Here the dock is returned to its original position with all the steps back in place.
Problem with the Dock
The problem with wooden docks, or more accurately, wooden dock posts is that the ice in winter tends to grab them and do forceful things with them. In this case both docks of two adjacent camps were moved out of position at the end in the lake. In one case this caused a post to break (in two places!) and the other was just moved to lower lake bottom so was tilted. Unfortunately I dove into the project without taking before photos but the docks looked like a tidal wave had swept them northward so they met the shore at an angle. I used a come-a-long to pull this dock back into place which required some lifting and pushing as well.
Helpful Neighbor
A neighbor even helped and brought two handyman jacks. He also realized we needed another pulling location so he drove his four wheeler to an optimal location and pulled the dock tight into the shore with his winch. It was amazing how resistant the four wheeler was to sliding even when it was parked on a hill tipping the machine toward the dock. One jack was modified to lift higher than normal with the addition of some 2x10s bolted on the bottom as a height extension. The jacks proved to be essential to complete the project. On this first dock, the support on the shore end needed some rebuilding so after we had pulled the dock back into place a jack was used to lift the shore end while we added some cinder blocks to support it. This dock was long enough that it had center support on two posts but they were not braced and easily tilted. We added some braces so they could do a better job of staying upright.
Final Touches
To finish up the job the block steps had to be re-stacked and a few supports added. The original installation used spikes to hold the steps in place but I used screws to make the next time the ice moves the dock easier to remove the steps so the dock can be repositioned.
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