507 replies to this topic

[skierdude9450]

If Vail replaced any of the lifts that they were talking about, would they be Dopppelmayr-CTEC or Leitner-Poma? Their last major project had 4 Poma hsqs, but the majority of their lifts are Doppelmayr or CTEC.

[Peter]

Vail Resorts doesn't seem very unified, Heavenly and Beaver Creek are all Dopps, Breck is all Pomas, and Vail and Keystone have some of both. I think Vail might just buy the cheapest one.

[floridaskier]

Since Vail Resorts installed all the Pomas at Keystone and Vail:

Leitner-Poma has built (is building) 4 lifts: Independence, Peak 8 Superconnect, Imperial Express, gondola at Breck

DoppelmayrCTEC built 7 lifts: Birds of Prey, Larkspur, Upper BC and Lower BC at Beaver Creek; Canyon Express, Powderbowl Express, Big Easy at Heavenly

That doesn't say much since all those lifts were at resorts that stayed with one manufacturer.

I still think Vail would go for DoppelmayrCTEC, just because they have 11 Doppelmayr or CTEC HSQs and only 4 Pomas

[skierdude9450]

Skier, on Jun 21 2006, 01:45 PM, said:

Vail Resorts doesn't seem very unified, Heavenly and Beaver Creek are all Dopps, Breck is all Pomas, and Vail and Keystone have some of both. I think Vail might just buy the cheapest one.

Vail never seems to be the one to take the cheap way out.

[poloxskier]

Well depends on which of their resorts you are talking about. They focus much more on the Eagle County resorts and on Breck than on Keystone. Not to say that they don't maintain it and put money into the resort but not as much goes into new construction and replacement as the other resorts.

This post has been edited by poloxskier: 23 June 2006 - 05:57 PM

[skierdude9450]

Vail

[liftmech]

??

It's not always up to corporate management as to what manufacturer a lift is purchased from. Generally bids are reviewed by the lift maintenance and mountain ops departments and recommendations are made to those who control the cash. Breck's lift department seems to like Pomas, so they keep buying them. Any truth to this, Mike?

[vons]

Keystone used to have a lift mtn. department head who was a Doppelmayer fan from what I understand he was instrumental in Keystone buying Dopps for so long he left sometime after Santiago exp. was built but before Ruby was bid. This relationship with a supplier kind of points out what john is saying. I know the groomer market is much the same. Resorts that have a good relationship with one supplier don’t even look at the other unless their current supplier has done something to hurt the relationship badly. Sometimes the expense of switching to a different supplier is a consideration too.

[Peter]

I wonder why Tamarack switched from L-P to Dopp after just a year. I would think they would want to have just one set of parts.

[floridaskier]

Not as bad as The Canyons, which got HSQs from CTEC, Poma, and Doppelmayr in the same year

[coskibum]

sometimes one mfgr can't supply all the new lifts for bid in one season, which might be the canyon's case.

[Peter]

Yeah, thats what happened. They needed a lot of new lifts and I think they were pretty late in the year for ordering. By the way, does anyone know when the cut off is for ordering a lift for the summer? How many parts are stocked, and how much of it is custom?

[SkiBachelor]

I think it's February or March. I remember reading an article about the new gondola being built at Beaver Creek and Jan Leonard said they didn't have long to get their order in before the cutoff date.

[Allan]

If we want a new lift for next summer we have to order it before sometime in October, I think that's from L-P.

[vons]

If I remember right a gondola needs a much longer lead than a chair due mostly to the cabins. Last year Tamarack didn't finalise the contract for their two lifts till June but thay started negotations with D-Ctec in january.

[liftmech]

Lift Dinosaur may be able to shed more light on the production side of things, but here's what I know:
Manufacturers stock parts that are used for general maintenance (such as sheaves, sheave liners, belts, tyres, et cetera). Terminals are all built on the same jigs, just strectched and/or widened depending on whether it's a quad, sixpack, or gondola. Carriers are somewhat kept in stock, since they can be a maintenance item, but not in the amounts required for a new lift. Same with grips. Since most parts are built or machined by hand, there can be a huge lag time if a manufacturer has many orders in one season.

[Peter]

Do they stock whole terminals? I seem to remember when Collins Express was built at Alta, they said they got the last 2 Stealths, implying there is some sort of stock kept. Do the manufacturers make lifts all year and ship them out in the spring, or do they only build new lifts during the late winter, and have down time in the fall?

[SkiBachelor]

I presume both Doppelmayr CTEC and Leitner-POMA know they are going to be selling a certain type of chairlift for next year, so they very well could make some models of that lift in advance, like detachables.

Back in 1985, didn't Poma of France over estimate the demand of detachables and because of that they had a huge supply of extra detachable lifts that year? I recall several ski areas like Squaw Valley, CA purchased these extra lifts from Poma at reduced prices because Poma wanted them gone.

[SkiBachelor]

Well the process of removing the Pine Marten Express has finally started. It appears they have just taken off the terminal's outer shell and are now removing the carriers from the line.

http://mtbachelor.co...ent_conditions/

[liftmech]

When I toured the Poma plant last year there were no complete terminals in the yard. The fab crew was building goosenecks (the structural parts that support the tyre banks, lateral rail, and compression rail) and attaching them to the terminal frames. They had several terminals in various states of completion. I don't know if they were behind schedule, but as Cameron mentioned, some years the various yards may have extra lifts if they get one built and an area pulls out of the deal.