Alamo1 uses an HT500 skidding system, support stands, a 10-1G gasoline pump and Ekki jacking timbers, all from Hydra-Slide, to skid a transformer.
Services Ltd. A large part of their work involved moving transformers and refinery vessels in the range of 100– 300 tons. Typical methods included jacking the load, placing a row of four-inch-diameter aluminum pipe rollers under it, pulling with the load line of a crane, and holding back with another crane load line or winch. As Mahnke later described, it got the job done, but he was always concerned with the safety of the operation, as well as how time consuming and inefficient it was. (Tey also had a few transformers that “ran away”— causing serious equipment damage.) Around 1982, Mahnke (and Lackie) did a job
in Sarnia, Ontario, in partnership with Rigging International, whereby they transported three 600- ton vessels, and Rigging International did the lifting/ placement with a chain-lift tower system. Rigging International’s tower system included a moveable hoist device on top of the tower system that was moved sideways along a graphite lubricated track by hydraulic push cylinders. It got Mahnke thinking.
He went to work designing a hand-portable, ground- based system that could be used to move transformers horizontally in a much safer, more efficient way. About a year later, he came up with their first skidding system using hydraulic push cylinders and moveable load shoes on a graphite lubricated track—with a 500-ton capacity as the goal.
Te first-generation prototype confirmed that the principle was sound, but when it came to a joint in the track—when the push cylinder was on one track section and the load was on the next track section—the 50-ton cylinders pulled the joint apart. So Mahnke went back to the drawing board to redesign the track connection so it would withstand the full pushing force of the cylinders. Te second generation worked wonderfully. Around 1984, the 500-ton capacity heavy track skid system was born. Seven years later, Mahnke co-founded ETARCO Ltd. (Engineered Transportation and Rigging Company Ltd.), and continued working in the field of specialized rigging—with a goal to be among the
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