MAXIS™ Boat Lift Canopies

Not with a MAXIS™. The frame tilts up at the touch of a button, so the tower stays where it is. Blake runs one on his own dock on Forest Lake, over an 8,000 lb lift with a wake boat under it. He’s never folded the tower down. He covers the boat for pollen season and mayflies, and that’s it.

On a trailer you fold the tower once, when you get home. On the lake you’re in and out five times a day, and every one of those is somebody folding a tower before the boat goes up. It doesn’t take many weekends of that before the boat just stays in the water and the canopy you paid for stops getting used.

64" against 32". Both of those are side coverage, which is how far the fabric comes down the sides of the boat, and neither is headroom under the frame. FLOE publishes the coverage figures and does not publish a clearance figure for either canopy. So if what you’re really asking is whether your tower or your radar arch clears, we would rather measure your boat against the frame than hand you a number that answers a different question.

No. The 18" canopy extension is an AIRMAX option and FLOE does not offer it on the MAXIS. That’s worth knowing at order time if side coverage is the whole point of the purchase, because the MAXIS starts at 64" and stays there, while an AIRMAX starts at 32" and can be taken up by another eighteen.

Total boat length including the motor, plus a minimum of 2 feet. That’s FLOE's own sizing rule and it applies to both lift canopies. It’s set at order rather than on install day, so the measurement to get right is the one on the paperwork.

You can, and it voids the warranty on your lift. FLOE states that the lift warranty is void if the lift does not use FLOE original canopy fabric, so an aftermarket cover is not a canopy decision, it’s a lift decision. Worth knowing before you price a cover somewhere else.

Canopy fabric carries a 5 year prorated warranty. The 15 year figure on the headline is the limited warranty on docks and lifts, and it means 2 years full parts and labor and parts only after that. Aluminum structure is 100 percent on parts through year ten and prorated from eleven to fifteen. Fabric sits in the 5 year prorated group along with winches, cables, ball screws and solar panels. Labor is covered within 40 miles, original purchaser only, private use only.

Hose it off monthly through the season and deep clean it every 2 to 3 years. After a thorough cleaning, or after about 5 years, re-treat the fabric with 303 High Tech Fabric Guard, which is what FLOE's manuals call for. Read the label before you start: 303 is flammable, it needs 70 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer, and it wants clean dry fabric and 12 to 24 hours to cure. One more reason to keep on top of it’s that FLOE requires canopy fabric to be cleaned before a warranty return, or a $100 cleaning charge applies.

The tilting frame is there to clear a tower or an arch. If there’s nothing tall on your boat, you’re paying for a mechanism you’ll never use. The coverage is still real. 64" of side coverage against 32" is a lot more shade down the sides, and if you’re buying a canopy to keep the August sun off the seats, that’s not money wasted. What you don’t get is the 18" side extension, which FLOE offers on the AIRMAX and not on this one. Tell us the boat and how it sits on the lift and we’ll tell you which way we’d go.