58 replies to this topic

[Aussierob]

You cannot push a carrier through a tyre bank unless the tyres are lifted or deflated. If you do need to run like this then you go round up spare lifties, ski patrol, admin staff or anyone else you can find. you do need one experienced guy to do the spacing by hand.
(edit: on some lifts tyou can push a carrier through the turnaround if the spacing clutches are disengaged)

This post has been edited by Aussierob: 09 March 2005 - 05:43 AM

[crazyskier91]

Yeah I didn't push it throught the tire bank, just the emergency rail, and the carrier was the tear-drop Yan carrier.

[liftmech]

Aussierob, on Mar 9 2005, 06:40 AM, said:

You cannot push a carrier through a tyre bank unless the tyres are lifted or deflated. If you do need to run like this then you go round up spare lifties, ski patrol, admin staff or anyone else you can find. you do need one experienced guy to do the spacing by hand.
(edit:  on some lifts tyou can push a carrier through the turnaround if the spacing clutches are disengaged)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been able to push a carrier backward off the parking rail on our Doppelmayr, but even with some of the belts loosened and the drive shafts removed it's difficult to move a chair on the Eagle and Flyer. It would suck to evacuate either one should the cadence chain break, but at least there's no tyres there and you only have to push the chair a few metres.

[highspeedquad]

But you would still have to push a fair number of chairs to completely evac.

[liftmech]

99 on the Flyer, 65 on the Eagle. And you have to pace yourself so you don't put a chair on line too early. As Aussierob mentioned above, you need at least one experienced person to judge the spacing.

[Aussierob]

Nice to have such short lifts.
wizard 175
Solar 160
7th heaven 150
GE 134
excelerator 132
Red 196
etc..... :P

[puk]

The bottom line is , regardless of tires or chains , spacing problems are a pain in the neck. Even the best eyeballs will fail at spacing the chairs perfectly if you can even man handle them through the terminal. You would probably need to by-pass your anti- collision system which can be a bit exciting at times. As for my point of view the only time you would consider pushing chairs through the terminal is to get the guests off the lift so that the required repairs could be made.

[liftmech]

Aussierob, on Mar 9 2005, 11:17 AM, said:

Nice to have such short lifts.
wizard 175
Solar 160
7th heaven 150
GE 134
excelerator 132
Red 196
etc..... :P
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I meant that you'd have to space that amount of chairs to evac, approximately half the line. Eagle has 125 total chairs, Flyer has 203.

[Aussierob]

OK, thought you were referring to total carriers. :)

[highspeedquad]

However if someone happens to be downloading...

[poloxskier]

That doesnt matter though. If they are downloading then you still unload them and move that carrier through the station. Its still only 1/2 of a line revolution.

[highspeedquad]

Oh, right. Sorry, keep messing up my details.

Would it be possible to have some of both worlds? So that like the chains help fix major problems, and the tires keep large mess-ups from happening. And if one breaks, then you still have the other form. I know, that's a whole lot more work for the mechanic.

[crazyskier91]

I think that that would be a nightmare to design, maybe when I get older i'll do it You would have to make sure that the tires and chains were PERFECTLY syncronized.

[highspeedquad]

But if you did pull it off right it could be a wonderful system. Again, a mightmare for the mechanics, so it probably won't happen, especially since there haven't been chains for a fair amount of time.

This post has been edited by highspeedquad: 10 March 2005 - 05:44 PM

[Duck]

I've had an idea for several years, to replace the bank of acceleration and deceleration tires with single-faced linear induction motors. Replace the friction plate on top of each chair with an aluminium or copper plate (acting as the reaction rail for the LIM), and have all chair motion within the terminal completly driven in software. Contactless LIM means zero wear or maintenance (save the grip). A comb passing through IR pairs at regular intervals provides position and chair speed feedback to the controller.

(As a mechanical designer I tend to "pass off" a lot of my mechanical issues on the programmers, and that's more or less what I did with this idea. :) Programming it wouldn't be all that easy. But it'd be damn flexible... and zero maintenance.)

-Iain

[Aussierob]

Totally cool idea. I hate to think how much it would cost. There are some lifts in Europe that have all the tyre banks and turnarounds driven by AC motors instead of off the haul rope. This gives the ability to move chairs further forward or backward to correct spacing issues. Instead of trying a combo tyre/chain system, it would be way easier to design the spacing system so the coarse spacer at the return kicked in whenever necessary.

[Kicking Horse]

I thought the Coarse Spacer Moter is running all the time...... when the lift is moving. Is it not?

[Doppeldork]

Older CTec chairs have the ac motor running the turnaround tyres. One of Mt Washingtons chairs have it...Can't remember which one, I'll post it when I remember

[Aussierob]

On Doppelmayrs, the coarse spacer consists of 3 or 4 tyres with a clutch and brake on them. It stalls chairs and releases them on to the line at a programmed interval. They are driven off the PTO system and run all the time unless you are coarse spacing the lift.

[floridaskier]

I was on the Ruby HSQ (the 2002 Stealth 3) at DV in the early morning with my brother, and just as we were accelerating at the bottom terminal, right about where I think the grip depression rail begins, when the chair suddenly stopped for a second (that's what it felt like, the chair swung forward pretty far) with a loud rubbery squeak that made the liftie look over sharply but not do anything. The rest of the ride, the spacing for our chair was pretty far off, not causing problems but noticeably farther behind the one in front and close to the one behind (comparing it to when the chairs in front and behind passed the ones on the other side. What might have happened to cause that? It must not have been a very big deal, but what could have caused that?