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The "Sugarbush Thread"

tumbler

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Lifts haven't even spun yet and Win is on FB making excuses. Nothing like waiting til the last minute to get your lift work done and inspected. That's on Mtn Ops. Spectacular start.
 

steamboat1

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Wow & I took grief for bashing Sugarbush a few pages back.

Look at you guys.

They do have lovely brand new condo's for sale if anyone is interested.

Fresh local poop in Timbers every night.
 

Tin

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Waiting on an auxiliary motor part, pointing at 2 inspectors retiring, and charging $73 for mid to bottom? Great place but they really need to get their shit together.
 

deadheadskier

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Maybe this is the kind of snafu needed to convince Win to focus early and late season operations at North........more reliable lifts. :lol:
 

Tin

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One would think all the issues from last season would maybe MAYBE prompt management to keep some spare parts on hand, but I guess that's just too logical?


You should quote the words from Win you posted on the other forum. I remember reading that the first time and feeling warm and fuzzy, then when you posted it this morning I wanted to throw my computer. So much for heading up Tuesday. Every time I want to drive the 4 hours up now I have to keep checking to see what lifts running.
 
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tumbler

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North will not be the early season. They are focusing all efforts to open Inverness for GMVS which takes all the snowmaking capacity there.
 

thetrailboss

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They have some issues with critical infrastructure--lifts and snowmaking. The people are great. It's a challenging business.



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steamboat1

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Another forum indicated issues with back up diesel engine. Kind of unbelievable given history and histrionics about all the work they did this summer. I hope this is just a bad start and the rest of the winter sees no issues. But prior performance is worrisome.
It's not that difficult to rebuild a diesel engine, doesn't take long either. I don't know what type of diesel back up engine they have but if it's from one of the main manufacturers parts should be readily available.
 

Tin

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8" of snow between today and yesterday and still going...

Side note I received an email from Win after something I posted on FB. Have to respect that.
 
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benski

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It's not that difficult to rebuild a diesel engine, doesn't take long either. I don't know what type of diesel back up engine they have but if it's from one of the main manufacturers parts should be readily available.

Win said they could not find the part on the east coast.


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slatham

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This is what Win posted this afternoon on the Skimrv blog. I for one will cut them some slack......

Welcome to the 2014/2015 Season
Welcome to our new winter season. We will be opening tomorrow for skiing. We were not quite ready today for a passholder appreciation day but you will find some nice skiing and riding tomorrow. I just took a run and was pleased with what our new HKD's put out. Tomorrow Downspout all the way down will be groomed through Coffee Run and Lower Organgrinder will have some nice fresh manmade powder. The first turns especially will be sweet.

Let me preempt some discussion about why we are only skiing from mid-mountain down tomorrow. The Heaven's Gate lift is still a couple of days away from being ready for public use.
As for inspection about two weeks ago. it was running beautifully both on the electric motor and the auxiliary diesel motor, Every 7 years a lift is required to do a load test unless major system changes have been made and then it has to be done at that point before the Tram authority will clear it for public use. We had not had a load test of Heaven's Gate for several years. When the inspector from the Tram Authority was here it ran perfectly on the electric motor but when we switched it to diesel it ran but just a bit slower that the code requires, so it did not pass. After eliminating all the other possibilities we called in Cummins Engine to take the auxiliary motor apart.. Unfortunately, their work schedule did allow them to get here for several days. They discovered that the fuel injection system was not working properly so they took it back to their shop to fix it. Unfortunately, the part the required to complete the job was not in any East Coast locations so they had to track one down out West and have in shipped to them in Springfield, MA and they couldn't get it up here in time for to get it installed and then inspected by tomorrow morning. We expect Cummins will have it installed in a day or two and then we have to get the Vermont Tram inspector back to do the load test again. Not sure he is willing to to it on a weekend but we will try. Then it should be in great shape for the season.

Thus, we will not be skiing Upper Jester but we changed the snowmaking priority to Lower Grinder to have that ready by tomorrow morning.

Despite this I think you will enjoy the first day, and I look forward to a great season.

Win also answered a good question as to why the inspection was only a few weeks ago. That was when "Sky Trac" completed their work on the lift.

Think snow people, think snow.
 

thetrailboss

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This is what Win posted this afternoon on the Skimrv blog. I for one will cut them some slack......

Welcome to the 2014/2015 Season
Welcome to our new winter season. We will be opening tomorrow for skiing. We were not quite ready today for a passholder appreciation day but you will find some nice skiing and riding tomorrow. I just took a run and was pleased with what our new HKD's put out. Tomorrow Downspout all the way down will be groomed through Coffee Run and Lower Organgrinder will have some nice fresh manmade powder. The first turns especially will be sweet.

Let me preempt some discussion about why we are only skiing from mid-mountain down tomorrow. The Heaven's Gate lift is still a couple of days away from being ready for public use.
As for inspection about two weeks ago. it was running beautifully both on the electric motor and the auxiliary diesel motor, Every 7 years a lift is required to do a load test unless major system changes have been made and then it has to be done at that point before the Tram authority will clear it for public use. We had not had a load test of Heaven's Gate for several years. When the inspector from the Tram Authority was here it ran perfectly on the electric motor but when we switched it to diesel it ran but just a bit slower that the code requires, so it did not pass. After eliminating all the other possibilities we called in Cummins Engine to take the auxiliary motor apart.. Unfortunately, their work schedule did allow them to get here for several days. They discovered that the fuel injection system was not working properly so they took it back to their shop to fix it. Unfortunately, the part the required to complete the job was not in any East Coast locations so they had to track one down out West and have in shipped to them in Springfield, MA and they couldn't get it up here in time for to get it installed and then inspected by tomorrow morning. We expect Cummins will have it installed in a day or two and then we have to get the Vermont Tram inspector back to do the load test again. Not sure he is willing to to it on a weekend but we will try. Then it should be in great shape for the season.

Thus, we will not be skiing Upper Jester but we changed the snowmaking priority to Lower Grinder to have that ready by tomorrow morning.

Despite this I think you will enjoy the first day, and I look forward to a great season.

Win also answered a good question as to why the inspection was only a few weeks ago. That was when "Sky Trac" completed their work on the lift.

Think snow people, think snow.

Interesting that Sky Trac and not Poma is doing the work. Anyone know why? It is a Poma lift after all.


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BushMogulMaster

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Interesting that Sky Trac and not Poma is doing the work. Anyone know why? It is a Poma lift after all.


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My guess - Sky Trac is still trying to gain a hold on a market share. Probably priced more competitively, and they are known to do quality work.


But this is the one I want to really grab onto:

It's not that difficult to rebuild a diesel engine, doesn't take long either. I don't know what type of diesel back up engine they have but if it's from one of the main manufacturers parts should be readily available.


First of all, this problem seems to be with the injection system. Without knowing what model this is, I have to assume it's a commonrail injection system. Obviously, we're not talking about a rebuild. But fuel injection is critical in diesel combustion, and can be complex, especially in high horsepower applications.

But rebuilding a high-horsepower diesel engine is neither easy, nor fast. We had a full in-frame rebuild on two Cummins 8.3 units in our cats last year (spun a bearing in one, and dropped a valve in the other - both right about 9,000 hours), and it can be a week-long project when you factor in teardown, final diagnosis, resleeving, replacing connecting rods and pistons (and crankshafts, for that matter...) as necessary, and then reassembling. Not to mention that typically if a rebuild is required, you're looking at turbo and manifold work, and likely injection system work. Especially if it's a HEUI system! But I don't think Cummins ever went that route......

Anyway, not commenting at all on the Bush's situation (we've all got our own problems to worry about this time of year!), just sayin'... diesel engines are, on one hand, quite simple in theory. Yet on the other hand, often quite complex in real-world applications.
 
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Scruffy

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.... When the inspector from the Tram Authority was here it ran perfectly on the electric motor but when we switched it to diesel it ran but just a bit slower that the code requires, so it did not pass. After eliminating all the other possibilities we called in Cummins Engine to take the auxiliary motor apart.. Unfortunately, their work schedule did allow them to get here for several days. They discovered that the fuel injection ...

Interesting that the back-up system ( the diesel ) needs to run at some predetermined, by code, speed. I thought the back-up diesel was to get people off a lift that was going to shutdown anyway, due to an electric outage or other main motor malfunction. Seems a bit picky to me, I'd be happy to get off the lift, even at a slower pace, rather than a evact. Can someone with knowledge in the area shed any light on the speed requirement? Perhaps the speed just an indicator of an unhealthy diesel engine ?
 
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