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Sunshine Village Goat's Eye Express - Gearbox Failure Dec 27th


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#1 teachme

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Posted 30 December 2015 - 07:44 PM

Hi all,

I was up at Sunshine Village today having a grand day of skiing, however it seems the Goats Eye Express had a gearbox failure Dec. 27th. The lift is a mid-90s Poma quad. The failure required an evac of 147 people done in one hour and 45 minutes. Talking to a lift manager he said they had overhauled the gearbox this past summer but some part was faulty and went 'crunch' on Monday.

Other than reporting this, one question, how common is this?

On a side note, also heard Lake Louse had a lift out due to electrical issues but not confirmed at all.

TME

#2 Mike12164

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Posted 30 December 2015 - 07:52 PM

Was wondering when this story would show up on here...

From what I read it sounded like the oil pump quit causing the gearbox to overheat which lead to severe enough damage that the lift physically couldn't run safely anymore.

Seems a bit odd, I would have thought there would be some sort of sensor that would shut the lift down if the oil temp got too high long before any permanent damage. I haven't spent that much time around Poma/Leitner-Poma HSQs though so maybe that's not a thing...

In any event it sucks they've lost a lift during the busiest week of the season.

#3 Allan

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Posted 31 December 2015 - 06:47 AM

In our 92 fixed grip Poma there is no gearbox overtemp sensor. There is an oil flow sensor though.
- Allan

#4 liftmech

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Posted 02 January 2016 - 05:29 AM

There are both flow and temp shutdown options available. However, due to the age of the lift I suspect it had neither. The oldest lift we own with either of those is a 1998.
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#5 Allan

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Posted 02 January 2016 - 08:40 AM

 liftmech, on 02 January 2016 - 05:29 AM, said:

There are both flow and temp shutdown options available. However, due to the age of the lift I suspect it had neither. The oldest lift we own with either of those is a 1998.


That's interesting - our 92 Poma has a flow sensor, our 1980 Yan has a temperature monitor and our 1976 Thiokol has a pressure monitor.
- Allan

#6 Kelly

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Posted 02 January 2016 - 10:00 AM

There are a number of schemes to monitor oil flow and temperature along with a number of difficulties with those schemes. As a review there are 5 common types of monitoring devices – the most sensitive are your eyes, ears, and touch – in addition oil flow (mostly a pressure indicator) and thermometer are the other common devices.
Eyes, ears and touch work quite well; the drawback is they only work when the person is on site.
Temperature (actually the thermometer probe that registers the temperature) itself is a straight-forward device. Do you want to measure the general oil temperature or should you concentrate on the temperature of a specific component? Outside the box or inside on a raceway? Associating the probe’s location to a possible failure point is altogether a trickier problem.
Flow indicators and oil pressure gauges have the same issues as a temp probe…
I would be willing to bet the best chocolate box of doughnuts that once it is running they will have someone next to the gearbox monitoring by using those 5 common conditions.

For those that have not have the pleasure of disassembly, the picture below shows a common planetary gearbox for a skilift. B/W pic shows mid and lower stages of gearing – top stage concept in next picture. Arrows show oil pump intake and oil level sight glass.
Attached File  Kiss-planet-3x.jpg (99.11K)
Number of downloads: 115
Input shaft makes a 90 degree turn via a spiral pinion and ring gear – those gears can be seen on the facebook photo page. X’s are the critical bearings.
Attached File  RnP.jpg (42.59K)
Number of downloads: 74
As member liftmech mentions, early boxes did not have those monitoring devices, but they certainly have been available as an option for many decades.
www.ropetech.org

#7 RibStaThiok

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Posted 02 January 2016 - 07:32 PM

 Allan, on 02 January 2016 - 08:40 AM, said:


That's interesting - our 92 Poma has a flow sensor, our 1980 Yan has a temperature monitor and our 1976 Thiokol has a pressure monitor.

Allan, hows old Paradise running? Any issues this year? Also, do you folks up there still have that old Mueller Double running?
Ryan

#8 Allan

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Posted 02 January 2016 - 07:47 PM

 RibStaThiok, on 02 January 2016 - 07:32 PM, said:

Allan, hows old Paradise running? Any issues this year? Also, do you folks up there still have that old Mueller Double running?

She's purring like a kitten :) No major issues at all (knock on wood!) We do still have a Mueller double running up Red! The original Granite chair which was also a Mueller is long gone though.
- Allan

#9 RibStaThiok

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Posted 03 January 2016 - 09:38 AM

That's great to hear! Granite was the one that was something like a mile and a half to 2 miles long, right? When was she removed? Also.. did she ever run summer ops or any of your lifts back in the early 80s?
Ryan

#10 teachme

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Posted 03 January 2016 - 08:29 PM

Sunshine got Goat's Eye running about noon today. Seems that they had it running two days ago but it did not sound right so they did more work. I also understand people from Poma were on site to help. All's well in the end.

#11 2milehi

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Posted 03 January 2016 - 09:28 PM

 Kelly, on 02 January 2016 - 10:00 AM, said:



Keystone is the only time I've seen a Kissling gearbox without the mechanic pump (on a detachable). And in this pic there are two Kisslings without a mechanical pump.
Anything is possible when you don't understand what you are talking about.

#12 liftmech

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Posted 04 January 2016 - 01:12 PM

 Allan, on 02 January 2016 - 08:40 AM, said:


That's interesting - our 92 Poma has a flow sensor, our 1980 Yan has a temperature monitor and our 1976 Thiokol has a pressure monitor.

We have pressure [i]gauges[\i] on all of ours but there's no tie-in to the control systems excepts on the newest ones.
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#13 2milehi

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Posted 05 January 2016 - 12:44 PM

BTW our 2000 Poma (high speed 6 pack) has a gearbox oil flow sensor that will stop the lift if not satisfied (or working correctly)
Anything is possible when you don't understand what you are talking about.

#14 lastchair_44

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Posted 05 January 2016 - 01:33 PM

 2milehi, on 05 January 2016 - 12:44 PM, said:

BTW our 2000 Poma (high speed 6 pack) has a gearbox oil flow sensor that will stop the lift if not satisfied (or working correctly)


Our '97 Poma Gondola has that feature as well.
-Jimmi





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