Already another 4D installation noone knows about?

I have a crude drawing of a layout that looked 4D-esq that I got off of here not long after I joined. On my old PC, I think I still have a sketch of the cars. The pix were used for copyright purposes, and came from Hoei Sangyo Co., LTD.

So far, that company (according to RCDB) only has 9 coasters built, all in Japan, but RCDB only has pix for 3 of them, all kiddy coasters.

I was checking his site the other day, which can be translated mostly by the likes of Babel Fish, and came across a pic of a coaster that has been built with the 4D-esq design. The model, in english, appears to be called SledgeHammer, and can be seen by clicking on the first pic Here.

It kinda looks like a 4D, but I dont' know how the cars do move. The sketch I had allowed for the seats to 'flip', but I'm not sure if this was to keep the riders upright the entire time, or what.

Anybody that has any info, is it like a 4D, what park is it in, etc, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm going to try again to look @ the websites for all the parks listed with this mfg.'s coasters on RCDB.

Thanks in advance,
clint b.

Which one of the pics are you referring to. I clicked on the link and because I'm using AOL right now I didn't want to download the JAP translation text. Going from left to right, can you please tell me which picture you are referring to because none of them look even close to a 4D type coaster to me.

The first pic on the left hand side. The pic itself dosen't look 4D, but open the link up, and you'll see the layout, but the pic of the train dosen't look very 4D, though if they used the sketch of the design for that train, it may not look it, but the whole seating area pivots.

As far as I am informed those pictures (there used to be two: one showing a four-across car, one showing a two-across seater) were taken at a testing facillity.

The idea of the Sledge-Hammer is that the seats stay upright (perpendicular?) to the ground at all times! There are no inversions, instead the passengers will be subjected to numerous direction-changes and insane airtime moments.

The company used to have a bigger presentation of the ride, the cars and the layout online about two years ago.

As with "X", I am assuming that the proposed layout was a bit too much of a good (or BAD) thing, since it looks quite overambitious and extreme. The idea of traversing a loop with your head straight up at all times is indeed a strange one.

Once you click on that picture it sorta looks like they are lying down. Also note on the second picture(once you click the first on the left) is of the whole layout which resembles Stealth.

^They are sitting upright the entire time. No lying down.

If you scroll down the page linked by TeknoScorpion you´ll see a certificate which is possibly a US patent next to a sketch of the cars.

Trick Track is correct: that was at the company's testing facility. None have been nuilt yet.

Ok I see it now.

Look at the track with an engineering bias, it dosn't look like there is enough room for an extra pair of wheels to grip onto the bottom rails, and since it looks like that it would be impossible to the track to raise and lower, since the bottom rail supports the top rail, I don't think that would be 4D in design. Ofcourse, we would need to see a better picture.

Those Wild Mouse (bottom row all the way on the right) cars look like a super tight fit.

Mole [and everyone else] - it was not a 4-D design in the same way as Arrow, where cars were rotated via a second set of rails. IIRC the cars you see in Hoei Sangyo's "4-D" coaster rotated freely...which is probably why we have not seen one built yet ;)

Anything more to add? ;)

I have one thing to add....IF it should ever happen that we get one of those *free-spinning* 4-D coasters in the States, I get dibs on the first ride with Flare...:)

When I finish purchasing Camden, Bill, I'll make your dream a reality, right after I resurrect King Cobra.;)

Zingo! asks: "Anything more to add?"

Smart@ass! ;)

The Four D concept is not new, Back in the early 1900's someone developed a rolling ferris wheel using a second set of tracks to control the rotation.

Kings Island's Scooby Do is basically a three D coaster track, the cars go on a fixed track and another set of rails control the rotation. That was done by D.H Morgan in 1993

I got a chance to talk to some S&S people about a year ago. They said basically it's a matter of getting the trains lighter and stronger before they can try again.

Chuck *** Edited 10/29/2004 5:40:45 PM UTC by Charles Nungester***

Well if you're going to include dark rides, Disney's Haunted Mansion uses an extra rail to rotate the "doom buggies."

mOOSH [who, apparently, did have something else to add]

Did Morgan or Arrow do that one too moosh?

I know PKI's was very simular to the Disney FL Haunted mansion.

I think Haunted Mansion is Arrow.

Arrow did Haunted Mansion. I remeber this great HM site that had some info on the ride system but I forgot what the URL is.