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| Is that really possible? What about the suction? |
Massive suction makes lifting footpads straight up out of the bottom an annual back-breaking chore. Pier of d'Nort has broken that tradition with footpads designed from the getgo to slide out of the bottom like skis. It's like cutting butter verses trying to push a knife through sideways. The ski-like pads are welded to the legs at a 5 degree angle. That makes sense anyway since that's the natural slope of your bottom. When you lift up the shore-end of your section, it not only angles the footpads more ideally, but it also begins to soften the substrate. The footpads really do pull out with minimal resistance. Best of all, they have no moving parts. Wheels in this case are way overkill.
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| Want to know more? |
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Pull onto the pier |
Lift & Rotate |
Turn upside down |
Fold the legs |
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enlarge & more info |
A video is worth a thousand...er...still pictures. (that's a million words!)
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Removal Video (1.6M)
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Removal Video (5.3M)
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Folding leg Video (344K)
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| Low resolution dial-up |
High resolution broadband |
No tools are needed to fold up the legs. Facing the legs you simply pull upward and inward on the scissor brace to get it past it's locking indent. Then just push the leg down (see video below). Everything just folds up into a neat llttle package and you haven't disturbed next year's height adjustment of the leg. The only thing left is to do is march it off to shore and stack it.
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Your next operation is going to be to fold the legs, so when positioning the frame to turn it over, you'll want to be mindful that you need to be able to reach the legs. Of course it's very easy to reposition the frame after it's upside down.
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After rotating the section 90 degrees so it's perpendicular to the pier, you can rock the frame back and forth to swish the bottom stuff off the footpads so it doesn't fall on the frame when you turn it over. Next, simply set one side of the frame down on the pier and step out of the middle while lifting the other side. The video below shows how simple and easy this really is.
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The frame being removed needs to be pushed 3/4" forward before it can be lifted as shown (a safety feature).
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Pull the section all the way up onto the pier. Then step to the balance point and pick it up. It won't matter whether you're facing the footpad end or the hook end.
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Two deck panels are removed from the aluminum frame that is about to be taken out of the water, and taken to shore. Then the next deck panel is drawn back four to five inches. This allows access to the connecting hooks while still providing support for the next operation. |
This end of the pier weighs a pittance, and provides for great leverage in tilting the footpads to the best angle for the next part of the operation - which is to drag the footpads (the pier) toward shore. It's what the footpads were designed for.
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With some piers it's necessary to lift up the leg end of the section being removed in order to disconnect that section from the rest of the pier. Not so with Pier of d'Nort. Disconnecting one of our sections from another takes one finger. The connecting hooks are just held in place by gravity. Flip them up and off the bar and the sections are disconnected. This patented connection scheme is ONLY available in Pier of d'Nort docks.
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