Covid spiked in San Joaquin County, California, has caused some problems. I decided to fly into Reno and drive across the border instead of risking some crazy California quarantine. In good weather, the drive is only an extra 30 minutes. What I did not count on is that the route includes crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains. The journey took me through Carson Pass (elevation 10,500 feet) with snow accumulations of several feet each year. The day I arrived, the snow began. After purchasing chains for my rental car, 60 miles through the mountains took 2.5 hours. Big mistake. Instead of arriving at the boat at 6 pm, I arrived at 10 pm in the middle of a rainstorm (this is the rainy season for northern California).
The schedule for this trip was tight. Our generator was ready for installation, and the crane motor was ready for pickup. Another crane motor tested bad and was ready to drop. Also, for some time we have planned to bring a lot of heavy junk to the landfill and clear off the buoy deck. It would be a busy two days.
Landing the Generator
Marcy picked up the generator in Hayward from our friends at A1 Transmission & Marine. Dave used his crane to pick the generator off the truck. Dave then lifted the lid to the engine room and lowered the generator onto the main deck of the engine room. Chris and Joe used come-alongs to get the generator into place on the lower level of the engine room. The new Genset landed without a scratch. The generator is now mounted but no connections have been made.
Installing the Crane Motor
On an earlier trip, two of the crane motors we tested were defective. We pulled the motor for the whip and brought it to Ace Electric Motor and Pump in Stockton. Their process began by putting the motor in an oven to melt all the paint and insulation so they could start from bare metal. They rewound the coils, machined the shafts, replaced all the bearings, and gave it a nice new paint job. One of the larger issues is that the brake system is no longer supported. So, Ace had new brake shoes manufactured and rewound the solenoid switch. The motor is now about as good as new.
Chris took his pickup to collect the remanufactured unit. I guessed that the motor weighed about 500 pounds and would no trouble for his 1/2 ton truck. My estimation was off by a bit. Chris' truck crawled due to excessive weight, bottoming out at various places along the way back to the boat.
The installation went about as expected. This motor was located on the top of the crane where gravity helped. The task was to drop the motor between the boom lines of Fir’s crane. Dave, a seasoned crane operator, pulled this off with minimal difficulty.
Dropping the Second Motor
Fir’s crane has four motors attached to the boom: the vang to each side, the whip, and the primary lift. Two motors are mounted above the boom, and two are mounted below the boom. The motors have a pinion gear that sits on top of gears within the gearbox which eventually connects to the spool. With an upper motor, you can simply lift the motor out of the gearbox. Replacement is just as simple and made easier because there are locating pins.
Lower motors are more difficult because the motor hangs below the gearbox. We have a lot of tools on-board to assist in lifting equipment from above. However, do not have jacks and such to lift equipment from below. Joe and Dave decided that the best way to remove the lower motor was to move the entire unit (motor, gearbox, and spool) down to the deck. We could then invert the unit and lift the motor from above using the same technique as we used for the upper motor. The 1” bolts holding the gearbox had probably not been touched for 30+ years. The more difficult bolts had to be cut.
Covid and the holidays limited this to a 2-day work session, but we got a lot accomplished.