even waves that hit my shore...

[gunner55]

I'm with leech on this as we're on the SE end of the lake. While the bay is somewhat protected, when the NW wind blows it can get a little tricky. Both putting it on & taking it off the wind tends to turn the boat sideways so we have padded centering guides.I'm not sure of the exact dimensions but we must have at least 6 " on both sides with the boat cranked all the way up