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I have bought a new house (5 bedrooms on a steep slope). There is a road above with a double carport for the house which has garbage bins in it. The kitchen and deck is about 15 metres below the carport level.

I'm thinking of installing a zip line with an electric winch to transport garbage up and groceries down to the kitchen to save me lugging them up and down.

How feasible is this? Most winches I've found have a fairly short line length. Is it safe? Is it something I should get a professional in to

WOPR
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    As far as the question itself goes...it seems a bit open-ended, but...I would be leery of a simple winch-operated hoist. Without additional engineering, it would be hard to make sure loads are secured, and that they don't sway around and run into things. Might as well look at some sort of dumbwaiter/elevator setup. Or just enjoy the exercise. By the way, the one photo you've provided doesn't really offer much context. I assume that's the carport in the upper right, but I can barely see it, never mind is there enough detail to understand what challenges might be involved. – Peter Duniho Nov 03 '20 at 01:00
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    If the OP can pin down specific mechanical concerns, this may be well suited for the Engineering SE – fred_dot_u Nov 03 '20 at 01:17
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    Nearly all home-made "elevator" or "lift" type things (which this fits, IMO) are no good if you want your insurance to remain in effect; and non-home-made options are expensive so that their insurance remains in effect. It's not difficult to cook up something that works, but something that works safely, doesn't break in life-threatening ways without mechanisms to halt it, or tempt children to play with/ride it (if it's not rated/intended for human passengers) is rather more difficult, and even if you are up to that challenge, your insurance company won't take your word for that... – Ecnerwal Nov 03 '20 at 03:21
  • something based on a clothes drying line could work – jsotola Nov 03 '20 at 06:13
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    Unless you have someone else at the other end you'd only be able to use it for one item and then you will have to walk up (or down) to unload before the next one. Not sure how helpful it would be. – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact Nov 03 '20 at 06:21
  • Needs a lot more detail, but it's a _nice_ looking place! Enjoy! – FreeMan Nov 03 '20 at 13:34
  • If you're not going to leave your photo up, which provided what little detail there is in this question, I suggestion you just delete the question. – isherwood Apr 28 '21 at 18:53
  • Don’t have enough rep – WOPR Apr 28 '21 at 22:11

6 Answers6

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Unless there are stairs, an electric wheelbarrow should do the job, without insurance problems.

"Maximum incline 12°".

enter image description here

bobflux
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I would get a chain driven garage door opener, then extend the chain and put a sprocket at the other end (remove the rail or better yet, see if the mfr will sell you rail extensions). Then hang a basket as a carriage to the chain. That provides you with the ability to have a remote control for it too so that as you pull into the carport with groceries, you can have the carriage waiting there for you. The Safety Stops at the end of travel will be a challenge, but you can probably adapt the system in use for the garage door opener.

JRaef
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A zip line is not a feasible approach. The ground is your friend in this project. Having the contraption hanging in the air only adds complexity and more safety challenges to the many alluded to in the comments.

Yes you should have it done professionally. Probably the most readily available approach would be based on a platform stair lift such as for wheel chairs. There are outdoor ones. You're looking at 30k to 100k dollars.

There's a reason people install stair lifts and dumb waiters rather than ski style gondolas in their homes.

That's a beautiful place.

FWIW there is one company that specializes in residential funicular railways. Look it up.

jay613
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A chain motor might be practical. You could hook a garbage bin into the chain and allow the motor to raise the bin to the carport area.

This isn't an inexpensive project and you may need to check with your home insurance company; such a device might not fall under an ordinary type of coverage as would an elevator or dumbwaiter.

Jeff Wheeler
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What about a simple "sky line" system where you pull up and lower your materials manually. Pretty safe and cheap but requires a little labor. A cable stretched between two anchor points with a pulley (or carriage with 2 pulleys) riding on the cable and a short lanyard with a shackle to attach your grocery/trash bags. A rope in a continuous loop running through pulleys at the top and bottom, below the skyline, which can attach to the sliding load to form your "haul out" and "haul back" lines. This is a fairly common set up in logging, sometimes called a "yarder" I think.

Of course there is some danger of uncontrolled loads (maybe use a stop collar on the skyline with a safety backstop) and rope-burned hands, so caution is the game.

Jimmy Fix-it
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The shopping, but not garbage, challenge could be addressed with a waterslide-style chute.

enter image description here

Or on a more serious note, perhaps you should just get one of these shopping buggies with stair wheels.

enter image description here

jay613
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