Vail Gondola WTF

[iceman]

Paging AvE to the armchair analysis phone ...

AvE and Apetor are the two best things on Youtube.

[iceman]

was this "safety monitoring system" just somebody with eyes and a cell phone riding the lift?

Sounds like one of the cabins hit the tower so yeah, basically.

[The AD]

Sounds like one of the cabins hit the tower so yeah, basically.

The audible "clang!" tipped them off.

[Skistack]

Could be ...

[ill-advised strategy]

Oh, so an afternoon, a couple of buddies,

remember though, don't call them "buddy" or they'll get all rancorous and shit.

[Cruiser]

^^^ Huh? No kidding? So lift maintenance types perfect gender neutral pronouns too?

[redacted user]

"hey zer, toss me that wrench"

[pureantigravity]

Little story ...

I bought these best quality SS bolts from a marine supply store.
1/4" Bolts with with plastic-loc nuts.
Now, after install, I had to reinstall and I successfully undid most of the nuts.
But one. The plastic-loc nut just would not budge.
Used as small 4" rachet to undo said nut with wrist-strength applied.
Bam. Bolt broke in half with a nice pointy break showing the rotation of the fatigued metal.
That wasn't meant to excite you.
Just that I was surprised how bad SS bolts were that a plastic-loc nut would bust them.

I sure hope they don't use SS bolts with plastic-loc nuts on that thing!

[iceman]

It's Chinesium. It's not always bad by any means but you can't trust it. Which makes it useless, to me. When I fix something I want it to stay fixed for a while.

[Skidog]

It's Chinesium. It's not always bad by any means but you can't trust it. Which makes it useless, to me. When I fix something I want it to stay fixed for a while.

Where's good ole Pittsburgh steel when you need it?

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[The SnowShow]

Glad I went Ikon. I don’t need no bolt shearing off while passing by 50’ above the ground.
Lots of capital going into Ikonic Resorts.

[k2skier112]

Little story ...

I bought these best quality SS bolts from a marine supply store.
1/4" Bolts with with plastic-loc nuts.
Now, after install, I had to reinstall and I successfully undid most of the nuts.
But one. The plastic-loc nut just would not budge.
Used as small 4" rachet to undo said nut with wrist-strength applied.
Bam. Bolt broke in half with a nice pointy break showing the rotation of the fatigued metal.
That wasn't meant to excite you.
Just that I was surprised how bad SS bolts were that a plastic-loc nut would bust them.

I sure hope they don't use SS bolts with plastic-loc nuts on that thing!

Many, MANY different grades of SS.

What most likely happened was galling, threading stainless on stainless without lubrication, (never seize or light oil) can weld SS together.

[nickwm21]

"...after a safety monitoring system detected the issue with the bolts....." Are there sensors at each junction?

They probably have a sensor measuring the pressure on the hydraulic system that’s keeping the cable tension. Sudden change, alarm goes off in lift ops office, shut er down!



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[pureantigravity]

Many, MANY different grades of SS.

What most likely happened was galling, threading stainless on stainless without lubrication, (never seize or light oil) can weld SS together.

The Nyloc nut with actually backed off about half a centimeter ... then it locked hard.
Then the bolt sheared in half ...
Plastic lock in the Nyloc literally broke the bolt.

Was a Nyloc nut.

[snoqpass]

They probably have a sensor measuring the pressure on the hydraulic system that’s keeping the cable tension. Sudden change, alarm goes off in lift ops office, shut er down!



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There’s multiple sensors for different problems

[SB]

Gremlin alarm is a once a year PM but everybody gundecks it so it was last done about 1977.

[Todd Zander]

The Nyloc nut with actually backed off about half a centimeter ... then it locked hard.
Then the bolt sheared in half ...
Plastic lock in the Nyloc literally broke the bolt.

Was a Nyloc nut.

the nylon/delrin was not the culprit. regardless most grades of ss hardware are significantly softer than coated steel ones

[snoqpass]

the nylon/delrin was not the culprit. regardless most grades of ss hardware are significantly softer than coated steel ones

Even hardened structural bolts need to tightened to specific torque settings to make the proper connection

[Kenny Satch]

[zartagen]

A good report on the incident. They pulled the public CPTSB report.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/07/...-safety-board/

[SB]

Could have been a bad batch of bolts.


They got a deal on them from China I'd wager.

[scrambledbacon]

The original pic and the latest article stating the bolts were "sheared" don't really seem to hand in hand. Any dental engineers want to expound? If there was a rotational force on the upper half,sure. But the pic shows them stretched or pulled imo

[Skistack]

Bad bolts or somebody got too happy with the impact wrench.


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[billyk]

The original pic and the latest article stating the bolts were "sheared" don't really seem to hand in hand. Any dental engineers want to expound? If there was a rotational force on the upper half,sure. But the pic shows them stretched or pulled imo

After mulling on this for awhile, I came to the conclusion that the original picture was taken sometime after an emergency partial repair. Someone climbed up there with that bucket and wrench and replaced the bolts that had sheared off with longer bolts, and just snugged them to try to keep the tower from going any farther. And then climbed back down until the powers could inspect the situation and decide on the proper solution.

[SB]

The other thing is when the tower leaned it put hard stress areas on the opposite flange. The whole tower should be fluxed to see if there are any cracks not visable to the naked eye.