Having a house 100 vertical feet above your dock makes for a lot of steps; 10 stories, give or take. We had the house, we had the dock, and we had a lot of space in between.
Here are some YouTube videos of it in action:
Building that many steps, not to mention climbing them, was a difficult task to undertake. As my Dad and I were estimating the bill of materials needed, he suggested “Why not just build a lift?”
It seemed very implausible at the time, but as we laid out what was required, we slowly began to believe we could build it. And we eventually did.
Hey bud where did you buy the motor?
What sort of braking system did you use?
Brilliant-
Id like to discuss some of the design with you, as I am in the FEED stage of a similar project
Tom, you can reach me via gmail at jeffjohnvol
Jeff Johnson
Jeff,
Do you have any specs on this and what did it cost
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for this post. It’s awesome. My wife and I are just completing construction on a house here in Los Angeles in the hills. It comes with a hillside lift that was installed in the 1940’s. I have an electrician familiar with these types of systems, but I’d like to look into some options for controls on the unit as we’d like to update it so that we can call the car from below and above. Do you have any recommendations as to where I can look for electronics?
Any advice is much appreciated.
Justin
Hello Jeff,
Congratulations, excellent work. I am building a tented resort in Penang, Malaysia. We need a funicular railway for up to 6 passengers at a time.
Would you be interested to consult on the project? Either in person or online? Fees and all expenses payable of course! This is a serious offer project currently moving from concept to master planning stage.
Drop me a line if your interested
Thanks for your consideration.
Jon de Rule
Hello,
Did you engineer/ build your system yourself , and did you get your plans approved by your local building department. I am about to install a home built hill side lift system. I am a controls engineer and work for a machinery builder and I have help from mechanical engineers to design a safe system. I noticed you have open platform with no interlocked gate. Do you have an automatic brake system for over speed in the event a catastrophic failure of the cable or spooling system. I have designed in these features along with a slack cable switch. Any suggestions.
Jeff,
G’day. I have a funicular on Lake Lure, NC. It dates back to about the 1940’s and is all “hand made”. It’s a little sick right, so am looking at what you’ve done and am quite impressed. I need to replace my drum, gears, cable and motor. Where did you buy yours?
thanks in advance.
Craig
Hi all, I’m looking for a consultant/designer who has experience to design a Funicular to transport heavy equipment down and up to the valley with max pay load 15 ton, level difference 70m, The track has straight alignment with constant gradient 45 deg.
Does Any one know who should I contact to? I can be reach at bambang.subandi@saeg.co.id or +62 8121163322. Thanks
Hi Jeff
We are in the middle of building and installing our tram and hope you can give us some info. We have a 100
Foot track with a 30 ft lift. We would like to know where you purchased your motor and reduction drive and vfd and control unit. We are having difficulty finding one in our area. Thanks for your help…. your team is amazing!
Nancy and Brian
Jeff,
I want to do this at our lake house too but I am not even close to an engineer. Could you tell me the kind of skills and people I would need to hire to get this done? I am willing to do the labor part but have no skills. Do you have a list of all the parts you used?
thanks
Lee
Hey Jeff, Impressive! I am trying to build a similar system to my lake cabin. It has a 40% incline and is about 150 foot to the cabin. Any schematics you can spare would be great.Thanks Eric Evanoff