Building a vertical lift for handicap boat assist

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Bugpac

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Lawrenceville Georgia
Ok, my buddy and I have been thinking hard about how to make a vertical lift to go from wheel chair height of about 18", to 44" curbside gunnel boat height. This wont lift the chair, it will be only a transfer seat. Any ideas Id love to hear. It is easy when you have a large group, such as a tournament, But I can not lift him in by myself. Way to dangerous if he is dropped. We want to build this with the KISS method.
 
here is a quick preliminary drawing, has feet out , and hangs on the trailer frame inside, goes from 23" to 44". Long ram hydraulic jack, Aka cherry picker cylinder. Just one idea so far.
 

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There are a lot of factors to be considered on this project. The height of dock in relation to height of boat and the length/width of your boat and available deck space. I seen a boat where they would tie the boat tight against the dock and use a ramp to roll the wheelchair in boat then assist the guy onto his boat seat.
It worked pretty good. I applaud you for going through the extra work so your friend can enjoy the great outdoors.
 
Kudos Bugpac for making sure a fishing pal can go fishing.

The seals in the cylinder won't last long without some outside mechanical support. It will have plenty of power but adding some some of track or rails to maintain the alignment will save the integrity of the hydraulic cylinder.

21" is not a long ways. Maybe copy a scissor jack? Tiny little jacks lift cars with only a simple screw. If you like the hydraulics, then use that.

Just throwing it out there.

Again, hats off to a commendable project and person.
 
Why not use a modified engine hoist. Instead of having a hook on the end of the boom, you just attach a seat. You could relocate the base mount for the cylinder down about a foot, then lower the boom hing point the same amount. That should put the lowered seat height within the limits you gave. If the existing units are too large, you could at least copy their design and scale it down. It's a proven design that could easily handle the weight, and is very stable while rolling that weight around after it's been lifted. And if you're going to be rolling it around on rougher surfaces, all you'd have to do is replace the existing wheels with a larger diameter wheel.

Hoist.jpg
 
Great comments guys, i have thought of 100 ways so far. This will always be used on dry land, he gets in prior to launch. My static trailer height should always be relatively the same. It wont be used a lot, 10-15 times a yr. he has his own boat as well, it sits much lower than mine and he's able to slide from a blocked up chair seat over the gunnel no problem. We need it portable, i did think about the cherry picker idea. Our other idea was a screw type trans jack mounted on a platform.
 

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