“Several years ago, I saw a Caldwell Posi-Turner being used at another boat plant. It seemed to perfectly solve the issue of flipping the boat parts once they come off the mould,” said Bill Kenner, co-founder, K2 Marine, which owns BlackJack Boats and Frontier Boats.
“These pieces are not heavy but are cumbersome to turn over with manpower and normal hoists. The turn of these parts constituted some risk to the individuals turning the part and it was common for damage to be done to the pieces in the process of turning them over.”
K2 Marine builds about 250 boats per year, sold through 20 independent dealerships, from New Jersey to South Florida and along the Gulf Coast into Texas.
“Each boat requires one to two pieces to be turned over from the original upside-down position that is built, weighing from 500lbs to 1,000lbs. These pieces are then assembled to build a complete boat. The hull of the boat is built similarly but does not need to be flipped over. A complete boat would weigh between 1,800-3,000lbs, depending on the model,” said Kenner.
“We ordered a RLL-2MP-180SP Posi-Turner with twin bails, capacity 2,000lbs, matched up with two CM 1.0-ton hoists. The order was part of an overall plant expansion at K2 Marine and took six months to complete the total project.
“The main challenges regarding installation included proper measurements of the part that would be rotated and what length of straps would be required. Caldwell helped with this and when the first set proved to be too long, they came to the rescue and provided the proper length required.”
Kenner continued: “Use of the Posi-Turner has proved to be a time saver, turning the parts over with less damage with fewer people involved with a much safer method. I wish all the other equipment purchased for the plant expansion worked as well.”
The order, from Caldwell’s representative, Riptide Sales and Service in Mississippi, took eight weeks to deliver, from customer inquiry to evaluation and qualifying, with concept drawings to final design and manufacture.
Tyler Newton, of Riptide Sales & Service, said following discussions with K2 Marine they travelled to Arkansas to meet with Kenner and complete a walkthrough of the location where the Posi-Turner would be in use.
“Once we visited the site visit and discussed what their needs were, we were able to determine exactly what was needed to quote the project. We had some issues at first syncing both hoists on the Posi-Turner but after working with both K2 and Caldwell we were able to get the correct information/codes together to have all transmitters and electrical components working.”
Sean Powers, Posi-Turner applications specialist, The Caldwell Group, said safety, efficiency, and damage free products are what makes the technology a popular choice.
“The Posi-Turner units are extremely robust and over built. We have customers still using units from prior to Caldwell acquiring the line in 2000. We always hope for and have repeat customers for the technology, but the biggest factor in the marine industry is the need to continually build customer-driven bigger boats. Bigger boats equal larger capacities and longer Posi-Turner units to accommodate,” he said.
“Depending on the capacity from 500lbs to 110,000lbs and more, ordering can take six to 16 weeks or more depending on the parts and materials available. Our Posi-Turner systems are a popular product in our Caldwell line due to all the industries it serves.”
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