Question about bunks on boat lift. Please help.

I just got permission to use my neighbors boat lift and slip this summer since he sold his boat and will be out of town till December! Good for me!

My question is that he had an I/O, should I need to move the bunks on the lift to better accomodate my boat (inboard) or should it work the same?

Check the width of bunks to accomodate for prop, strut, shaft, tracking fins, water intakes, and speedo pickups. All of these items are located from middle to rear of boat. Try to keep the bunks semi-parallel down the length of the lift to ensure even weight distribution and compensate for drift. Good width measurement reference is the rear of your boat trailer. Good Luck........

What about height? I'm worried about pulling onto the bunks and smacking the prop or the shaft.

Most people I know do 1 of 2 things. Hydrohoist recommends using guide ropes that attach to the rear cleats or transom of your boat that you can use to measure how far you should pull your boat up. Once they are clipped on the boat you just hold the nose of the boat back and keep tension on the ropes until the lift starts to raise the boat.
The other trick is to just put a mark on the lift where a certain part of the boat should not pass. Meaning a small spot of paint or tape that the swim deck should not be in front of. Something like that.

The key thing is to measure your boat while out of the water. I just put my boat on my new lift last week. Before launching I put tape on the topside where the Strut, prop and rudder were. Then I slowly raised the lift making sure the taped areas stayed behind the crossbeams. Once up I adjusted my guide ropes and all is well.
I know it sounds like common sense, but you really should turn the boat off once you are halfway over the lift. Just in case the boat drifts too far over the lift.

very true, lehmur. unless you have a dock crew, you'll have to jump up and guide it in....you don't want to pull in under power. i usually get the nose in, drifting not with gas, kill the engine and guide it in by hand. go slowly, you don't want to slam into anything.

you should be able to tell what kind of clearance your prop will have by raising the lift all the way out of the water. lay a board horizontally across the lift, above the prop guard area, and measure down to the cross-support. compare that to your trailer or measure your boat to see if you have enough room.