The upper end, where the water is shallower and the winter drawdown is felt hardest.
Shallower water changes what drawdown means. Where deeper properties simply float lower, docks at this end can find cradles, bunks and even the underside of the structure interacting with the bottom in a heavy drawdown year.
That produces a specific and seasonal category of damage: things that were fine all summer and got quietly loaded in January. It also means a lift that has been fine for years can develop a problem purely because of an unusually low winter.
Worth an inspection after any hard drawdown rather than waiting for spring to reveal it.
Contact with the bottom during a hard drawdown, which is a seasonal problem rather than a wear problem.
Flotation fails quietly and then all at once. The warning sign is geometry, not sound.
The part of the dock that moves every time the lake does, and the part most often ignored until it will not.
The wide water carries weather further. Damage here is more often wind-driven than debris-driven.