It’s the reason I started this channel. You can listen to anyone who can get on the ride but to work on them / with them, is a whole differ perspective.
B&M is my favorite manufacturer simply because their products are satisfying to observe in operation. Everything looks sounds and moves in such a way that you can inherently sense the quality. The tid bits about their technical support and commitment to excellence is why they demand a large price tag.
People need to give B&M all the credit they so rightfully deserve. They've been in business for 30 years with no major catastrophic failures or recorded deaths. Super high on smoothness and reliability. There is a reason they have such a high reputation...
@@MaxThrills It cracked where the welds are located which is a high stress area and is not unusual on steel coasters. Fury is 8 years old and that support at that turn is obviously under more dynamic stress given the trains take that turn at like 75 mph…
@@DoomPlague Exactly. Considering how many steel coasters are around the world and how many trains have cycled over 8 years since Fury was built it’s very rare…
The fact Intamin doesnt really keep anything on shelf kind of explains why everytime an Intamin goes down, its down for months at a time. Six Flags great adventure is pretty smart for having that spare cable stocked in advance so Kingda Ka only was down for like 2 weeks. I believe that same issue kept Stormrunner at Hershey closed all of 2020. Busch Gardens Tampa had a sign in front of Falcon's Fury for months that basically said "Ride closed. Waiting on parts from manufacturer" Your last 2 manufacturers are kind of funny considering Skyline designs all of GCI's coasters. lol I wonder if the Larson Loops will be better off or worse now that they're owned by RMC.
Parks in general, cables are high usage parts. Our boomerang we orders a cable every year. Replace it every year. And had 3 on the shelf. Never know when you need a cable.
B&M may not make the best rollercoaster layouts, but they build the best rollercoasters from an engineering perspective, without a shadow of a doubt. Never miss
I firmly believe B&M make the best coasters on the planet. Always smooth, none of that "head banging" side-to-side skull shattering experience you get on some coasters. Hearing how they look after the service and support side of things just reinforces how much care and attention goes into their products.
Very interesting behind-the-scenes perspective shared here! As a coaster enthusiast who likes looking around at all the different controls, structures, and assemblies of coasters when I go to ride them, your insight from working with them is fascinating to hear!
As an operator I liked B&M, Arrow, Verkoma, Mack, and Intamin. As for the ones I didn’t like you had Mauer, and Zamperla. Premier was kind of a mixed bag with myself too. I also found some if the internal designer rides were a mixed bag, because the Orlando parks do a lot in-house design.
Anyone that has ever ridden a B&M knows what amazing engineers they are. They are probably the best roller coaster manufacturer in the world. Lots of people will quote RMC or Intamin but they are newbies compared to B&M
Fact check yourself. Intamin has been in the business longer than B&M, who previously worked for Intamin. You should specifically look into the few Intamin’s with square shaped spines from the 80s, then take note who designed them. Also, Alan Schilke worked for Arrow Dynamics way before founding RMC.
@@scottnelson9 And that's the reason why Intamin (at least old one) such a middle finger for aftersales perspective. Those Giovanolla track component shared nothing with Lattice track, and most likely nothing with B&M too
I love your comment on Zamperla. Now I'm really worried about Dragster at Cedar Point. They seem to be the company chosen by Cedar Fair to "re-imagine" the ride.
Was great to hear that perspective on Intamin and how their approach to providing parts is so atypical in the industry. I always hear the perspective that "CF killed Volcano by cheaping out on parts" which may be true to some extent, but it's also on Intamin for being so intractable about affordably fixing their own rides. One little tidbit I'm curious about - did your Impulse ever operate with a holding brake? I've never gotten to experience one with a functional holding brake, but I know pretty much every park stopped maintaining those less than 10 years into their Impulse's lifespan. With the exception of Valleyfair (which I actually drove out from North Carolina to visit with the express purpose of trying to experience the last holding brake, but it wasn't functioning that weekend argh). I've always wondered how and why a small Minnesota park shelled out the cash to keep that tiny piece of coaster history alive.
Thanks for the comment! The holding brake puts a tremendous amount of stress into the chassis of the train. We replaced ours close to another park. The second park, on new chassis started to develop stress cracks. That was the final blow for their holding brake. Defiantly a cool function and honestly Ive only ridden a woking holding brake once. Premier got it better like a Mr freeze where they did not try and hold the train they just accelerated it backwards.
First time watcher of the channel since I’ve been on a coaster kick again. Must say as a Pennsylvanian, I love the Storm Runner intro! That was the coaster that made me an adrenaline junkie and love high speed coasters
Wow really just discovered this channel great content man! Can you cover supportstructure and/or really dive into the wheelassemblies/ tolerances and how they work together with the couplers in order to provide a smooth ride?
Honestly it is a really interesting perspective to hear roller coasters being talked about by those who maintain them. Honestly hearing that about Intamin is really not surprising, and really makes Cedar Fair not ordering any new rides from them anymore make perfect sense. I wonder how RMC is to work with?
@@ryantheridemechanic Good response. Glad to hear they've got good support, but I never thought I'd hear "rough" and "RMC" in the same sentence unless maybe referring to a woodie. Are we talking "rough" in some form of maintenance sense?
If you have a minute or two, would you watch a POV of Blue Hawk (Vekoma) at Six Flags Over Georgia and tell me if you think the lift motor (which is at the crest) is hydraulic or electric, and if you think it's hydraulic tell me why the manufacturer might have opted for that instead of a normal electric drive? The mechanics HATED the crest-mounted lift motor.
So I watched several videos POV. From what I can tell I see 3 lines drop off to the motor I also see a huge electrical conduit as well. I think (based on audio) that the motor is hydraulic. Typically Vekoma has a secondary motor installed for evacuations. That secondary nigh be electric. Hydraulics are great motors because they are typically quieter than a DC motor. They are way more powerful as well but you need a big hydronic package to run them. A hydraulic motor is harder to absorb the shock in the lift chain this could cause wear on the chain but insure Vekoma figured that out. So final speculation is they probably did it for environmental reasons by that park. Maybe neighbors complaining or something like that. If it truly is hydraulic it is odd but not unheard of. Boomerangs are all hydraulic because the ride already uses it for lift 1. Not sure if this helps or hurts.
@@ryantheridemechanic That ride is something of an oddball, it came from a pier in NJ originally. Putting it at the crest would would certainly take a noisy component away from people. I suspect there's an electric motor driving a hydraulic pump up there, but I never worked that ride. I don't think there are any mechanical lift components at the base besides a slack adjuster for the chain. Thanks.
@@sharkheadism yea the 3 tubes running up there is a standard pressure, return, vent. But yea the whole package could be up there as well. In general mechanics don’t like crest mounted equipment because you spend most of your morning walking up and down the lift. So thing that should have taken 40min took 3 hours. Nice looking ride though.
@@ryantheridemechanic Like I said the mechanics didn't like it for that reason. At least one of them climbed the lift to fix something only to realize when he got to the top he brought standard sockets instead of metric.
Discovered your channel with this video, I found super interesting to hear the mechanics aout their job as you are the reason why we can enjoy our passion safely everyday. Will love to watch your videos ! Also, it may sounds weird but your voice fits so well with Minecraft musics.
I can confirm those park model Larson loops are not pleasant from an operator perspective either. So ridiculously loud, even the traveling model is far quieter.
Yea the traveling modes aren’t to bad on the noise level. Maybe because they are not mounted to concrete, and held up with cables, not sure there. I was amazed the operation could not be automated? I told my director give me a plc and about 8 prox sensors and I could probably automate it. Oh well
@@ryantheridemechanic i know some six flags parks got a automated version i think 1 or 2 of them. I think at this point six flags gave up on them and are slowly getting rid of them
@@Project_Storm1999 last time I saw, it’s been a while, they had 4 and all were manually controlled. But I could easily be wrong as well. Thanks for the heads up
@@ryantheridemechanic The traveling models also have holes in the spine, which I think could be why they’re not as loud. The one at my park was fully automated, it had a nice control system from Irvine Ondrey.
@@spaceistheplace2293 nice! I’m sure they were out there I just couldn’t understand why the company I worked for either didn’t build one or decided not to spend the $$ for it?? Dealing with many things that pendulum to start operating, it seemed like a fairly simple process to install on that particular ride.
Nice hearing your thoughts on Intamin! They are my favorite manufacturer, but I'm not an engineer like you so I've never dealt with having to order new parts and then them not having parts on the shelf. That sounds pretty annoying. Also I'm curious on your thoughts regarding the rumored Drift Coaster for Universal. It seems like it will have a controlled spin and I'm wondering how well the engineerimg will be excecuted in your opinion. I feel Ike it is going to be a bit of a headache an the beginning, then progressively increase with reliability
LOL! I worked 4 AstroWorld. Draftsman/engineer in park HATED Intamin. Yep! you HAD to keep stuff in stock for them. I'd go to IAAPA Expo's. Many of your "likes" are on my list as well. I have a friend that wanted to build a themed park. I had only 2 Intamin rides in there. LOL! Could still be just 1.
This is an interesting perspective. I work in industrial maitnenace, same stuff, PLCs vfds and such just on a bigger scale. 7.5mw motors and much more complicated PLCs. I would love to work on rides but it would be more than a 50% pay cut to do it.
@@ryantheridemechanic closest park is 3 hours or so. I would only go if they paid relocation and had a pretty good sign on bonus. My current company paid for my move here and housing. I saw six flags advertising around $30 an hour for an electrician. Not even in the ball park.
Great video. Your opinion of the big three manufacturers aligned with what I expected to hear. My local park has an Intamin Suspended Twin Hammer (kind of like a Kamikaze but floorless) which is constantly breaking down and sits there for months SBNO between brief bursts of operation. Urgh! I hope you will do a part 2 video!
Hey man, great video. How do you feel about Zamperla doing the reimagination of Top Thrill Dragster? I have a gut feeling it's going to be terrible. As someone who's worked with them, do you think they have a chance at making it good?
I want to stay positive. That company changes every day and their still in business after how many years? I believe they need to catch a break to show the world that they can do more than just smaller rides. I believe an overhaul of dragester would be a good chance. Hopefully it will be the start of a beautiful thing. But only time will tell.
@@ryantheridemechanic Great response and I agree. Hopefully Zamperla knocks it out of the park (pun intended), but i just don't see it happening. Thanks for the answer.
@@ryantheridemechanic I think your description of Intamin confirms my view that if CF did or would have contacted Intamin for the upgrade, chances were 50/50 they'd even be interested. At least barring BIG $$$.
Have you ever worked with s&s? i heard they can be hit or miss plus what are your experiences with flats rides any fun stories? thanks for the vids they are awesome
I can do a video on flat rides. I have honestly not worked with S&S but I have seen lots. They look like they are on the cheaper end of things. This typically means more repair and service needed more often.
I suspect Batwing's mechanics at SFA wouldn't have such a high regard for Vekoma, apparently getting new parts for that thing is a nightmare according to my friend who works in the park, since Vekoma no longer provides much support for the Flying Dutchman model.
Yea it’s super easy to figure out. But the way people work, by saying I worked there all the time, I inadvertently become a rep for the park. The park doesn’t want that. I don’t want that. So I just leave it alone. And we heard multiple times at h that park was the CEOs favorite. And when he visited, it showed.
IMO, B&M = Cadillac of the roller coaster industry, Intamin = Ferrari of the industry & RMC = Tesla of the industry. Arrow Dynamics/Development = the OG, Henry Ford of the coaster industry.. :)
I absolutely love that GCI is rocking some McMaster parts… having run maintenance at a brewery for 4 years now, it’s amazing how much is the same across the industries: does the machine work well, is it easy to operate on, are parts easy, is service helpful… Out of curiosity, is it mostly Festo pneumatics around there too?
Yea but in general Festo makes sooooo much pneumatic components it’s hard not to use them. The only other one that was in big use on woodies is a company Numatics (not sure if I spelled that right) I believe they are US based. Those seem to pop up on wooden coaster a lot. And I also like that RMC is transparent with the use of McMastercarr parts as well. Not trying to re-sell them to the park.
Thank you for the comment. I have nothing really negative agonist RMC that make a decent train but that all they make maintenance wise at the place I worked. The park did the rest of the ride.
Honestly, I’m surprised more parks haven’t gotten into building their own custom coasters or flat rides, especially the chain parks. It seems like they could do a better job of in-house engineering and utilizing smaller, closer machine shops for parts manufacture.
Disney used to do that. Better to "farm" out for a ride. They actually spec their AA's Garner Holt does an amazing job. They HAVE made new Gen AA's like Spiderman + some small figures to interact with guests. Costs so much to invest in machines to build track etc.
@@colinschmitz8297 personally no, but they are basically Vekomas and I’ve worked with those. Not the easiest but not the hardest. I’d say they were a medium effort ride.
This sounds a lot like the (totally unrelated) industry I'm in: if a company is just a pawn and game for business people, you learn how to hate business people. Passionately often. Rinse, repeat.
That is a great video from a ride mechanics perspective. Thanks and well done. Not sure if you can answer but what park or parks have you worked at? No biggie if you dont want to answer that. Second whats your opinion on rmc?
I do t want to say the one park I’ve worked at but if you watch my videos it’s super easy to figure out haha! I like RMC the one we installed, track and train built my them infrastructure like lift brakes controls some by us. Very aggressive rides but that what people want these days. I loved to ride it.
@@ryantheridemechanicThanks, I will watch the other videos. Just found your channel. Good info on rmc...unfortunately cf/cp disagrees and they are on the blacklist for rides. Keep these type of videos coming.
I have to wonder how well that monstrosity of a coaster “Falcons Flight” will fair then. I believe personally even if that park opens and they get that coaster running, it will be a mechanical nightmare! And sounds like they better have plenty of stock for a coaster of that size. Which I’m sure won’t be cheap! The running cost of that thing is going to be horrible!
@@ryantheridemechanic I love the ambition of it! However the morning walk thru on that thing would more then likely be a full time job in itself. I know that part of the world has the money to do it. But do you have the man power or the supply too? Let alone when will you see a return on that investment.
I may be a bit late for this and you may not have any experience with it but out of curiosity have you had any experience from S&S World wide and know what they are like?
Honestly I have no fist hand experience with them. People I have worked with that worked on their things say theirs more on the higher maintenance side of things. Parts wear out fast. But nothing rock solid I can say.
I guess this is just a comment for engagement, but I've had a longstanding petty annoyance with the lack of off-the-shelf parts! To follow that up by refusing to stock and adequately support their products, it's just not professional. I love the ride experience they sell, but rides that are down for weeks or even months are a total buzzkill.
I'm merely a ride operator, not a mechanic, but two specific models that come to mind as annoying are the Mondial Rollover for its sheer unreliability and the Chance Falling Star for two reasons: one, you can't have a person sitting alone on the ride, so you end up playing Tetris with guests; and two, the ride's operator pedal is horrible. Normally, letting go of an operator pedal merely stops the ride. Makes sense, perfectly logical. Not on the Falling Star! On that ride, if you let go of the pedal during a cycle, the ride treats it as an e-stop, and even though all you have to do to get the ride working again is to press a single button, that button only works if you have a maintenance key in the ride. This means that if an operator lets go of the pedal just a bit too soon, you need to call the mechanics just to get them to press on a single button
Some of that is the park. I installed a lot of foot pedals. They all had to stop the ride. So I typically put them in the ride stop circuit. When pedal was release it simply told the ride to stop. The way some control systems are it’s the same a pressing Estop! Not great but sometimes the park wanted that. The park wants some rides to stop on purpose in the air to deal with something like a guest in the ride perimeter. Wonder who installed the pedal? Interesting though. Cheaper rides are much more affected by weight of passengers.
@@ryantheridemechanic it would make sense, considering it's a cheap old magic carpet ride, but it's still annoying on a day-to-day basis Funny thing btw, I operate an SLC this season (ours is so fun! Perfect mix of a nice crew, ease of operations, lots of shade and not as many clients as a B&M), and I'm on a streak where it never breaks down while I'm there. It only ever has a mechanical issue when I'm on break or not operating the ride that day
@@ryantheridemechanic our main mechanic for the ride has mentioned it should be among the more reliable SLCs out there, but it still has issues of course (he recently mentioned that he had to basically fight to have the speed of the drive tyres in the station adjusted, cause last year their speed did not match the chain lift's speed)
@@plazasta ours was always faster by a lot. Ours did not have drives though they were only soft starts so we had no control over the output final speed. The train would rack up about 6 chain links before dropping in.
Welcome. Ive worked on 3 HuSs rides. All 3 removed now. Free willie, top spin, frisbee. Not saying there awesome but what’s the beef with Huss? Curious
@@ryantheridemechanic we had the giant topspin…. If you know where that ended up ;). It was more of the fact they considered us idiot’s because of their under engineered BS. They started with pneumatic brakes on the gondola…. The ride laughed when it received a brake command so they upgraded them to hydraulic. Long story short, blown gearboxes, welds cracked constantly, problems all day long. They were responsive for the most part, but they were quick to blame maintenance on their failures
@@definingimage hydraulic brakes? Yikes I would imagine that went over like a fart in church. We tried to stiffen the drives to control the gondola more and found it was best to let it be free and one with inertia.
No I’ve never even heard of them honestly. Looked them up online and see they are mainly traveling rides. Most I usually worked with is Zamperla rides of that nature. What’s quirky about them?
@@ryantheridemechanic there similar to Zamperla and also very cheap. Some design choices are strange for example a kiddy coaster uses a timer rather than counting laps which leads to it doing an extra lap sometimes and seem to half fix generic ride model issues for example a common issue is that's wacky worms have to be pushed out of the station cos they dont roll so they put a booster wheel to get it out however the breaking at the end brings the train to a full stop then it should roll forward but it doesn't so you still have to push it
Even though I no longer work for a park I don’t disclose where it was and what company I worked for. Although it’s super easy to figure out in my videos. The reason is I’m not a spokesperson for the park or company. I feel if I broadcast that info, people assume I’m representing the park and company.
I take care of a very old woodie. I think I randomly searched wood care for wooden coasters (or something like that) because I'm trying to come up with ways to preserve certain certain components. You popped up! So I started watching your videos! It's fun to hear you talk about our jobs, and everything is spot on! Sometimes I call it before you say it.😂😂
@@Jenlovescoasters awesome! It’s fun when you talk with other mechanics at your same level. Some mechanics are on a different world all together and it’s hard to relate.
Engineering has a price and fun has a price. Sometimes the two don’t mix. Some awesome rides are very hard on the equipment but that’s what the builder wanted so I think it’s a cats game. Thanks for the comment.
I like how you come at this from a mechanics perspective- not a perspective heard often.
It’s the reason I started this channel. You can listen to anyone who can get on the ride but to work on them / with them, is a whole differ perspective.
B&M is my favorite manufacturer simply because their products are satisfying to observe in operation. Everything looks sounds and moves in such a way that you can inherently sense the quality. The tid bits about their technical support and commitment to excellence is why they demand a large price tag.
Agreed. In this case, you get what you pay for.
They are save even with a broken leg… ( Fury 325)
@@aoilpe B&M Coaster build to withstand direct nuclear attack.
People need to give B&M all the credit they so rightfully deserve. They've been in business for 30 years with no major catastrophic failures or recorded deaths. Super high on smoothness and reliability. There is a reason they have such a high reputation...
this aged poorly
*support literally cracks*
@@stormy7083 One broken support doesn't undo 30+ years of being safe and reliable.
@@MaxThrills It cracked where the welds are located which is a high stress area and is not unusual on steel coasters. Fury is 8 years old and that support at that turn is obviously under more dynamic stress given the trains take that turn at like 75 mph…
@@DoomPlague Exactly. Considering how many steel coasters are around the world and how many trains have cycled over 8 years since Fury was built it’s very rare…
The fact Intamin doesnt really keep anything on shelf kind of explains why everytime an Intamin goes down, its down for months at a time. Six Flags great adventure is pretty smart for having that spare cable stocked in advance so Kingda Ka only was down for like 2 weeks. I believe that same issue kept Stormrunner at Hershey closed all of 2020.
Busch Gardens Tampa had a sign in front of Falcon's Fury for months that basically said "Ride closed. Waiting on parts from manufacturer"
Your last 2 manufacturers are kind of funny considering Skyline designs all of GCI's coasters. lol
I wonder if the Larson Loops will be better off or worse now that they're owned by RMC.
Parks in general, cables are high usage parts. Our boomerang we orders a cable every year. Replace it every year. And had 3 on the shelf. Never know when you need a cable.
B&M may not make the best rollercoaster layouts, but they build the best rollercoasters from an engineering perspective, without a shadow of a doubt. Never miss
they do shear tho
@@TroubleLightCoasters my comment aged like gold didn't it...
@@notsospoopybob99.9% isn’t bad.
This channel is a hidden gem! So interesting to hear a perspective from a ride mechanic!
Thank you! It’s the reason I wanted to make this channel.
I firmly believe B&M make the best coasters on the planet. Always smooth, none of that "head banging" side-to-side skull shattering experience you get on some coasters. Hearing how they look after the service and support side of things just reinforces how much care and attention goes into their products.
Definitely all yes, just occasionally poor designed supports 😆
You’ve clear have never ridden an rmc
@THICCA380 if any coaster is too intense for you, I’m sorry just grow up. (Unless you’re like below a height limit, then it’s fine)
@@michael7054ehh it’s maintenance error rather than design flaw
Afterburner at Carowinds has a real headbanger on that last corkscrew.
Very interesting behind-the-scenes perspective shared here! As a coaster enthusiast who likes looking around at all the different controls, structures, and assemblies of coasters when I go to ride them, your insight from working with them is fascinating to hear!
glad you enjoy it!
As an operator I liked B&M, Arrow, Verkoma, Mack, and Intamin. As for the ones I didn’t like you had Mauer, and Zamperla. Premier was kind of a mixed bag with myself too. I also found some if the internal designer rides were a mixed bag, because the Orlando parks do a lot in-house design.
So May times we see awesome ideas and poor execution. But to be fair, normally the parks budget causes the poor execution trying to save money.
Gerstlauer hitting you with the equivalent of "Have you tried turning it off and back on again?"
Well it worked so that’s was a whoops on my end. Was not fun to explain that to the park.
Anyone that has ever ridden a B&M knows what amazing engineers they are. They are probably the best roller coaster manufacturer in the world. Lots of people will quote RMC or Intamin but they are newbies compared to B&M
There’s a reason EVERYONE wants a B&M in their park.
Fact check yourself. Intamin has been in the business longer than B&M, who previously worked for Intamin. You should specifically look into the few Intamin’s with square shaped spines from the 80s, then take note who designed them. Also, Alan Schilke worked for Arrow Dynamics way before founding RMC.
@@scottnelson9 And that's the reason why Intamin (at least old one) such a middle finger for aftersales perspective.
Those Giovanolla track component shared nothing with Lattice track, and most likely nothing with B&M too
I love your comment on Zamperla. Now I'm really worried about Dragster at Cedar Point. They seem to be the company chosen by Cedar Fair to "re-imagine" the ride.
Was great to hear that perspective on Intamin and how their approach to providing parts is so atypical in the industry. I always hear the perspective that "CF killed Volcano by cheaping out on parts" which may be true to some extent, but it's also on Intamin for being so intractable about affordably fixing their own rides.
One little tidbit I'm curious about - did your Impulse ever operate with a holding brake? I've never gotten to experience one with a functional holding brake, but I know pretty much every park stopped maintaining those less than 10 years into their Impulse's lifespan. With the exception of Valleyfair (which I actually drove out from North Carolina to visit with the express purpose of trying to experience the last holding brake, but it wasn't functioning that weekend argh). I've always wondered how and why a small Minnesota park shelled out the cash to keep that tiny piece of coaster history alive.
Thanks for the comment! The holding brake puts a tremendous amount of stress into the chassis of the train. We replaced ours close to another park. The second park, on new chassis started to develop stress cracks. That was the final blow for their holding brake. Defiantly a cool function and honestly Ive only ridden a woking holding brake once. Premier got it better like a Mr freeze where they did not try and hold the train they just accelerated it backwards.
Thank you so much for your videos-I love that you can actually speak from the perspective of someone in the industry.
Glad you enjoy it! Thanks for the nice comment!
First time watcher of the channel since I’ve been on a coaster kick again. Must say as a Pennsylvanian, I love the Storm Runner intro! That was the coaster that made me an adrenaline junkie and love high speed coasters
That’s a pretty good ride I was very impressed the first time I road that one. Welcome to the channel
Wow really just discovered this channel great content man! Can you cover supportstructure and/or really dive into the wheelassemblies/ tolerances and how they work together with the couplers in order to provide a smooth ride?
Thanks for the comment. Yea I love to cover some of that stuff.
Sounds amazing!
Honestly it is a really interesting perspective to hear roller coasters being talked about by those who maintain them.
Honestly hearing that about Intamin is really not surprising, and really makes Cedar Fair not ordering any new rides from them anymore make perfect sense.
I wonder how RMC is to work with?
RMC is very responsive and has good support. Their stuff just gets torn up fast. Happen with crazy rough rides though.
@@ryantheridemechanic Good response. Glad to hear they've got good support, but I never thought I'd hear "rough" and "RMC" in the same sentence unless maybe referring to a woodie.
Are we talking "rough" in some form of maintenance sense?
@@noname117spore poor choice of words on my end. I meant aggressive. Hi gforce. Leads to accelerated wear in items.
@@ryantheridemechanic Ok that's fair.
If you have a minute or two, would you watch a POV of Blue Hawk (Vekoma) at Six Flags Over Georgia and tell me if you think the lift motor (which is at the crest) is hydraulic or electric, and if you think it's hydraulic tell me why the manufacturer might have opted for that instead of a normal electric drive? The mechanics HATED the crest-mounted lift motor.
So I watched several videos POV. From what I can tell I see 3 lines drop off to the motor I also see a huge electrical conduit as well. I think (based on audio) that the motor is hydraulic. Typically Vekoma has a secondary motor installed for evacuations. That secondary nigh be electric. Hydraulics are great motors because they are typically quieter than a DC motor. They are way more powerful as well but you need a big hydronic package to run them. A hydraulic motor is harder to absorb the shock in the lift chain this could cause wear on the chain but insure Vekoma figured that out. So final speculation is they probably did it for environmental reasons by that park. Maybe neighbors complaining or something like that. If it truly is hydraulic it is odd but not unheard of. Boomerangs are all hydraulic because the ride already uses it for lift 1. Not sure if this helps or hurts.
@@ryantheridemechanic That ride is something of an oddball, it came from a pier in NJ originally. Putting it at the crest would would certainly take a noisy component away from people. I suspect there's an electric motor driving a hydraulic pump up there, but I never worked that ride. I don't think there are any mechanical lift components at the base besides a slack adjuster for the chain. Thanks.
@@sharkheadism yea the 3 tubes running up there is a standard pressure, return, vent. But yea the whole package could be up there as well. In general mechanics don’t like crest mounted equipment because you spend most of your morning walking up and down the lift. So thing that should have taken 40min took 3 hours. Nice looking ride though.
@@ryantheridemechanic Like I said the mechanics didn't like it for that reason. At least one of them climbed the lift to fix something only to realize when he got to the top he brought standard sockets instead of metric.
Discovered your channel with this video, I found super interesting to hear the mechanics aout their job as you are the reason why we can enjoy our passion safely everyday.
Will love to watch your videos !
Also, it may sounds weird but your voice fits so well with Minecraft musics.
Glad you like them. I feel my voice is boring sounding but that sounds like a fun match! Haha! Thanks for the nice comment.
I can confirm those park model Larson loops are not pleasant from an operator perspective either. So ridiculously loud, even the traveling model is far quieter.
Yea the traveling modes aren’t to bad on the noise level. Maybe because they are not mounted to concrete, and held up with cables, not sure there. I was amazed the operation could not be automated? I told my director give me a plc and about 8 prox sensors and I could probably automate it. Oh well
@@ryantheridemechanic i know some six flags parks got a automated version i think 1 or 2 of them. I think at this point six flags gave up on them and are slowly getting rid of them
@@Project_Storm1999 last time I saw, it’s been a while, they had 4 and all were manually controlled. But I could easily be wrong as well. Thanks for the heads up
@@ryantheridemechanic The traveling models also have holes in the spine, which I think could be why they’re not as loud. The one at my park was fully automated, it had a nice control system from Irvine Ondrey.
@@spaceistheplace2293 nice! I’m sure they were out there I just couldn’t understand why the company I worked for either didn’t build one or decided not to spend the $$ for it?? Dealing with many things that pendulum to start operating, it seemed like a fairly simple process to install on that particular ride.
Nice hearing your thoughts on Intamin! They are my favorite manufacturer, but I'm not an engineer like you so I've never dealt with having to order new parts and then them not having parts on the shelf. That sounds pretty annoying.
Also I'm curious on your thoughts regarding the rumored Drift Coaster for Universal. It seems like it will have a controlled spin and I'm wondering how well the engineerimg will be excecuted in your opinion. I feel Ike it is going to be a bit of a headache an the beginning, then progressively increase with reliability
LOL! I worked 4 AstroWorld. Draftsman/engineer in park HATED Intamin. Yep! you HAD to keep stuff in stock for them. I'd go to IAAPA Expo's. Many of your "likes" are on my list as well. I have a friend that wanted to build a themed park. I had only 2 Intamin rides in there. LOL! Could still be just 1.
This is an interesting perspective. I work in industrial maitnenace, same stuff, PLCs vfds and such just on a bigger scale. 7.5mw motors and much more complicated PLCs. I would love to work on rides but it would be more than a 50% pay cut to do it.
Yep pay is not great but it’s your exact skill set. So if your ever out of a job you local park would love to hear from you!!
@@ryantheridemechanic closest park is 3 hours or so. I would only go if they paid relocation and had a pretty good sign on bonus. My current company paid for my move here and housing. I saw six flags advertising around $30 an hour for an electrician. Not even in the ball park.
@@Shredxcam22 yea pay will be a big gap
Great video. Your opinion of the big three manufacturers aligned with what I expected to hear.
My local park has an Intamin Suspended Twin Hammer (kind of like a Kamikaze but floorless) which is constantly breaking down and sits there for months SBNO between brief bursts of operation. Urgh!
I hope you will do a part 2 video!
Thanks for the comments.
Hey man, great video. How do you feel about Zamperla doing the reimagination of Top Thrill Dragster? I have a gut feeling it's going to be terrible. As someone who's worked with them, do you think they have a chance at making it good?
I want to stay positive. That company changes every day and their still in business after how many years? I believe they need to catch a break to show the world that they can do more than just smaller rides. I believe an overhaul of dragester would be a good chance. Hopefully it will be the start of a beautiful thing. But only time will tell.
@@ryantheridemechanic Great response and I agree. Hopefully Zamperla knocks it out of the park (pun intended), but i just don't see it happening. Thanks for the answer.
@@ryantheridemechanic I think your description of Intamin confirms my view that if CF did or would have contacted Intamin for the upgrade, chances were 50/50 they'd even be interested. At least barring BIG $$$.
Have you ever worked with s&s? i heard they can be hit or miss plus what are your experiences with flats rides any fun stories? thanks for the vids they are awesome
I can do a video on flat rides. I have honestly not worked with S&S but I have seen lots. They look like they are on the cheaper end of things. This typically means more repair and service needed more often.
S&S’s Stan Checketts was widely known as a world class jerk. I wonder what it’s like now that he’s passed.
I suspect Batwing's mechanics at SFA wouldn't have such a high regard for Vekoma, apparently getting new parts for that thing is a nightmare according to my friend who works in the park, since Vekoma no longer provides much support for the Flying Dutchman model.
Probably forcing upgraded due to old stuff not working well. Thanks for the comment.
I know exactly which park you work at lol. I wont say it but its underated. Loved going there
Yea it’s super easy to figure out. But the way people work, by saying I worked there all the time, I inadvertently become a rep for the park. The park doesn’t want that. I don’t want that. So I just leave it alone. And we heard multiple times at h that park was the CEOs favorite. And when he visited, it showed.
IMO, B&M = Cadillac of the roller coaster industry, Intamin = Ferrari of the industry & RMC = Tesla of the industry. Arrow Dynamics/Development = the OG, Henry Ford of the coaster industry.. :)
Appreciate you views here. B&M always wonderful. I do dislike Verkoma as a ride maker from the perspective of a rider. Uncomfortable and rough.
Understood. But when you’re looking to buy something, bang for your buck!
I absolutely love that GCI is rocking some McMaster parts… having run maintenance at a brewery for 4 years now, it’s amazing how much is the same across the industries: does the machine work well, is it easy to operate on, are parts easy, is service helpful…
Out of curiosity, is it mostly Festo pneumatics around there too?
Yea but in general Festo makes sooooo much pneumatic components it’s hard not to use them. The only other one that was in big use on woodies is a company Numatics (not sure if I spelled that right) I believe they are US based. Those seem to pop up on wooden coaster a lot.
And I also like that RMC is transparent with the use of McMastercarr parts as well. Not trying to re-sell them to the park.
@@ryantheridemechanic I do wonder how good aftersales the RMC is?
Considering they had some fiasco with some project.
I love this perspective on this side of coaster maintenance. I would have liked to know where RMC ranked however. I think I already know though. 🌔
Thank you for the comment. I have nothing really negative agonist RMC that make a decent train but that all they make maintenance wise at the place I worked. The park did the rest of the ride.
Honestly, I’m surprised more parks haven’t gotten into building their own custom coasters or flat rides, especially the chain parks. It seems like they could do a better job of in-house engineering and utilizing smaller, closer machine shops for parts manufacture.
Most insurance companies would not let that happen unless it’s a huge company like Disney. Even Disney farms their stuff out.
Disney used to do that. Better to "farm" out for a ride. They actually spec their AA's Garner Holt does an amazing job. They HAVE made new Gen AA's like Spiderman + some small figures to interact with guests. Costs so much to invest in machines to build track etc.
Thanks so much for sharing! I've always been fascinated by rides and manufacturers. Have you ever worked with Chance? Zierer? Keep up the great work!
Chance no, (well a 20ft carousel), Zierer yes. We had a large Tivoli coaster. Not a bad manufacture. Welding was a bit off but it held up great!
There’s not a tech on the planet that hasn’t been caught by the E-Stop gremlin!
Pushing estops while no one is looking and then the little buggers reset them before ya get there.
Those chapters are absolute jibberish. Thanks ai
For coasters b&m for flat rides Huss
I know they are defunct but did you ever work on any Arrow's? If so, how were they to work with?
@@colinschmitz8297 personally no, but they are basically Vekomas and I’ve worked with those. Not the easiest but not the hardest. I’d say they were a medium effort ride.
@@ryantheridemechanic thank you
This sounds a lot like the (totally unrelated) industry I'm in: if a company is just a pawn and game for business people, you learn how to hate business people. Passionately often. Rinse, repeat.
That is a great video from a ride mechanics perspective. Thanks and well done. Not sure if you can answer but what park or parks have you worked at? No biggie if you dont want to answer that. Second whats your opinion on rmc?
I do t want to say the one park I’ve worked at but if you watch my videos it’s super easy to figure out haha! I like RMC the one we installed, track and train built my them infrastructure like lift brakes controls some by us. Very aggressive rides but that what people want these days. I loved to ride it.
@@ryantheridemechanicThanks, I will watch the other videos. Just found your channel. Good info on rmc...unfortunately cf/cp disagrees and they are on the blacklist for rides. Keep these type of videos coming.
I have to wonder how well that monstrosity of a coaster “Falcons Flight” will fair then. I believe personally even if that park opens and they get that coaster running, it will be a mechanical nightmare! And sounds like they better have plenty of stock for a coaster of that size. Which I’m sure won’t be cheap! The running cost of that thing is going to be horrible!
that's the first time live ever seen coaster animation and thought to myself that won't work....🤨
@@ryantheridemechanic I love the ambition of it! However the morning walk thru on that thing would more then likely be a full time job in itself. I know that part of the world has the money to do it. But do you have the man power or the supply too? Let alone when will you see a return on that investment.
@@thecoasterdad9808 I’m picturing 30in road wheels trying not to delaminate under that constant speed
@@ryantheridemechanic yea, they might want to stick to playing Planet Coaster or Roller Coaster Tycoon lol
I may be a bit late for this and you may not have any experience with it but out of curiosity have you had any experience from S&S World wide and know what they are like?
Honestly I have no fist hand experience with them. People I have worked with that worked on their things say theirs more on the higher maintenance side of things. Parts wear out fast. But nothing rock solid I can say.
This park is obviously six flags discovery kingdom
I guess this is just a comment for engagement, but I've had a longstanding petty annoyance with the lack of off-the-shelf parts! To follow that up by refusing to stock and adequately support their products, it's just not professional. I love the ride experience they sell, but rides that are down for weeks or even months are a total buzzkill.
They want to put stocking of parts on the park not the manufacture. And most parks don’t have the budget to keep 2 spare rides of parts on the shelf.
Do you mind me asking what parks you worked at? Your videos are great!
Edit: it seems like you worked at Discovery Kingdom but I'm not 100% sure.
Thanks for the comments!
I'm merely a ride operator, not a mechanic, but two specific models that come to mind as annoying are the Mondial Rollover for its sheer unreliability and the Chance Falling Star for two reasons: one, you can't have a person sitting alone on the ride, so you end up playing Tetris with guests; and two, the ride's operator pedal is horrible. Normally, letting go of an operator pedal merely stops the ride. Makes sense, perfectly logical. Not on the Falling Star! On that ride, if you let go of the pedal during a cycle, the ride treats it as an e-stop, and even though all you have to do to get the ride working again is to press a single button, that button only works if you have a maintenance key in the ride. This means that if an operator lets go of the pedal just a bit too soon, you need to call the mechanics just to get them to press on a single button
Some of that is the park. I installed a lot of foot pedals. They all had to stop the ride. So I typically put them in the ride stop circuit. When pedal was release it simply told the ride to stop. The way some control systems are it’s the same a pressing Estop! Not great but sometimes the park wanted that. The park wants some rides to stop on purpose in the air to deal with something like a guest in the ride perimeter. Wonder who installed the pedal? Interesting though. Cheaper rides are much more affected by weight of passengers.
@@ryantheridemechanic it would make sense, considering it's a cheap old magic carpet ride, but it's still annoying on a day-to-day basis
Funny thing btw, I operate an SLC this season (ours is so fun! Perfect mix of a nice crew, ease of operations, lots of shade and not as many clients as a B&M), and I'm on a streak where it never breaks down while I'm there. It only ever has a mechanical issue when I'm on break or not operating the ride that day
@@plazasta depending on their age they are fairly easy to stay on top of. Guide wheel spacing being the biggest foe along with restraint adjustments.
@@ryantheridemechanic our main mechanic for the ride has mentioned it should be among the more reliable SLCs out there, but it still has issues of course (he recently mentioned that he had to basically fight to have the speed of the drive tyres in the station adjusted, cause last year their speed did not match the chain lift's speed)
@@plazasta ours was always faster by a lot. Ours did not have drives though they were only soft starts so we had no control over the output final speed. The train would rack up about 6 chain links before dropping in.
I'm assuming you haven't worked with any RMC products?
Yes lots of experience with RMC
Former ride mechanic here, hates dealing with HUSS
Welcome. Ive worked on 3 HuSs rides. All 3 removed now. Free willie, top spin, frisbee. Not saying there awesome but what’s the beef with Huss? Curious
@@ryantheridemechanic we had the giant topspin…. If you know where that ended up ;). It was more of the fact they considered us idiot’s because of their under engineered BS. They started with pneumatic brakes on the gondola…. The ride laughed when it received a brake command so they upgraded them to hydraulic. Long story short, blown gearboxes, welds cracked constantly, problems all day long. They were responsive for the most part, but they were quick to blame maintenance on their failures
@@definingimage hydraulic brakes? Yikes I would imagine that went over like a fart in church. We tried to stiffen the drives to control the gondola more and found it was best to let it be free and one with inertia.
@@ryantheridemechanic we had a few Huss' like the Troika and the giant Frisbee that were pretty great, just bad blood with Tomb Raider (Giant TopSpin)
@@ryantheridemechanic sure you can figure out the park I was at from that ;)
have you had any experience with sbf visa? from a ride op perspective there very quirky
No I’ve never even heard of them honestly. Looked them up online and see they are mainly traveling rides. Most I usually worked with is Zamperla rides of that nature. What’s quirky about them?
@@ryantheridemechanic there similar to Zamperla and also very cheap. Some design choices are strange for example a kiddy coaster uses a timer rather than counting laps which leads to it doing an extra lap sometimes and seem to half fix generic ride model issues for example a common issue is that's wacky worms have to be pushed out of the station cos they dont roll so they put a booster wheel to get it out however the breaking at the end brings the train to a full stop then it should roll forward but it doesn't so you still have to push it
@@chfilms1 does not sound like fun.
No comment on RCCA?
B&M’s are save, even with a broken leg…(Fury 325)
Are you on something or are you just tired? Sorry for this question…
A pill or two missing won’t affect the safety of the ride. It will put more stress on the track and surrounding supports but that’s about it.
What about RMC?
Wow totally blew by RMC. They are on my good list by toward the bottom of it.
@@ryantheridemechanicThanks for thereply! I love your content
@@mfjohnson glad to hear that thank you!
it really does suck that intamins are so unreliable. they produce some of if not the best coasters
The coasters are great but if you can’t maintain them, they might as well be gone. Inoperative coasters are worse than removed coasters.
What is your park, where?
Even though I no longer work for a park I don’t disclose where it was and what company I worked for. Although it’s super easy to figure out in my videos. The reason is I’m not a spokesperson for the park or company. I feel if I broadcast that info, people assume I’m representing the park and company.
Love B&M as a ride Mechanic, Chance is probably my least fave.
Just curious how did you come across my channel. Most mechanics I’ve worked with are not looking through UA-cam after work. I know I wasn’t
I take care of a very old woodie. I think I randomly searched wood care for wooden coasters (or something like that) because I'm trying to come up with ways to preserve certain certain components. You popped up! So I started watching your videos! It's fun to hear you talk about our jobs, and everything is spot on! Sometimes I call it before you say it.😂😂
@@Jenlovescoasters awesome! It’s fun when you talk with other mechanics at your same level. Some mechanics are on a different world all together and it’s hard to relate.
Absolutely!
you must have been happy when they tore down Harley Quinn
I wasn’t around for the rest of that install but…. I heard about it…… and yes I was happy when it was taken out. Yikes
"nature of the beast" pun intended?
Not really. Extreme ride brake extreme parts extremely quick some times.
Tell me you worked at SF Discovery Kingdom without telling me you worked at SF Discovery Kingdom.
Do you watch my channel haha
B&M might be the best engineering wise, but I'm sorry Intamin and RMC simply make rides that are more fun.
Engineering has a price and fun has a price. Sometimes the two don’t mix. Some awesome rides are very hard on the equipment but that’s what the builder wanted so I think it’s a cats game. Thanks for the comment.