59 replies to this topic

[vons]

I am wondering if the vault will be reused, Its nice to have the motor room in a basement

[DonaldMReif]

Call me skeptical, but even though I don't work in the chairlift industry, I think they will put the Colorado SuperChair's terminal on top of the vault, but the vault itself might become storage space and the drive motor will be inside the terminal structure (undoubtedly it's going to be a top drive).

[SkiDaBird]

DonaldMReif, on 23 May 2014 - 09:13 PM, said:

Call me skeptical, but even though I don't work in the chairlift industry, I think they will put the Colorado SuperChair's terminal on top of the vault, but the vault itself might become storage space and the drive motor will be inside the terminal structure (undoubtedly it's going to be a top drive).

I would imagine since the room already exists it wouldn't cost too much. We don't have any real data to speculate with though so I would just keep the theories low until someone from LP or Breck can inform us.

[floridaskier]

Precedent: the replaced Carpenter lift at Deer Valley (former Yan HSQ, replaced by CTEC following Quicksilver accident) used to be a vault drive, but has an overhead drive in its current version. It looks like the old motor room is used for storage now.

Does building a vault drive add to cost if the vault is already there?

[SkiDaBird]

The space exists to be able to make the lift a vault seeing as the 1200HP engine Peruvian uses takes up less space than that. Honestly, it really is just up to Breck and LP.

[2milehi]

boardski, on 22 May 2014 - 05:46 PM, said:

Are they planning on re-using the tower uprights (tubes)?

Depends on how much concrete was poured for the footers back in '86 and if the tower tubes are weight rated for the 6 pack chairs and heavier rope. I could see a few tower changes to get rid of the hold-down at tower 11.

There is the intent to keep the vault as a workshop, but we'll see. At Keystone when the Doppelmayr replaced the Von Roll, there was the thought to use the structure tubes for the top terminal but it was not known how deep the concrete went. So out came the Von Roll structure tubes.

This post has been edited by 2milehi: 24 May 2014 - 12:58 PM

[2milehi]

floridaskier, on 24 May 2014 - 04:07 AM, said:

Precedent: the replaced Carpenter lift at Deer Valley (former Yan HSQ, replaced by CTEC following Quicksilver accident) used to be a vault drive, but has an overhead drive in its current version. It looks like the old motor room is used for storage now.

Does building a vault drive add to cost if the vault is already there?

Probably - special gearbox, long driveshaft and a different bullwheel.

[DonaldMReif]

I can see that tower 11 will probably not be a hold-down, likely with a pair of combi towers if I had to take a wild guess. After all, I saw the same thing when the Mountaintop Express lift was replaced: as a quad, there were no combi towers, and tower 6 was a hold-down tower. On the six pack, it was replaced with a pair of combis- towers 5 and 6.

Though, without finalized official design specifications out, we can't be sure. I'm thinking that if tower 11 becomes a combi, they might have to make it slightly taller.

Here's what it looked like on the original lift:









I imagine, though, that due to the profile of the crest at the top of the hill the hold-down is at the bottom of, towers 13 and 14 might still be closely spaced.

I also have this feeling that the Colorado SuperChair might use two hold-down towers at the bottom terminal, since when I look at all of the LPA detachables built at Vail Resorts, I notice that the High Noon Express and Gondola One both have back-to-back hold down towers right out of the bottom terminal for towers 1 and 2, while the Kensho SuperChair has two hold-down towers one right after the other as well (though there, they are towers 3 and 4 instead of 1 and 2 because the lift travels on a relatively flat line from the bottom terminal to tower 3 due to the terrain geography).

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 24 May 2014 - 03:30 PM

[liftmech]

2milehi, on 24 May 2014 - 12:56 PM, said:

There is the intent to keep the vault as a workshop, but we'll see.

It's a good space for one, I use mine for that as well. Bit noisy during the winter though.

[Peter]

2milehi, on 24 May 2014 - 12:56 PM, said:

Depends on how much concrete was poured for the footers back in '86 and if the tower tubes are weight rated for the 6 pack chairs and heavier rope. I could see a few tower changes to get rid of the hold-down at tower 11.

There is the intent to keep the vault as a workshop, but we'll see. At Keystone when the Doppelmayr replaced the Von Roll, there was the thought to use the structure tubes for the top terminal but it was not known how deep the concrete went. So out came the Von Roll structure tubes.

Finally, three pages into this thread and someone posts some first-hand information!

[SkiDaBird]

The tower profile is going to change at least somewhat. That much is obvious since there weren't a lot of combis in the 80s. I'm not familiar with the terrain so I'm in little position to speculate.

[DonaldMReif]

SkiDaBird, on 24 May 2014 - 11:42 PM, said:

The tower profile is going to change at least somewhat. That much is obvious since there weren't a lot of combis in the 80s. I'm not familiar with the terrain so I'm in little position to speculate.

I am pretty sure that that profile will change. And you're right that there weren't many lifts with combi towers in the mid 1980s. The only Poma high speed quad I can think of dating to that period that would have combis would be the Pioneer Express. I know many mid and late-80s Doppelmayr HSQs in Colorado have combis - Avanti Express, Game Creek Express, Northwoods Express, etc.

As for the profile, and this is slightly off topic, but I imagine that if the Falcon SuperChair were to be rebuilt or upgraded, tower 8 on that lift would probably be removed and towers 7 and 9 would become combi towers. The change in steepness is pretty similar.

Maybe this video gives somewhat a better perspective of the tower 11 hold-down:
https://www.youtube....h?v=_qt5fQpfYIY

[Snowy Ferries]

DonaldMReif, on 25 May 2014 - 12:36 PM, said:

there weren't many lifts with combi towers in the mid 1980s.

Liberator at Mission Ridge has quite a few. 1985 POMA Alpha-Falcon.

[liftmech]

but regarding combinations assemblies, they've been around since the 1960s-- Riblet had many and Yan used them where necessary as well. The Eagle has six and the Flyer would have had sixteen except they raised those particular towers to avoid them. It all depends on what the profile calls for. Please don't generalise based on your knowledge of one or two lifts.

[2milehi]

Peter, on 24 May 2014 - 05:07 PM, said:

Finally, three pages into this thread and someone posts some first-hand information!

My post was off topic but it did pertain to flow of questions/responses.

[DonaldMReif]

The Rocky Mountain SuperChair is next to the Colorado SuperChair and it has 12 sheave assemblies on its integrated sheave assembly.

This post has been edited by DonaldMReif: 26 May 2014 - 02:23 PM

[Backbowlsbilly]

DonaldMReif, on 26 May 2014 - 02:06 PM, said:

Is the profile from bottom terminal to tower 3 of Gondola One, including two hold down towers, at a similar angle to the original Colorado SuperChair's climb out of the bottom terminal? Someone take a look at some pictures to do a visual comparison, please.

I don't know if this helps or not, but I've got a full length video of Gondola One.

This post has been edited by Backbowlsbilly: 26 May 2014 - 02:24 PM

[liftmech]

There are a great many factors that go into what sort of tower loading (and hence, assembly types) a lift will have. You can't say just off of a visual of the liftline.

[vons]

Sorry whats this thread about again I remember now "Speculation" ....granted I can be just as bad so maybe this topic should be given a rest for awhile and everyone just watch the new lift go up on the Breckenridge web cams.

[liftmech]

Agreed.