Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

I couldn't find this topic elsewhere so here is the question -

Which lift at your area has the most hours on it ?
At Blackcomb the Wizard has 45,000 (Doppel HSQ built in 1987)
At whistler the Village gondola has 54,000 (Poma 10 pass. gondola built in 1988)

And here I thought Paradise had a lot @ 23000 (75 Thiokol triple) :) T-Bar comes in second at 20409 - 71 Dopp. (heh, i did startup on it today, and for some odd reason I rememberd the hour meter!)

The Sunshine Village gondola has about 45,00 to 50.00 hours on it. Pretty odd for a 2001. Yet again, it is open extra hours. On Sunday it is open ti'l 10 o'clock.

4500 isn't old for a 2001 - we put about 900-1000 hours a year on, and none of our lifts are open late.

I'd be interesterd to know the hours that Big white puts on the Happy Valley Gondola. It's open till about midnight all winter and starts operating at 7 or 8 in the morning.

I would be interested to know how many hours the River Run Gondola has on it since they have run night skiing for a long time and up until a few years ago skiing was open until 10 and the resturant was open even later. I talked to one of the mechanics up there who said it is usualy shut down for only 4-6 hours a night. Plus they also run summer activities too.
This post has been edited by poloxskier: 06 March 2005 - 01:21 PM

The Diesel on American Flyer has around 1460ish hours on it. I don't know that total Hours on it. Just what the diesel has.

The resort i used to work at Australia has a 1960 POMA plater lift I don't know the number of hours or if it even had an hour meter but it's old, and still running. One of the lift inspectors commented on it being one of the oldest(if not the oldest) running lift in australia.

The Flyer ('86) has 27,900 total hours (I had to find the final reading on the old control panel and add it to the new one) and the Eagle ('89) has 29,000 (approximately). I would think Blackjack and Mountain Chief would be up there as well, bing a '73 and a '77 respectively, but they also missed a couple of seasons and don't run nearly as much as when they were I and J.

Hey John, could you give me the full specs on the Flyer, I am starting to like it.

Here you go:

Quote

What is the APU? Caterpiller, Cummins or Detriot Diesel?, and hp?

i think the apu is a cummins... don't hold me to it.

It is. It's a KTA-38T, twin turbocharged, capable of 1200 horses at 1750 RPM. And it's way loud

1200 hp, wow :eek: is it 6 cylinder, 8 cylinder ect? The Sunshine Village gondola has 2 V12 Detroit Deisel engines.

At Bridger we have a 1964 Riblet that has run continuously since installation. I think they have an older one still running at Sun Valley.?.? Anyone ever heard of Truing riblet sheaves before installing them? :ph34r:

cbswygman, on Mar 15 2005, 02:02 PM, said:

We figured the lift to have around 35,000 hours. 40 years of service.

Anyone tru a riblet sheave?

No, but I have found some with poorly installed bearing cups that cause a slight wobble once the sheave is installed. Perhaps that's what your referring to? If the cup isn't on the same axis as the sheave there really isn't anything you can do short of re-installing the cup. Of course, if it was put in off-kilter it probably raised up a lip in the hub, which is pretty easy in those soft aluminum sheaves.
35,000 hours is pretty good. They built those old Riblets bomber, didn't they? Baker has a 1952 that, while having had many parts upgraded, has been in service continuously. I don't know how many hours it has but I'm guessing it's approaching 50,000.

Zage- the Flyer's APU is a V-12.

I'd figure it was a V12 pumping out 1200 hp :)

The Cabriolet at Mountain Creek is probably the most heavily used lift I know of. It runs from anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 am to anywhere from 9:15 to 10:15 pm depending on the day of the week during the ski season. It also runs weekends 8:30 to 6:15 from the first weekend in May to late June, then 8:30 am to 7:15 on weekends until Labor day and from 11:30 to 7:15 on weekdays. After Labor day, it runs Fridays from 10:30 am to 6:15 pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 8:30 am to 6:15 pm. These summer operations are for mountain biking and scenic rides. I don't know of any lift that runs as much, even the South Peak Express doesn't run till about 11:30 am midweek and it doesn't run at all during the summer, except when they are doing maintenance.