Twin Cities Docks and Lifts
Wake surf boat lifts on the Twin Cities lakes
A FLOE VSD 8000 does not hold 8,000 pounds. It holds 6,800. What a wake surf boat really weighs coming out of the water, and which of the three lifts takes it.
Does a VSD 8000 hold 8,000 pounds?
No. It holds 6,800.
FLOE rates the frame at 8,000, then asks that whatever you set on it stays under 85 percent of that. Both things are true and only one of them is printed on the label. So people buy an 8000 and figure they’ve got an 8,000 pound lift.
That 1,200 pounds you don’t get to use is not FLOE being careful with your money. It’s why these are still working in year twenty on a lake that freezes solid every winter. We just think you ought to know about it before you pick the model instead of after.
Here is the whole range with the math already done.
| Model | Rated | What you may actually load | What FLOE says it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| VSD 6500 | 6,500 lb | 5,525 lb | Large wakeboard and speed boats, medium sport fishers, small to medium cruisers |
| VSD 8000 | 8,000 lb | 6,800 lb | Large wakeboard and speed boats, medium sport fishers, small to medium cruisers |
| VSD 10000 Standard | 10,000 lb | 8,500 lb | Larger surf boats |
| VSD 10000 Wide | 10,000 lb | 8,500 lb | FLOE publishes no application line for this one. Ours: 10 ft wide pontoons and custom boats |
What does that leave for a 24 foot surf boat?
About 560 pounds.
Blake runs a Centurion Ri245. Centurion lists it at 5,700 pounds dry with an 89 gallon tank. Drained, with fuel in it, call the boat 6,240. His lift is a VSD 8000, so his real number is 6,800.
That leaves 560 pounds. Two batteries, the boards on the tower, ropes, vests, a cooler somebody filled at the gas station, and whatever water never quite pumped out. On a runabout you’d never think about it. On this boat it’s the whole thing, which is why we start by asking what you keep on board instead of which model you were looking at.
| Feature | Centurion Ri230 | Centurion Ri245 |
|---|---|---|
| Dry weight | 5,500 lb | 5,700 lb |
| Fuel | 81 gal, about 495 lb | 89 gal, about 545 lb |
| Drained, with fuel | about 6,000 lb | about 6,240 lb |
| What’s left on a VSD 8000 | about 800 lb spare | about 560 lb spare |
Is a 6500 enough for a 5,500 pound boat?
No, and this is the one that catches good people.
A 6500 gives you 5,525 pounds. A 23 foot Ri230 is 5,500 dry with an 81 gallon tank, so about 6,000 coming out of the water. You’re over before a single board goes on the rack.
That’s not a careless mistake to make. You compared a published dry weight against a published rating and both numbers are real. The two that are missing are the fuel and the 85 percent, and neither one is on a brochure.
There’s a second limit sitting under the first one, and it catches boats that ride heavy at the back. No single main beam carries more than its share: 3,250 pounds on the 6500, 4,000 on the 8000, 5,000 on the 10000. You can be fine on the total and still be over on one beam.
What actually changes when you go up a size?
Not the width. That one surprises almost everybody.
The VSD 6500, the VSD 8000 and the VSD 10000 Standard are the same box. All three are 135 inches outside and 116 inches inside, and all three take the same guide-ins at the same widths. Going from a 6500 to an 8000 buys capacity and nothing else at all. Same size lift, same canopy sizes, same bunks.
Then there is the fourth one, and its name is the problem. FLOE catalogs a plain <strong>VSD 10000</strong> alongside the <strong>VSD 10000 Standard</strong>, which reads like a capacity ladder and is not one. Both are rated 10,000 pounds. The difference is beam: 147 inches outside and 131 inside against 135 and 116, and 1,010 pounds of frame against 796. Twelve inches of width and 214 pounds of aluminum buy beam, not capacity. We call it the <strong>VSD 10000 Wide</strong> on this site, and that is FLOE’s own wording rather than ours: their installation library files the matching guide-in kits under “VSD6000 to 10000 Wide” and “VSD6500 to VSD10000 Wide”. It is the name the factory uses on the shop floor and the one a buyer would actually type. Only the catalog front end calls it the plain VSD 10000.
One more thing about the wide ten, and it is the part that catches people at order rather than at quote. It takes a 28, 32 or 34 foot canopy and nothing shorter. Every other lift in the VSD range starts at 22. So a boat that would otherwise sit under a 24 foot canopy is committed to a 28 foot one: more fabric, more sail area in a wind, and a bigger object standing between the house and the water. If you want a short canopy over a 10,000 pound boat, the lift you want is the 10000 Standard.
Step up again to the 10000 Standard and you get the capacity and nothing else. Same 135 inches outside, same 116 inside, same 131 long, same 35 inches of leg travel. Width is not something you can shop for on this range, and neither is length, which is worth knowing before you figure a bigger number means a bigger lift.
If your boat is wide rather than heavy, that is a different problem and a different lift. Call us and we will talk about it, because the answer is not on this page.
All three are vertical screw drive machines, and how the ball screw and the bunk rails actually work is on the vertical boat lift page.
| Feature | VSD 6500 | VSD 8000 | VSD 10000 Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outside width | 135″ | 135″ | 135″ |
| Inside width | 116″ | 116″ | 116″ |
| Outside length | 131″ | 131″ | 131″ |
| Frame weight | 731 lb | 731 lb | 796 lb |
| Leg travel | 35″ | 35″ | 35″ |
Should you just buy the biggest lift?
No. Buy for the boat you expect to own in three years, then stop.
Going past that is not free out here, but what it costs is money rather than room. The 6500, the 8000 and the 10000 Standard are all 131 inches long and all 135 inches wide. What you are buying is the rating and 65 pounds more frame, 796 against 731. Paying for capacity you will never use buys you nothing you can see, which is a different argument from the one most dealers will give you, and it is the true one. If you genuinely need a wider opening, that is the VSD 10000 Wide at 147 inches, and it is a different lift rather than a bigger number.
You do feel the extra weight, on install day, on removal day and on a soft bottom. None of it does a thing for a boat that already fit the 8000.
FLOE’s own line for the 10000 Standard is larger surf boats, and that is exactly what it is for. It is not a safer version of the 8000.
What is different about lifting a surf boat?
The tower, and it decides your canopy before anything decides your lift.
A tower with racks and speakers on it stands well above the windshield, so a canopy either clears it or it doesn’t go on at all. A MAXIS™ raises on its own frame instead of resting on the boat, so it goes up and over. That’s what you’re looking at below. Canopy standing clear, tower and racks and speakers underneath it with room left over.
The rest of it is that the boat was built for something that has nothing to do with sitting on a lift. Ballast tanks, a hull shaped to throw a wake or wave, weight carried low and back for displacement. All of that is good for the wave. All of it is still there at the end of the night.
What is the boat doing the rest of the time?
About 11 miles an hour, in 17 feet of water.
Those come straight off Blake’s helm: 11.1 on cruise against an 11.0 set point, 3,500 rpm, 17 feet under the boat, Quick Surf up on the second screen. Slow, deep, and a long way from anybody’s dock.
Here’s the part that decides your lift. The ballast comes out. Everything that carries the ballast doesn’t. The tanks, the pumps, the plumbing and the weight built in low and back to hold a wave up all stay right where they are. That’s why a surf boat and a runabout that measure the same on a tape want different lifts.
What about wakeboard boats and ski boats?
Every wake boat does all of it. Board, surf, tube, ski, foil. Some are built to be better at one of them and some are balanced, but they all do the list.
Here is the honest reason you hear both words, and why we mostly say wakeboard boat. Most people have never watched anybody surf behind a boat. Say surf and they picture the ocean. Say wakeboard and they know what you mean. It is the same boat either way, and the one on this page is a surf boat you can wakeboard behind.
For the lift, none of that matters. Where you put the ballast and how fast you go changes the sport. It does not change what the boat weighs coming out of the water, and that is the only number the lift is interested in. That is also why FLOE’s line for the 6500 and the 8000 reads large wakeboard and speed boats, and why those are the same two lifts a surf boat picks between.
A ski boat is the one that really is different. It is built to pull a flat wake instead of a big one, so it carries little or no ballast and it is lighter than anything above. FLOE sends it to the smaller end of the range.
If you are deciding between a ski boat and a wake boat, size the lift for the boat you will own in three years. The lift outlasts the boat, comfortably.
Which wake boats does this apply to?
All of them. The lift doesn’t care what badge is on the side. It cares what the boat weighs coming out of the water and how wide it is across the beam, and every builder on this list publishes both numbers on their own site.
These are the wake and surf boats we set lifts under: Anthem, ATX, Axis, Centurion, Heyday, Malibu, MasterCraft, MB Sports, Montara, Moomba, Nautique, Pavati, Sanger, Supra, Supreme, Tige and Varatti.
Find your model on the builder’s site, take the dry weight and the fuel capacity, and you’re most of the way to the right lift. Send us both numbers and your address and we’ll do the rest of it.
How we set these up on our ten lakes
On Forest Lake the surf boats sit out at the end of long dock runs, 200 feet of it in places, on 8,000 pound lifts with Perfect Park™ guidance and a MAXIS™ canopy over the top. That’s the setup across all three basins.
Guidance earns its money as the boat gets heavier. On a light boat guide-ins are a nice thing to have. On a six thousand pound hull with the wind behind you they’re how the boat lands on the bunks in the same spot every time, which keeps the weight sitting where the frame was built to take it.
Depth is the other one, and it’s the first thing we measure. How much water you’ve got at the end of the dock decides the leg kit before capacity decides anything, and it’s the most common reason a lift that looked right on paper is wrong on a shoreline.
Give us the address. We will tell you which of these three it is, and why.
Wake boat lift questions we actually get asked
What size boat lift do I need for a wake surf boat?
For most 23 to 25 foot surf boats it is a FLOE VSD 8000. Work from the drained weight with fuel and gear on board rather than the dry weight on the brochure, then hold the total under 85 percent of the rating the way FLOE asks. That makes a VSD 8000 a 6,800 pound lift. A 24 foot boat at about 6,240 pounds drained leaves you roughly 560 pounds for everything you keep aboard.
Does a VSD 8000 really only hold 6,800 pounds?
For sizing, yes. The frame is rated at 8,000 and FLOE asks that the loaded total stays under 85 percent of the rating, which is 6,800. The other 1,200 pounds is room the factory built in on purpose, and spending it is how a lift gets old early.
Why does the weight on my trailer sticker not answer this?
Because it is a dry boat. Nobody lifts a boat with the ballast in, but the tank is still full and the boat is still loaded, and on a 24 foot surf boat the fuel alone is about 550 pounds before anything else goes aboard. Dry weight and lifted weight are two different numbers, and the space between them is where sizing goes wrong.
Does a wake surf boat need a special canopy?
It needs one that clears the tower. A MAXIS™ raises on its own frame instead of resting on the boat, so it goes up and over a wake tower with the racks and speakers still on it. Size the canopy off total boat length including the motor and add at least 2 feet. One thing worth knowing before you shop online: the lift warranty is void if the fabric isn’t FLOE’s own.
Do I need a guide-in system on a heavy boat?
On a surf boat, yes. Guide-ins on a light boat are a nice thing to have. On a six thousand pound hull in a crosswind they’re what puts the boat on the bunks in the same spot every time, which keeps the weight where the frame expects it. Perfect Park™ is what goes under the surf boats we set up on Forest Lake.
Do you work on brands other than Centurion?
Yes. The lift doesn’t care what badge is on the boat, only what it weighs drained and how wide it is. We set lifts under Anthem, ATX, Axis, Centurion, Heyday, Malibu, MasterCraft, MB Sports, Montara, Moomba, Nautique, Pavati, Sanger, Supra, Supreme, Tige and Varatti. Send us the dry weight and the fuel capacity off the builder’s own site along with your address and we’ll size it.