Editor’s Note: This is the third edition of Nils Ericksen’s Idea File. Its success depends on your, our readers, sharing your ideas with us. Just drop us a line at SAM, Box 242, North Salem, N.Y. 10560. Make it a brief description plus snapshot or very rough sketch if needed. We’ll do the rest. You and your area get recognized, and you get $10 for your interest if we use your idea. All ‘ideas’ involve custom fabrication for each situation, and no liability can be assumed by contributors, the editor or this magazine.
STOP and GO
Bruce Kehr, owner of Sno-Country-Stevens Pass in Washington, sends us this fine contribution to Idea File: “On a new Thiokol Triple chairlift with bull wheel loading, and capacity of 1700 per hour, we have saved the use of one employee by installing a traffic light at the loading area. The light is RED until a whisker switch is tripped by a passing chair, it then turns to GREEN and remains thus for a pre-set time (approx 4 seconds) after which it returns to RED again. The switch activates a time delay relay which can be set to hold the GREEN for any desire time.
The waiting line behind the bullwheel is prominently marked by a painted 2×6 embedded in the snow and posted by a big red sign which reads. Waiting Line — STOP HERE — PROCEED ONLY ON GREEN LIGHT. The loading line is marked by a painted 2×6 in the snow and signed ‘LAUNCHING PAD — STAND HERE FOR LOADING.’ Total cost of material was less than $100.00 and installation is simple. It works so well, I think it should be Standard equipment on all bullwheel loading lifts.”
SNOW GUN LEGS
A ten-dollar bill goes to Jim O’Connor of Innsbruck USA for this innovation. Says Jim, “If your area has a pile of scrap T-bar tubes floating around, use them for adjustable legs on your snowmaking guns. Not only do they elevate the guns, but they work fantastically on very steep hills.
WELDER TRAILER
The boys at Phil Gravink’s area Peek’n Peak find this trailer pretty handy. Fabrication is of all-welded steel angle iron which is built to slightly larger than the welder frame. Thus, the welder can still be removed if necessary. Don Rothenberger prefers to use a Trackster to pull theirs until the snow gets too deep. Then, it can easily be rolled onto a conventional trail grooming machine. Don’t forget the axle braces; they are a necessity.
