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That is actually a common Riblet unloading setup. It's to keep the chairs from swinging too wildly as they enter the bullwheel. Looking Glass at Winter Park also has this setup, as do many in the Northwest. C-1 at Crystal has the same guidage, but since it has the unload ramp well before the tension terminal, the guidage stops several yards after it begins.

Lift Dinosaur, on Mar 23 2005, 01:51 PM, said:

Hmm, you sure about that? I only question it because I've seen loads of photos of other installations in Europe, and I think it's fairly rare to have a guide/rail/support that long.

-Iain

I think that a lot fixed grips in Europe have guides is because if a really fat person sits on the far right and a skinny person sits on the far left of a quad chair for example, when the skinny person sits on the chair and the fat person sits on the chair, the weight of the fat person will tip the chair up to the left. With the guide in place, it will stop the chair from tipping and keep the chair straight. Why we don't have guides on most of our lifts, I duno maybe different laws. ;)

You think chairs have guidage in Europe because of that possibility?

There used to be much more guidage over here than there is today; most carriers are heavy and stable enough not to need it anymore. You'll still see some in places where chair swing can be an issue; we've got it on K-lift's unload terminal but that's our beginner lift. L-lift has the same carriers and similar terminal but doesn't have any guidage.

By looking at the Dopperlmayr World Books, 97% of fixed grip chairlifts in Europe have guides.

There is also something on a fixed grip that prevents the chair from becoming uneven, and it never seems to be a big issue with me. As mentioned before, it's probably the wind.

I found out that these "guides" are more commonly known as "safety rails".

Owen, on Mar 13 2005, 05:33 PM, said:

moi = hi, mita = what but not exactly "hey what's up".

All right to clear things up, this is a guide.
 girak6.jpg (67.65K)
Number of downloads: 29

A guide stablizes the chair or cabin upon entry or exit (like an entry funnel). Guides are on almost every fixed grip chairlift in Europe. Girak products need guides on their detachable lifts because their grip system is special and needs to be steady to properly detach.

This is a safety rail:
 safety.jpg (44.28K)
Number of downloads: 34

How a safety rail works is by means the detachable grip does not get a hold of the haul rope, the safety rail will br there so the chair or cabin does not fall to the ground, the safety rail is holding it. That is why safety rails are always on the exit side of the detachable lift. It is a special Italian law, so only in Italy is where you will find safety rails.

What I have seen is that there arethe far less guides on today's lifts then yesterday's. Remember the old Heron Pomas with all the guidage or American Steel and Wire with all thier stuff as well. I'm guessing that the reason for that is that the older lifts were built with a larger margin of error then the newer lifts.

Those lifts were also largely doubles and singles which moved faster and had lighter carriers than todays Quads and Triples. Aside to the larger carries moving slower and weighing more, which in turn makes for less swing around the bullwheel, todays lifts also incorperate more dynamically designed bullwheel lips to reduce swing of the grips.

Could the reason that we have less guides today than back in the 60s because of the grips? If you look at the photos below, the first one is from a Poma Quad built in 1988, the second is from a Hall double built in 1961. You'll notice that there is a little nob on the top of the Poma Grip that would push against the bullwheel in order to keep the chair from swinging as it goes around the bullwheel. The Hall grip doesn't have this, and the particular lift that this is on has guides in the bottom terminal to ensure that the chair stays straight. Although this doesn't answer the question why there is only a guide on the last tower of a lift, it shows that older lifts didn't have the little stabilizer nob on the grips.

The hall does have one, I believe anyways. The part of the hanger arm that extends above the grip in the middle (green) should be high enough to act on the bullwheel flange.

It does, and from my experience it works very well. The chairs swing very little under and circumstances.