between what small ski areas could
afford and what a lift of this nature
would cost.
“When Labrador Mountain called,
we took on the challenge and decided
to adapt a traditional four-post vehicle
lift for the product, which we named
LIF-TRACK,” Pavlick said during a
recent interview with SnowOps.
It’s not an understatement to say
LIF-Track revolutionized vehicle maintenance
at ski resorts. Now in its third
generation, the lift is widely recognized
for increasing productivity and
shop safety. While standard vehicle
lifts are about 12 feet wide, a snowcat
lift requires a width of 20 feet. LIFTrack
boasts a moveable platform that
adjusts to raise a wide variety of vehicles,
The fastest, easiest way to
form snow tubing lanes
/ tubeshaper
including snowcats, dump trucks,
backhoes, pick-up trucks, ATVs and
even snowmobiles.
As an all-vehicle lift, LIF-Track’s versatility
makes it a useful tool at busy ski
hill maintenance shops.
At Colorado’s Vail Mountain, shop
supervisor Justin Tate oversees the
maintenance of 44 snowcats and other
miscellaneous equipment. Last September,
Tate’s shop installed a new
LIF-Track system with a 40,000-pound
capacity. It replaced a 25-year-old earlier
generation LIF-Track that maxed
out at 25,000 pounds.
“I was the bad guy because I disabled
our old lift; it didn’t have the capacity
for modern snowcats,” said Tate. “For a
year and a half, we had to use creepers
FAST, EASY, MORE
• More lanes in the same area than
conventional grooming techniques
• Used at over 50 snow tubing hills
throughout the US and Canada
• Stay tuned for a new product
for customers that like the
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to get under the equipment, which we
drove up on blocks of wood.”
Without the LIF-Track, maintenance
took much longer, and workers were
tasked with the dirty and uncomfortable
job of lying on their backs, under
wet and muddy machinery. Tate says
the new lift cuts the time to complete
preventative snowcat maintenance
in half. It is so effective that Vail
Mountain is planning to buy another
40,000-pound capacity lift for its upper
mountain maintenance shop.
“If we have two technicians on a
snowcat job, you can have one up top
and one underneath. Lifting it up in the
air makes it so much easier – you have
easier access to tools, drain pans and
parts. The new lift is a foot wider than
the older spec, so we can put up some
of our snowcats that are bigger than
standard,” said Tate.
Since that first request from Labrador
Mountain, Lif-Tech has sold more
than 130 LIF-Track units to ski hills
across the United States and Canada.
Like the one at Vail Mountain, many
of the older lifts are nearing the end
of their lifespan. Pavlick says much of
his current business is generated from
replacement sales.
The latest LIF-Track, released in
2019, is available with a 30,000-pound
capacity for around $52,000 or a 40,000-
pound capacity priced around $60,000,
not including freight and installation.
Pavlick says the second-generation
MAINTENANCE
38 April 2021 | snowopsmag.com
/www.tubeshaper.com
/snowopsmag.com
