3 replies to this topic

[aaronf]

I have a question regarding the maintenance routine of various lifts. I'm not looking for any proprietary information, so if something is specific to your installation that you cannot share, then please don't.

However, I'm trying to understand more about the costs of maintenance over the lifetime of a lift. I suppose I have a couple of questions. The first is, what is a typical maintenance budget for a lift? This includes labor and spare/replacement parts. Is there any way to correlate the maintenance budget of a lift to some meaningful metric? Like percent of capital cost, or cost per foot of vertical height or something like that? I realize that the maintenance costs are spread over servicing all of the lifts at a resort, so that's why I'm trying to see if there is some (crudely) scalable approach to making a budget.

In addition, what are the most expensive consumable parts that must be replaced? What are the parts that need maintaining? Is there a minor schedule that happens while the resort is operating and then a major schedule that happens during the off-season? Is there any kind of "mean time between failure" figures that would be important to know?

I'd really like to get my head around what the lifetime costs for maintaining a lift are (in addition to the upfront costs), so I figured this group would be able to provide some input.

As always, thanks in advance.

Regards,

--Aaron

[zeedotcom]

A stab at answering your questions in a general sort of way.

Next time you ride a lift, take a look at it and make a mental note of every point that moves, spins, or shifts. At bare minimum, each and every one of these points must be greased prior to beginning the season and 1-2 times during the season. Depending on the size of the lift, this takes a varying amount of time. On a 300 foot vertical lift, I did the "in season" greasing and a cursory check of some stuff in a couple of hours, but there also has to be an operator for the guy hanging in the work basket.

Depending on how proactive staff is (and this means spending more time/money on maintenance in season) you have to replace sheaves and align assemblies. If maintenance staff is proactive and notes anything out of the ordinary and adjusts quickly, the sheaves last longer. If they don't, you wind up replacing sheaves more quickly.

The costs of the sheaves varies. If they get "too" worn out, the whole thing can wear beyond use and you are left with a chunk of scrap metal. The sheave type affects repair/replacement costs, and someone else probably has current price sheets to give you that.

How well the lift has been maintained historically and what your goals are currently are a big part of what it costs you to maintain the lift for the year (I followed a guy who didn't do much, and spent a lot more time and money).

This is a starting point for you, but I don't think you are going to find a "clean" way to calculate the maintenance cost of a lift.

A couple of years in, your lift gets hit by lightening and blows out a chunk of haul rope, and you are spending a lot more on maintenance than you expected, and this doesn't even factor in electrical maintenance. I think that the only thing that you can be certain of is that you can't plan long term with any true certainty.

[aaronf]

Thanks very much. That's helpful! I figured that preventative maintenance, such as greasing the bearings was going to be critical. However, if properly greased, how long do the bearings last? They seem to be turning relatively slowly, and so I figure that they would last the life of the lift without replacing (assuming properly maintained). If anyone knows whether that's a fair assumption, or if there are any parts that clearly *do* wear out (by design, not by neglect), I'd love to hear about it.

[liftmech]

Bearings do wear out, regardless of how well they're greased. We've replaced several sets of bullwheel bearings over the years. Sealed bearings do not require greasing and will eventually need to be replaced (time period depends upon application). Parts that wear out 'by design': sheave liners, grip rollers, compression ramp wear skins, bullwheel liners, plastic bushings, footrests. I'd call it age-related rather than design, but there you go.