Loveland Lift 4 Chair back in service! A How-to for hanging a lift chair from a porch

[bendtheski]

Some of you might know the story, but for those of you who don't...
Loveland is replacing lift 4. Approximately 75 chairs were auctioned off to pass holders. I was lucky enough to be chosen and so the challenge began; mount an ancient double ski chair on the porch by the 4th of July without missing a single (lift served) skiing opportunity.

I have to admit, I was way over my head with this project. Ask me to adjust the gears on your mountain bike, face a head tube, chase the threads on your bottom bracket, or bleed your hydraulic brakes and I'd be fine, but when it comes to real-world hammers, saws, and wooden structures, I'm clueless. Fortunately I wasn't in a big hurry, and had plenty of people with a clue to ask.

What really brought it together was asking the architect who designed the home. I wanted to make sure the rafters could support a 150lb chair and 2 adults up to 200lbs each. I told him I wanted to divide the weight between 3 rafters, in two places, and then to somehow connect the span with something that I could hang the chair from. The first thing that came to my mind was two sections of steel plate with holes drilled to line up with the rafters. Then I thought I'd have a rod welded between the two to hang the chair from.

While this approach would probably have worked, it seemed like it would be really labor intensive and probably very heavy. My architect suggested Super-Strut. I was like "Super-what"??!! He then showed me how he had used a couple of pieces of Super-Strut to run some conduit along a wall and then proceeded to reef on it a few times to demonstrate how strong it was. It didn't budge; I was convinced.

The next day I headed to home depot in search of Super-Strut and some other odds and ends to complete the project.

On July 2nd all the players were assembled.

July 3rd. I hoped to have the chair solidly mounted by the afternoon and to have applied the first coat of paint. Ambitious but possible I thought.

The rafters, the architect informed me were 2"x6", 24" apart and 5ft in length. My only real challenge was not blocking an existing light fixture and of course locating the rafters. Locating the rafters and drilling pilot holes was easy enough, but wrenching the lag bolts into place proved to be quite a challenge. I improvised a section of Super-Strut as a ratchet extension handle and things got easier.

I kept repeating the mounting mantra to myself over and over again; measure twice, drill once, measure twice... and whaddya know, it worked!




The chair only came with a partial cable clamp which was OK since I have no idea how I would have rigged a span of cable from the ceiling, or where I would have found a section of lift cable in the first place! The partial clamp had cut out 1-3/4" wide that would have fit nicely over a section of pipe, if only I could find a section of 1-3/4" pipe.
As it turned out, the Super-Strut comes in a U-shape and the bottom (or top) of the U was narrow enough to fit nicely into the partial clamp without allowing a lot of side to side motion. The only challenge was finding a way to secure the clamp from sliding fore and aft or rocking too much side to side. The solution was metal strapping and a little black-smithing with hammer and crescent wrench. Voila, custom metal brackets!





The brackets are actually the least impressive part of this whole project. It would have been nice to use some pre-fab pipe brackets, but the holes in the machined clamp were too small in diameter and the distance between them is different than standard pipe dimensions so... hammer time!

After that it was all downhill. Washdown, paint and then let the wife accessorize! Really wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be and seems plenty sturdy for two adults! It's a few inches lower than I'd like althogh it's a pretty nice recline position as is. I might talk to a welder about removing a 3 or 4" section of the swing-arm, but am going to test-drive for a few weeks first. I'm going to attach a detatchable anchor to the porch so it doesn't slam into the house when the typical Georgetown wind tunnel kicks up, but other than that I think it's a keeper!







I know this probably belongs in Tech Talk Jong! but it is a chair for skiing/snowboarding (or used to be) so I think I'll leave it here.
Also, technically I could have skied lift served at A-Basin yesterday and today, but then I would have blown my July 4th deadline and anyway, I'm over it. (A-Basin that is)
Some of you more observant types might have noticed that the old chair number was 103 and that now the number is painted over. The new chair number will of course be 69 and will be stenciled in by next weekend. In high vis white I think.

Happy 4th erybody!

[berko]

I like it.

[Big Snowballs]

Totally Cool

[DasBlunt]

^^^^^what he said^^^^

stoked for you!!! Looks great too.

[DasBlunt]

I like when you look up you can still see some old remnants, pretty rad IMO.

[RootSkier]

well done.

[bendtheski]

I'm the best skier on this porch!

[Mike_Records]

Awesome, well done!

[pbourdon]

Looking good T. We'll have to kick back a couple of cold ones on it one of these afternoons.

"I'm gonna rip the shit outta this porch!!!"

[montanaskier]

your wife weighs 200lbs?


Nice job by the way, looks really low but that is probably just the way it looks in the pic.

[bendtheski]

The wife's not 200lbs, (thank God) I just didn't want a couple of fat-asses tearing my roof down!

It is a little on the low side, but comfortable. Takes some effort to get out of after a few cocktails. The other option would have been to mount it on top of the rafters and leave a hole in the sheeting for the arm. I didn't want critters to have easy access to nesting inside the space above and so went with the flush mount. I can always hire a welder to cut 3 or 4" off the arm and re-attach, but after the preliminary test-drive I'm thinking of leaving well enough alone.

Loveland kept all the salvageable parts for their other similar chairs still in service which makes sense. I'm just glad they left the pivot at the top of the arm in-tact. Makes for some sweet frictionless swinging!

The wife was harshing me about not painting the clamp, but I wanted to keep some remnant of the original color. Saw some pics of the original blue on the LL site and thought it was pretty cool!

Anyone care to speculate if the new triple will have safety bars?
I'm really hoping NO!

Thanks to all for the kind words re. my hack carpentry skills!

[pbourdon]

Anyone care to speculate if the new triple will have safety bars?
I'm really hoping NO!

If it does, and I'm still around to be on it with you, you can bet your ass I'm pullling it down without any sort of warning and smacking you on the helmet with it.

[bendtheski]

If it does, and I'm still around to be on it with you, you can bet your ass I'm pullling it down without any sort of warning and smacking you on the helmet with it.

Heh heh, is there another reason to wear a helmet, aside from the striking good looks?

I'm gonna put a safety bar on my porch chair so you can bash my empty skull while allowing easy access to the paramedics!
Photo to follow, full gear on the porch chair including helmet, safety bar, climbing harness and powder leashes... just in case. No fucking pole straps though, I'm a rebel!

[Mike_Records]

Anyone care to speculate if the new triple will have safety bars?
I'm really hoping NO!

I don't know man I'm a pretty big fan of footrests. I don't care as much about safety bars, but it is nice to have something to hold onto when throwing snowballs...

[bendtheski]

I don't know man I'm a pretty big fan of footrests. I don't care as much about safety bars, but it is nice to have something to hold onto when throwing snowballs...

Yeah, I've prolly mentioned before that I have a little issue with heights and even spent a bunch of years in VT where state law mandates that skiers lower the safety bar, so you'd think I'd be used to them by now.
I guess my main issue is the same as many here; the gapers that pull the bar down without any warning, creasing my ultra-rad helmet. Also, having to shift over to one side or the other of the foot rest on a half-full chair.
I used to like the footrest when my feet were cramping which used to be just about all the time, but then I stopped skiing langes and started skiing kryptons; problem solved!

The snowball throwing issue is a valid one which is why I always ski with one of these...



I think I would make this my new avatar if my current one wasn't so awesome...

[fish]

it doesn't swing? that's bullshit

nice work

[bendtheski]

Oh it swings Jerry!
I'm going to tether it to the deck so the wind doesn't blow it into the house when not in use.

[tillPOWdidwepart]

I'm jealous.... Nice work!

[pbourdon]

Holy FKNA awesome batman!!! Think of the fun you could have with one of these. Heh...over in the valley in the spring that thing would RULE!!! I'm a fuckin' sniper from chair #7. I'd always tell my kids that only people in blue instructor jackets were fair game; which worked great until I had a few kids that didn't realize that not EVERY person in a blue jacket is an instructor. Whoops.