Repair, not replacement
Dock builders on the lake sell and install new lifts. A lift that already works most of the way usually does not need replacing; it needs the part that is wearing found and fixed. Finding that part — a cable, a pulley, a winch, a bunk — is mechanic work, and the same diagnose-before-you-buy approach used on engines.
Cables, pulleys and winches
The lifting cable carries the whole weight of the boat every time it goes up. Broken strands that stick out, rust staining, a flattened section where it wraps the drum, or a cable that has jumped a pulley are all reasons to stop using the lift until it is looked at. If a cable fails under load, the boat drops.
Pulleys wear too — the bearings, and the grooves the cable rides in. A worn groove will chew up a brand-new cable. Hand winches and gearboxes wear their teeth and their brakes. A winch that slips back, or grinds as it turns, is telling you which part's going.
Bunks, cradles and a boat that sits wrong
The bunks and bunk boards are what the hull actually sits on. Let them get loose or rotten, or set at the wrong height, and the boat ends up perched on a few points instead of spread out. Crooked on the lift? Rocks when somebody climbs aboard? That's usually why. Re-setting the bunks to the hull is a small job, and you'll feel the difference.
Bent frames and aluminum repairs
Ice, a hard landing or a lift raised against something it should not have been all bend aluminum members. Some bends straighten out. A member that's cracked or broken gets welded or replaced — and since aluminum welding is part of the same service, a cracked bracket on a lift doesn't mean waiting for a second trade.
Seasonal checks for a lift that stays in
Lifts on this lake spend the winter in ice or pulled for it, and both are hard on them. A look over the cables, pulleys, winch and bunks at spring commissioning, before the boat is lifted for the first time, is the least costly moment to find a problem on a lift.