Marine Travelift launches new Electric Series battery-powered mobile boat hoists

Photo: Marine Travelift

Sturgeon Bay, Wis.-based Marine Travelift has added electrically powered mobile boat hoists to its product line. It says that “after over two years of design, manufacturing and in-depth factory testing, the Electric Series performance is everything you would expect from a Marine Travelift machine without the emissions of a diesel engine.”

The company’s engineering team spent countless hours designing and perfecting the 700-volt battery powered system for the 50BFMII boat hoist, which has a 50 tonne lift capacity. “Our goal from day one was to design and build a zero-emissions boat hoist that not only met the quality of a diesel unit but has the same work capacity, ease of use and operational efficiency our customers have come to expect,” says Marine Travelift engineer Weston Wedeward. Power consumption was optimized to ensure the Electric Series met or exceeded the performance of the standard engine machine.

Every feature and option available on the diesel-powered boat hoists is also available on the Electric Series. The first E-Series machine was equipped with options such as electronic all-wheel steering, five-foot top beam extension, work/drive lights and 2-speed hoists to ensure the correct power requirement was chosen to accommodate all option configurations. Extensive performance testing was done over an 18-month period in various weather conditions, load configurations and travel distances to ensure optimal performance of the system in all working scenarios.

The hydraulic functions of the boat hoist are powered by a world leader in electric powered components and the batteries are manufactured in the United States. The system utilizes scalable DC fast charging interfaces from on-road electric vehicles to safely charge the batteries and a full charge can be accomplished in an 8-hour period with the recommended 30 kW high speed smart charger.

“In a normal marina setting a customers can expect to lift somewhere between 10 to 14 vessels in a day on a full charge,” says Kurt Minten, executive vice president at Marine Travelift. He added “They can also plug in the machine when idle throughout the day to further maximize the battery life and increase daily run time.”

The E-Series machines utilize multiple layers of safety features from the moment the machine is keyed to the ON position. High voltage junction boxes, isolation monitor, fuses and grounding straps are among the safety features that ensure that the operator and batteries are kept safe during every phase of operation. Both the batteries and electric motor are temperature regulated with a glycol cooling system to maintain a safe operating temperature, regardless of the ambient temperature.

“Sometimes we see new products in our industry rushed to market before they are ready and the customer has to essentially work through the testing and prototype phase,” says Minten. “There is a certain level of expectation when customers receive a Marine Travelift boat hoist, so we take that very seriously and dedicate the extra time to fully test everything. For this project we went as far as setting up the machine at a local marina to let them use it through the fall haul out season.”

• Established in 1954, Marine Travelift was specifically mentioned by U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in a letter she wrote to DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Maritime Administrator Ann Phillips last year stressing the need not to weaken Buy American requirements in relation to the Small Shipyard Grants program.