90 replies to this topic

[moorecomp]

Don,

I scanned a couple of pictures my aunt sent me this summer. My uncle that bought Mt. Mancelona back in 1979, passed away last year and she wanted me to have them. She also gave me a wooden sign we had made with a Mt. Mancelona logo on it. The picture of the Tucker shows Harold Axtman, the original owner of Mt. Mancelona, in the 1964 model I used to drive all the time to groom the slopes. It was probably taken about 1965 or 66. Had a 6 cylinder Chrysler flat head industrial engine in it. We had to take it apart when we bought the place because it had been sitting outside and the exhaust was uncovered and the rain filled the cylinders with water. Cleaned them up and it used to run great. The tracks were a different story! We actually had a local machine shop make some rollers from a plastic material and just rotated them as they wore flats on them. They did not turn, just slid on the tracks. Not the best, but much cheaper than new. Check out the top tower on the t-bar and the size of the surrounding trees. Still has that look like it was installed recently. The steep run to the right was called Headwall and the one behind was called Big Valley.
The picture of the ski patrolers is from around 1980 or so. Debby, Chuck, Stuart?, Coleen and Dick. Great people. We obviously had good snow that year.





Good luck with the rebuilds, and I would love to come over and check the old place out. I'm in the phonebook. Give me a call. I can give you a few tips on the t-bar and repairing the springboxes.

Craig Moore
Mancelona, MI

[Don Coyote®]

WOW!!!


Love the pics.

Boy. that Tucker looks just like ours,..... only ours is a 1967. Man,..... I've been bustin my hump for the last few years keeping up with maintenance on that old beast,..... but it's all been worth it. It still gets me around the mountain just great. (It's needing a new clutch, though).


I've almost got all the hard stuff wrapped up on getting the t-bar back in operation. I've had to build a new gearbox (from scratch) to reduce the RPMs and to reverse the rotation. My engine is already gear-reduced, but not quite enough. The driveshaft was going about 500 RPMs when the engine was going about 2000RPMs,..... I need 260RPM. And in order to get the proper rotation, the driveshaft and pulleys and belts would have been in the middle of the room,..... I want them to run against the wall (for safety) so I had to turn the engine 180-degrees and reverse the rotation with gears. (I run two CNC Milling centers at work,..... and I get to play during my lunchtime).

Stay tuned,....... there WILL be more to come.

[Don Coyote®]

Exciting news!!!


I just got my T-Bar to move about 100 yards. After much trial-and-error, I finally got my 4-cylinder Wisconsin to turn the big bullwheel around!!! But then, a carriage got tangled in a tall pine tree and stopped the lift. My engine has a on/off gear-reduced transmission with some kind of automatic clutch built in..... it doesn't just stall the engine when I engage the transmission,... and when the tree ate my seat, it stalled the lift but not the engine.

.....(Cool).

After I cut away all the nasty branches and get the way cleared, I'll get a video of my Dinosaur in action and uploaded to YouTube.

I'll finally be snowboarding at Mount Mancelona, this year!!!












.....(But I still have that detachable platter lift to finish, as well).

This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 10 October 2010 - 03:11 PM

[Don Coyote®]

The Beast in action!!!!! .....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U82Sph08ZBw


Enjoy!!!

[iceberg210]

Very nice! And uber congratulations on resurrecting that old lift. Now just some lift line pruning and you guys are set. Thanks for keeping us updated. Best of luck on the Poma!

[Bogong]

This is terrific! ... "It's alive!"

You have (almost) restored life to a couple of neglected ski lifts that had been left to die.

Surely there is a special corner of skiers heaven reserved for people who take on worthy tasks like this!

This post has been edited by Bogong: 14 October 2010 - 07:27 AM

[Don Coyote®]

Now that my Buddy has seen the lift in action,..... he says he'll attempt to get a new roof put on the shack by snowfall.

We also need to get a new clutch in the Tucker. (It's not able to pull a roller, it barely gets around the hill on it's own).


A few more minor adjustments to BOTH lifts, and we'll be in action!!!. ( I just need to finish gathering my winter firewood, first).

[Don Coyote®]

Bogong, on 14 October 2010 - 07:25 AM, said:

This is terrific! ... "It's alive!"

I was trying to be somewhere between "Frankenstien" and "The Three Stooges".


My 14yo kid was supposed to be my cameraman, and there was a little more of this schtick that I wanted to do.....but the kid was out hanging with his pals and I had to use a tripod and shoot it, myself.... and I had to edit out some good sight-gags.

It wasn't what I was hoping for,..... but I thought it turned out okay.


I'm kind-of a filmmaker,..... in fact one of my 8mm shorts made it to The History Channel's "MonsterQuest", this spring. The episode titled... "America's Wolfman". My film has been titled "The Gable Film", and is all over YouTube. (If anyone is interested in watching it).

The MonsterQuest episode can also be found, there.

[Andoman]

Don Coyote®, on 16 October 2010 - 05:12 PM, said:

I was trying to be somewhere between "Frankenstien" and "The Three Stooges".


My 14yo kid was supposed to be my cameraman, and there was a little more of this schtick that I wanted to do.....but the kid was out hanging with his pals and I had to use a tripod and shoot it, myself.... and I had to edit out some good sight-gags.

It wasn't what I was hoping for,..... but I thought it turned out okay.


I'm kind-of a filmmaker,..... in fact one of my 8mm shorts made it to The History Channel's "MonsterQuest", this spring. The episode titled... "America's Wolfman". My film has been titled "The Gable Film", and is all over YouTube. (If anyone is interested in watching it).

The MonsterQuest episode can also be found, there.

very cool

[skier691]

Watch out for the Antrim county Dogman....Ive seen some wierd stuff coming home from the hill in the wee hours....Id love to come out and see that girl run sometime.

[Don Coyote®]

BOOYAH!!!!!!!




We just spent about an hour finishing up the final assembly of my new design and another three hours playing with the newly ressurrected Doppelmayr!!!

My new design has the brand new engine mounted just in front of the original electric motor, where it should be.

Now I just need to build some new seats. (The old ones have rotted pretty badly after sitting idle and enduring the elements for the last 27 years).

We started the day with four good ones, and are down to the last single "T". I also have to get some mufflers on the engine.


But we now have a RELIABLE ski-lift to play with at Mt Mancelona.




http://www.youtube.c...h?v=_HLZWkliF4g

[Andoman]

[Petz]

Congratulations Don, looks great !!!

Its rather simpel to built new seats:
I took a piece of round wooden stick and fixed at the upper side an U - formed piece of flat iron with a welded eye on it for connecting with the hanger´s rope. On the lower side came three together glued curved sheets from an old bed slat rust. Screwed with the round wood and armored with two angled flat iron pieces on each side screwed between both parts.

Have done two bad pictures (have no usb on my computer) to show how its done.

Attached File(s)

•  SkiliftHangerSeat01.jpg (46.78K)
  Number of downloads: 67
•  SkiliftHangerSeat02.jpg (44.23K)
  Number of downloads: 62

This post has been edited by Petz: 08 March 2011 - 12:07 PM

[XMTN]

Don Coyote®, on 06 March 2011 - 06:57 PM, said:

BOOYAH!!!!!!!




We just spent about an hour finishing up the final assembly of my new design and another three hours playing with the newly ressurrected Doppelmayr!!!

My new design has the brand new engine mounted just in front of the original electric motor, where it should be.

Now I just need to build some new seats. (The old ones have rotted pretty badly after sitting idle and enduring the elements for the last 27 years).

We started the day with four good ones, and are down to the last single "T". I also have to get some mufflers on the engine.


But we now have a RELIABLE ski-lift to play with at Mt Mancelona.




http://www.youtube.c...h?v=_HLZWkliF4g

Don
Wondering what you are planning to do with this old critter? I would love to see a few picts of your modified drive. How is the haul rope? 25 years of sitting could not have been good for it.

[Don Coyote®]

27 Years in hiatus hasn't done much to the cable, it still looks in fine condition. (Unlike the Poma/Platter lift I started this thread about,..... it's rusty as hell and it looks like it could snap at any given moment). We've put six new T's on it made out of electrical conduit. I removed the very last wood one and put it on display on a wall inside the lodge. We STILL have some line clearing to do,..... I was cutting down some limbs (and whole trees) today,..... but there is still alot to trim out.

But HERE is a great shot of the ride up on my helmet-cam............


http://www.youtube.c...h?v=9SIUrQpTIUA

[Don Coyote®]

XMTN,...... I started rebuilding these lifts primarilly for my own personal use,..... but the owner of the property is really getting excited about having an operational lift in his backyard and is having wild fantasies about opening these hills to public use. And he WAS nice enough to pay for BOTH engines that I tried to power this thing with. The Wisconsin stilll runs, but it's gonna need a complete rebuild, I think. And I think it deserves it, I love these antique engines and stuff..... and love working on them.

I started collecting photos of my work as it progressed, but I lost them all after a hard-drive crash. But THOSE pics were from the OLD design, with the antique Wisconsin engine. Now that we have a brand-new Briggs & Stratton mounted ON TOP the framework (instead of on the ground)... I will likely get some good shots of my current layout for all to admire. (I, myself, can't get enough of looking at it,..... as if it were a masterpiece painted my Michaelangelo, Monet, or Hugh Hefner).


I can't wait to get mufflers on it.

This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 13 March 2011 - 05:39 PM

[Petz]

Don Coyote®, on 13 March 2011 - 05:34 PM, said:

as if it were a masterpiece painted my Michaelangelo, Monet, or Hugh Hefner

If i had the choice between this "masterpieces" and your lift you can be sure that i choose the Doppelmayr and Poma...
A Briggs & Stratton engine is good but not fitting the ambience for such an old lift, maybe you will get an old small ship diesel engine somedays in the future...
Unfortunately in Europe we have no chance to save such oldtimers cause the authorities doesn´t allow a further use of lifts older than 30 years. Pure private use is not excepted from this regulations too so lifts had to be strictly abadoned when the authority permissions run out.

Hope to see more pictures and videos in the future and good luck !

[Don Coyote®]

I finally got mufflers on it on Friday, 3-18-2011!!!


It sounds so nice.


But the snow is disappearing at an alarming rate. We haven't had a chance to actually USE it while it's so much more quiet.


If it gets cold and stops melting, we'll still have enough base left for a few more last rides,.... especially if we get a couple more inches of fresh stuff to go on top.


(Wishful thinking, I know...... but it could happen).

This post has been edited by Don Coyote®: 21 March 2011 - 05:43 PM

[skier691]

If we get that storm like they are hyping, Id love a ride in exchange for labor.

Don Coyote®, on 21 March 2011 - 05:42 PM, said:

I finally got mufflers on it on Friday, 3-18-2011!!!


It sounds so nice.


But the snow is disappearing at an alarming rate. We haven't had a chance to actually USE it while it's so much more quiet.


If it gets cold and stops melting, we'll still have enough base left for a few more last rides,.... especially if we get a couple more inches of fresh stuff to go on top.


(Wishful thinking, I know...... but it could happen).

[Petz]

Don Coyote®, on 21 March 2011 - 05:42 PM, said:

If it gets cold and stops melting, we'll still have enough base left for a few more last rides,.... especially if we get a couple more inches of fresh stuff to go on top.

Don, hope you would have the possibility filming a complete updrive and showing more technical details like hanger roller battery passing or hanger driving around the turning wheel too. Would be very interested in seeig this.