46 replies to this topic

[okemopoma]

Emax, on May 10 2006, 01:32 PM, said:

"(Y)our (A)irborn (N)ow"

Well.. Yes And No...

How about these:

Yikes Another Napoleon

Yet Another Nautch (we used to call it the "Yan Shuffle")

Yang Ad Nauseam

and more recently... Yucca And Nachos

All kidding aside, the man was and is a genius. He was also a great boss.

All other kidding's aside.......

I know. Cutting edge genius's usually end up on the cross first. Then, many years later, people start to appreciate what the genius was trying to say or do.

[Superchairliftfan]

SkiBachelor, on Apr 6 2006, 06:53 PM, said:

Actually, Doppelmayr was in the process of purchasing Lift Engineering before the Whistler accident. However, maybe Lift Engineering would have still been in business today if it hadn't run into some of the inncidents that it did in the 80s, like with the Keystone gondola, QMC lift and Teller accident.

Doppelmayr wanted to buy out YAN??? WHAT were they thinking! If they fell for that trick, they could have gone under, and if Poma & Leitner merged, there would have been a Micro$oft-like monopoly! OMG!

[Peter]

It would have been interesting to see what a DoppelmayrPHBHallVonRollYanCTEC would have looked like!

[Bill]

They buy them to remove them. Though at times, incidents like Quicksilver may have only hit YAN (pre-buy out liability), not a DoppYAN company. Depends how the buyout would have taken place.

[SkiBachelor]

Yea, it's just like when a someone tries to sue a ski resort after it has new owners. They have to go after the old owner rather than the new one, although it can hurt the ski resort's image.

[EagleAce]

The only problem our Yan fixed grip triple gives us that I've seen so far is the magnetic bottom bullwheel guide switches (RPDs) act up now and then.

[liftmech]

Have you got the GO switches? That's what we have and we also have problems from time to time.

[EagleAce]

It's a magnet inside a metal block that is attracted to the haul rope. When we have excessive rope bounce, the magnet drops away and dumps the e-brake. I'm still learning the tech aspects of this lift since it's different than the Yan I worked on at Dodge Ridge. It had brittle cards.

[shoemanII]

the switch is doing it's job of letting you know the rope has lifted off the sheave.

to investigate why there is rope bounce, check the location of the breakover point: it should be in proximity to the guide sheave. if it's too far downhill, folks stand up too early and the chair pushes them around a bit on the ramp. unskilled passengers may pile up, or push the chair around as they avoid falling. if it's too late you'll have excessive chair swing as they unload and a passenger might get tagged in the ear every so often by the chair armrest. and make sure the snow height is not excessive (around 20inches is a good starting point). you might want to check the load on the sheave too, might be very light.

maybe investigate why the switch is tied into the e-stop circuit: will save a lot of pumping if tied into the normal stop circuit.

good luck!
bobp

This post has been edited by shoemanII: 27 March 2007 - 09:52 AM

[skierdude9450]

skiersage, on Apr 6 2006, 05:07 PM, said:

To answer some questions,
The reason why yan hsq's that had Pol-x west grips were replaced was because the new grips did not fixed the rest of the terminal woes and other problems that the lifts had. The following quote sums it up nicely:

So that is why the silver star lifts were replaced.

Another popular question is why do yan lifts make bigger headlines than when, for example, the hsq at sunapee (Poma) threw a chair out of the terminal. I think that I have finally figured out why this is true. Riblet clips are ejected from the haul rope every so often. The average is about three a year! So why is this not a big deal? The reason is because most of the time, Riblet clips fell off the line because of accidents not because of error of manufacturing. likewise, yan lifts had accidents because of poorly manufactured or poorly designed (or both) parts. When these things broke, it arose suspicion if lift engineering was cutting too many costs to make lifts affordable. Other lift brands do not get as much attention because there was not worries about companies cutting costs and therefore making lifts unsafe.

All in all, Yan had some of the best designs out there but did not take the time or money to make sure they were totally safe. If he did I am sure we would still be seeing some of yan's "revolutions" being built today.

I don't care what you think, those terminals look downright ugly. And as what was said in the qoute, look like a maintainence nightmare.

[EagleAce]

shoemanII, on Mar 27 2007, 10:50 AM, said:

maybe investigate why the switch is tied into the e-stop circuit: will save a lot of pumping if tied into the normal stop circuit.

good luck!
bobp

I've always seen derope switches tied to the e-brake circuit. We don't have to pump ours by hand- push the reset button on the panel upstairs and it repressurizes.

[Emax]

"I've always seen derope switches tied to the e-brake circuit."

No Yan ever came out of the factory wired that way. I can think of no good reason why one would want to.

This post has been edited by Emax: 04 April 2007 - 05:42 AM

[Fixed Grip Quad]

Skier, on 04 April 2006 - 02:45 PM, said:

here are some pics

Still Have these pics?

[Backbowlsbilly]

Here are pictures of a Yan high speed quad in Iran (https://www.bergbahn...php?f=13&t=2278)

Not necessarily a high speed quad, but I took pictures of the Yan jigback gondola at Water World and sent them to Peter for his blog. (https://liftblog.com...water-world-co/) I worked on this lift for the last two summers and can answer any questions. Thought it was worth a mention on the Yan page.

[_litz]

Wasn't the main problem with the Yan grips their ability to, well, 'grip' on steep angles?

That installation in Iran looks fairly placid and flat, and it probably runs just fine there.

[iceberg210]

_litz, on 11 May 2017 - 04:43 PM, said:

Wasn't the main problem with the Yan grips their ability to, well, 'grip' on steep angles?

That installation in Iran looks fairly placid and flat, and it probably runs just fine there.

Any grip is going to have it's worst case scenario at steeper angles because the component of the force of gravity pulling against the grip is higher. For example on a perfectly level rope gravity isn't pulling at all in either direction trying to get the grip to slip on the rope. However as you increase the slope angle gravity will continue to exert more and more force pulling the grip down the rope until in a perfectly vertical rope you'd be having the full force of gravity pulling the grip.

So no matter fixed, detachable, or manufacture the steeper the slope the more gripping force you'll need.

[_litz]

True, but I thought the problem with the Yan grips was their unusual susceptibility in the more severe slope situations.

[Backbowlsbilly]

To the best of my knowledge, the Yan grips had problems since they used rubber springs, which performed differently in colder temperatures. This made them more susceptible to steep line profiles, such as the pitch on Quicksilver at Whistler where the most infamous Yan detachable accident occurred. The reduced grip force would also be an issue in other situations such as stops, which set off the accident at Whistler. However, Yan detach grips also had other problems, Keystone's Yan gondola was quickly removed due to excessive wear on the grips and lack of swing clearance caused wear on the grips at Whistler. Long story short, Yan detach quads did have unusual susceptibility on steeper pitches, but in a midst of a sea of other problems. More photos are linked below

https://www.remontee...ering-1057.html - Yan HSQ in Spain
https://www.remontee...ering-5782.html - Keystone's original Yan River Run Gondola

[Backbowlsbilly]

Was able to find some info on the Yan gondola at Squaw Valley, installed in 1983. It lasted only 2 seasons and was replaced by a Poma gondola followed by the funitel. The info comes from a Lift Engineering line profile diagram, with some attached pictures below. Kind of a cool find, as there isn't much out there about this system.

1. Lift specifications
2. Unique Yan hold down assemblies
3. Breakover towers
4. Tall towers rising from the base area.

All images are courtesy of the Information Center for Ropeway Studies at the Colorado School of Mines.

Attached File(s)

•  IMG_0667.jpg (735.12K)
  Number of downloads: 262
•  IMG_0668 better.JPG (650.21K)
  Number of downloads: 339
•  IMG_0670.jpg (733.68K)
  Number of downloads: 315
•  IMG_0671 better.JPG (879.76K)
  Number of downloads: 227

[skierdude9450]

Very cool! Would be great to see some photos of that lift.