9 replies to this topic

[chairliftsrcool]

http://www.9news.com...Mountain-lifts-

A power outtage left only four lifts open on auxiliary power on Sunday, which makes me wonder which lifts have deisel engines also. I thought it would be six lifts, UC Quad, T-Rex (timberline express), American Flyer, American Eagle, Excelerator, and Super Bee, do not all have auxiliary power? How was it switching to deisel liftmech and vons if you were there? I was kicking myself that i did not go up there today, but maybe it was lucky I didn't.

chairliftsrcool

[vons]

We did get power restored by 2pm. I'll expand on it tonight. liftmech was lucky and was off yesterday enjoying his time elswhere.

[Kicking Horse]

I'm sure all lifts on Copper have either a Diesel or Gas Aux. depending on the lift these puppies can burn 30-60 gallons an hr ( @ least the 2 hs lifts I ran with diesel aux). And with the cost of fuel these days it add's up real quick!

[Andoman]

Kicking Horse, on 25 January 2012 - 08:58 AM, said:

I'm sure all lifts on Copper have either a Diesel or Gas Aux. depending on the lift these puppies can burn 30-60 gallons an hr ( @ least the 2 hs lifts I ran with diesel aux). And with the cost of fuel these days it add's up real quick!

What size (hp) diesels are these and what RPM are you guys running these at? It sounds a bit on the high side to me. I run about 30 - 500hp Cats and they burn about 8 (empty) to 15 (loaded) gallons per hour (the newer the engine the worse the economy it gets due to the new emissions controls)

[Lift Dinosaur]

Most of the stuff in ski lifts for full power operation are in the 500-1200(x2) HP and 200-2100 RPM operating range. 500HP may work for an average Detach in the Midwest or the East but at 10,000' elevation in the Rockies they are highly derated. Not uncommon to see a Cummins QST30 (1200HP, Twin Turbo & Aftercooled) in the Motorroom of a 8000' long detach in Colorado!
Also, as opposed to a gen set that runs at constant RPMs, these are constantly fluctuating with slows and stops. Not uncommon for the diesel to have to pull 100% load from a dead stop 5 or 6 times an hour.
60 GPM may be extreme, but 25-35 GPM isn't out of the question. We had a 330 Gallon tank <it beat the requirements for spill containment in '86> for a VTA28 <1200HP> that got refilled every night after Aux operation.
Dino

This post has been edited by Lift Dinosaur: 25 January 2012 - 02:41 PM

[liftmech]

chairliftsrcool, on 23 January 2012 - 12:14 AM, said:

http://www.9news.com...Mountain-lifts-

A power outtage left only four lifts open on auxiliary power on Sunday, which makes me wonder which lifts have deisel engines also. I thought it would be six lifts, UC Quad, T-Rex (timberline express), American Flyer, American Eagle, Excelerator, and Super Bee, do not all have auxiliary power? How was it switching to deisel liftmech and vons if you were there? I was kicking myself that i did not go up there today, but maybe it was lucky I didn't.

chairliftsrcool

Various factors kept us from running all diesel-powered lifts on Sunday. Keep in mind these are the backup engines already; if they go down it's ropes for all. Being as we simply don't have enough qualified personnel to do this, we only run certain lifts in the event of a complete outage. As it stands now, we have nine lifts with full-capacity backups: A-1, B, E, F, H, I, O-1, R, and 4. If only one of these were affected there would be no question, and we have run them on diesel many times in the past (a month in '06 comes to mind on the Bee). I'm not getting into the rest of our decision-making process as this is a public forum.

[chairliftsrcool]

Thank you for all the responses, i asked my dad about the old nomenclature and we are guessing, A-1 : Resolution, B: Super Bee, E- Excellerator, H- UC Quad, I- Blackjack (is that and resolution to ensure evacuation out of back bowls?), R- Rendesvous, F- Eagle, for some reason i think O-1 is the flyer, and 4- Trex maybe?

[vons]

mostly right excep: I - isTrex (the lift is near the old I lift line) , 4 is blackjack, 6 is Mt Chief (5 if it ever gets built will be Tucker) and yes 4 and A1 are to ensure we can evac out of the bowls.

[Kicking Horse]

Andoman, on 25 January 2012 - 10:18 AM, said:

What size (hp) diesels are these and what RPM are you guys running these at? It sounds a bit on the high side to me. I run about 30 - 500hp Cats and they burn about 8 (empty) to 15 (loaded) gallons per hour (the newer the engine the worse the economy it gets due to the new emissions controls)

760hp 1800-2100 rpm depending on speed of lift. Factor in that the lift i quoted has 2 engines. Factor in that my main lift that I assigned to had a lot of slows and stops which KILLS the mileage. Plus it was a ~10,700ft long lift as well.

[Andoman]

Kicking Horse, on 26 January 2012 - 12:55 PM, said:

760hp 1800-2100 rpm depending on speed of lift. Factor in that the lift i quoted has 2 engines. Factor in that my main lift that I assigned to had a lot of slows and stops which KILLS the mileage. Plus it was a ~10,700ft long lift as well.

Gotcha, makes sense now.