Products and Pricing

We offer 4-person, 2-person, 1-person, and two kinds of cargo only lifts that share many standard features to help solve a wide range of problems, from moving people over large distances and major changes of elevation to transporting your luggage and supplies over a short distance from the dock or parking lot to the cottage. We also provide a range of options to best configure each lift to the needs of the terrain and the owner.

We have two basic track designs and a number of configurations of car and drive mechanisms for each.

The Track

The track is the first component we install and the backbone of the lift. We use a heavy track with a 43" width for our 750 lb capacity 4-Passenger lifts and a light track, typically with a 32" width, for all other lifts.

We will not use hollow structural steel to build our tracks, it has an inside and an outside and, no matter how carefully used, moisture will collect inside the tubes and the lift will rust from the inside out. Even worse, the wall thickness used are typically 0.100" so there's not much steel to begin with. Embedding it in a concrete footing exacerbates the problem and leads to a situation where the line of maximum stress and the line of most likely corrosion are the same.

The Basic Lift Mechanism

Every lift has a basic mechanism which includes

  • a brakemotor/reducer/winch assembly that moves the car at about 50 feet per minute
  • on-track sensors that send information to the Lift Control System
  • command buttons you use to control the lift
  • a Lift Control System which runs the motor according to the buttons and sensors
  • wiring to connect all of the above components
  • a car riding on a dolly
  • the emergency braking systems which are integral to the dolly.

Our product line includes:

Standard 4-Passenger lift

  • heavy track with legs every ~20'
  • 2 hp, 220 volt variable speed weather protected industrial quality motor and drive
  • 4-passenger car with fold-up seats
  • optional cargo platform car designed primarily for moving cargo but has the passenger lift safety features
  • slack cable and overspeed safety braking systems

Standard 1-Passenger Combo Lift (optional upgrade to 2-Passenger)

  • light track with legs every ~10'
  • typically restricted to shorter tracks of less than 60' or 80'
  • typically 1 hp, 220 volt variable speed weather protected industrial quality motor and drive
  • optional 2-Passenger car
  • cargo area behind seat on "cantilevered" cars
  • slack cable and overspeed safety braking systems

Standard Cargo-only

  • light track with legs every ~20'
  • 1 hp, 220 volt single speed weather protected industrial quality motor
  • cargo-only car
  • slack cable safety braking system

Light Cargo-only

  • light track with legs every ~20'
  • 110 volt single speed consumer quality weather protected combination motor winch, running at ~38 feet per minute
  • light cargo basket
  • slack cable safety braking system

The Installation

The safety and integrity of an inclined elevator depends on how well it is installed: as examples the track must be solid and straight and the running gear must work smoothly and reliably. Over our years or building lifts we have developed many specialized tools and techniques to deal with different situations we face. Our goal is to build tracks which are straighter than the raw materials we start with. We typically align each new 20' section of track to ±1/16" and use the head of a wood screw or a magic marker crosshair as a target to set the track. We have also evolved the design and installation of the running gear to make it simpler, stronger, and quieter.

For these reasons we do not build DIY kits.

Pricing

Although we build lifts from standard components each lift is unique and must be uniquely priced.

Having said that we can baseline the current cost of a straightforward lift in the Bracebridge area:

Size Lift

10' Track
4-Passenger      $40,000 $2,000
1 and 2-Passenger $35,000 $2,000
Standard Cargo $18,000 $1600
Light Cargo $8,000 $1600

The 1 and 2 Passenger lifts use almost exactly the same hardware as the 4-Passenger lifts, other than the track and car, and are no easier to build, hence their nearly equal price. The smaller size works better in applications where space is restricted.

Other factors which affect the lift price are

  • the height of the off the ground
  • the track angle
  • the terrain and features under and around the track
  • ease of access to site
  • distance from our shop to your site
  • options as listed on our Options page.

If getting up the hill is getting you down, and you want to enjoy your hillside property completely, we can make it happen. Call us for a lift.