40 replies to this topic

[SkiBachelor]

I was at Silver Star today and while riding the Powder Gulch Express, I noticed several weird things with the lift's towers. I'm not sure why the height of the towers were increased unless the lift's profile was changed after the lift was finished being manufactured by L-P, but there were several towers like this on the lift. Some towers had about 2 feet added while some were more than 8 feet. However, I'm pretty sure that the extra height adjustments wern't added because the towers couldn't fit on the trucks because some towers were short, like the one at the top terminal.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 tower.jpg (89.43K)
Number of downloads: 300

[WBSKI]

Could the bottom part of the towers be the old yan tower? (like at Whistler sortof)

Looks nice up there compared to around here, its rained like 10CM on the local mtns in 24hrs or something.

Could u take a couple pics of the haulback t-bar?, im curious to see what it looks like.

[SkiBachelor]

While riding up the Powder Gulch Express, I did notice that the towers were once painted blue, either done by L-P at the factory and then repainted to silver at the ski area when Silver Star/Big White thought this would be a better color since all the lift towers at Big White are now painted silver. However, the toewrs don't appear to be Yan towers since they are too narrow and there is no fabrication sprial that's seen on all the other yan towers. I also saw one tower foundation appearing and it looked like a Poma foundation rather than the standard pour and set yan foundation.

This post has been edited by SkiBachelor: 21 December 2005 - 07:46 AM

[puk]

SkiBachelor, on Dec 20 2005, 10:35 PM, said:

I was at Silver Star today and while riding the Powder Gulch Express, I noticed several weird things with the lift's towers. I'm not sure why the height of the towers were increased unless the lift's profile was changed after the lift was finished being manufactured by L-P, but there were several towers like this on the lift. Some towers had about 2 feet added while some were more than 8 feet. However, I'm pretty sure that the extra height adjustments wern't added because the towers couldn't fit on the trucks because some towers were short, like the one at the top terminal.

Does anyone have any ideas?

attachment

It may have something to do with the initial profile of the lift line and some errors in the calculations. In order to get proper tower/sheave loading towers need to be at specific height in relation to each other. Often times the tower foundations are adjusted when re-using tubes from an old installation to achieve the proper loading. Question to you, were any of these tubes from an old lift?

[SkiBachelor]

I'm pretty sure the towers on the Powder Gulch Express are 100% POMA. Below are two pictures of the some towers on the Summit Express at Tamarack. The towers appear to be the exact same except for their color and these don't appear to be YAN towers at all.

 tower2.jpg (157.27K)
Number of downloads: 127

[Lift Dinosaur]

Regarding the extensions, the were added to re-used YAN towers. You can see that the flanges have been gusseted (which is common with field welding). Twr 21 was raised to meet the required loads on the combination assembly and Twr 26 was raised to get the rope to the correct elevation to enter the terminal. In all, I believe there were 6 or 7 towers that had these extensions.

[SkiBachelor]

So was Yan using a different type of tower design on this lift compared to his other HSQs? These tower tubes just seem to be so small in diameter compared to lifts at Sun Valley, Deer Valley and other resorts that installed Yan HSQs. However, I presume you wouldn't know that lift dino.

[Lift Dinosaur]

Looking at the towers, they appear to be 24" pipe. I don't know what you saw at the other areas, but it might have been 30". The 24" probably just had a thicker wall to meet spec.

[SkiBachelor]

Here are two pictures from seperate HSQs at Sun Valley but of the same year. The tower in the left picture looks like it has the 24" while the one on the right has 30". Both of these don't have the spiral line which goes up the side like some other lifts.

 tower3.jpg (131.49K)
Number of downloads: 124

Thanks Dino for explaining this. I thought that Silver Star removed everything, but towers are not cheap and it's better to reuse them when possible. I presume Comet Express has some new towers.

[Lift Dinosaur]

"Hard to say, not knowing". The spiral weld you talk about was pipe manufacturered in Canada for gas line projects. If it would not pass a "hydro test" i.e hold a certain air pressure for a certain length of time, it was rejected for carrying gas- usually a pin hole leak in a weld. Yan bought a lot of it to use for towers. The other type of pipe you usually see has a straight seam weld - this is rolled pipe.

[liftmech]

I've seen the spiral-welded pipe on several Pomas as well, such as A-1 here at Copper. Yan wasn't the only manfacturer to use that pipe.

[Kelly]

And to continue on with the discussion Dan "Derail" Smith has forwarded me this link of nice examples of pipe welding processes. Thanks Derail.

http://www.tenaris.c...ts/2003/450.pdf

[floridaskier]

liftmech, on Dec 21 2005, 10:28 PM, said:

I've seen the spiral-welded pipe on several Pomas as well, such as A-1 here at Copper. Yan wasn't the only manfacturer to use that pipe.

CTEC used it too, the Empire lift at DV has the spiral towers

[skier2]

Also, the blue paint that was mentioned was only on the original yan lifts, so if blue paint is visible, then these indeed are the old towers. At least on the Comet Express. Also, was Empire ever a fixed yan lift? If so, then those towers may have been reused, because I have never seen a CTEC tower with a spiral weld.

[floridaskier]

No, the Empire lift was a new installation high speed quad, and I think the towers are original. If they're reused, they didn't come from DV, as all of their removed Yan triple towers have gone on to new lives. DV has other HSQs with reused Yan triple towers, but Empire is not one of them. Maybe the towers are from somewhere else, but often when they're reused, they don't all match (i.e. some new, some old) They have CTEC-type ladders on the back.
If it makes a difference, they're pretty thick towers. This picture doesn't show the spiral welds that well, but here it is anyway:

[Allan]

We actually have some of these extensions but on the lattice towers on the Red chair. I thought I had a pic of it, but I don't... yet :)

[SkiBachelor]

Here is a better picture of one of the spiral towers on the Empire Express at DV.

 tower4.jpg (141.11K)
Number of downloads: 90

[spunkyskier01]

all the new c-tecs at belleayre have spiral tubes on them.

[floridaskier]

The three UNI-GS lifts I've seen in person have spiral terminal support towers

[ski9600]

I think that the Super Gauge at Mary Jane has some new short extensions like those shown in the original shots. I'll try to confirm next time I'm over that way.