Battery-Powered Grease
Warren Smith and his crew at Winterplace, W.V., were looking for an easier way to grease the sheave wheels on their many chairlifts. Hand pumping was a pain and after a few sheaves the guys were close to developing carpal tunnel syndrome. To solve the problem Smith found a battery-powered grease gun for $179 from the Northern Hydraulics catalog. Manufactured by Lincoln Lubrication, using a standard 12-volt rechargeable battery, it worked fine, but only for a short time per charge. According to Smith, you could grease two sheave wheels per charge and only one when it was cold.
But, many ideas are born out of necessity and stage two of this idea was definitely proof of that. One day, while removing the battery from the grease gun atop tower 9, the original battery fell into the bushes below, never to be found. So, Smith found a 12-volt deep cycle marine battery and connected it to the grease gun with 10-foot electric cords as shown in this photo. Straps were attached to the battery to make it portable. Now the grease gun will run for two weeks on one single charge.
Brake Adjustment
Every time the lift maintenance crew at Mt. Kato, Minn., needed to run the APU or perform a brake torque test on their Hall/VonRoll lift, they had to back off the adjustment screw on the service brake. Besides being tedious, this practice caused severe wear and tear on the screw threads.
Area Manager Larry Schmit thought that surely there had to be a better way to do things and found it in this clever idea. He purchased a standard chain binder from a hardware store for $10, removed the end hooks and fit one end to the brake frame, the other one to the threaded end (shown in red here).
These days, when Mt. Kato needs to fire up the APU or test the lift brakes, the service brake is quickly ratcheted off without any required readjustments. However, should your particular ski area happen to be equipped with a Hall 1406 or 1407 with clockwise rotation and no room to set up this tool at the end of the brake, Schmit suggests that you use the very same tool on the other end of the brake, one with a pushing attachment instead of the pulling device.
Unbreakable Seats
Greg Olson, GM at Montage, Pa., realized that his lift department was spending too much time and money replacing broken chair seat slats on the lifts each year. The local kids were into breaking the fiberglass slats and they managed to destroy quite a few seats over the years.
To solve the problem, Olson came up with the idea of making replacement slats out of aluminum. Sounds easy, but first he had to find an extruding company and have them secure a mold that could make a slat similar to the existing ones. The final step was solved when Aerolite Extrusion Company in Youngstown, Ohio (330-782-1127) agreed to develop the new slats. The finished product—custom-made aluminum slats—costs between $9 and $14 per slat. The final cost depends on chair width. The replacement at Montage was done several years ago, and to this day the resort has not needed to replace a single slat.
But Olson wishes that they had used stainless steel screws to hold the slats together, something he definitely recommends.
[Ed. Note: Check with your chairlift manufacturer before making any major changes to the lift.]
