Intamin: Like that girl you hate, but can't resist

Seriously Intamin rides rock. I love every brand of 'em from their water canyon rides to their buzz-worded giga coasters.

But like an anoying date, these things are never on time!

Is it just me, or do intamin rides have a problem with opening on time? Like chronically. Did some swiss dude forget to carry the one while doing physics? Or do they just enjoy releasing half-engineered rides that need 'tweaking' later?

Intamin - how I love thee... But why do you gotta be such a *****?

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I AM CANADIAN
why aren't you?

Yea, Intamin really needs to do a more reliable job on their rides, especially the trains, which after just one season are know to develope stress cracks. But yes they usually are really complex rides.
*** This post was edited by Immelman 7/5/2003 10:08:41 PM ***

coo man chu said:
Seriously Intamin rides rock. I love every brand of 'em...

Even Flashback?

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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean

Yes even Flashback... That was a fun little ride that I enjoyed a couple spins on and without the horsecollars would've been a blast.

European Intamins always seem to open on time and work as perfectly as other new rides.

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Nemesis Inferno - The Pressure is Building!
Rare RollerCoaster Resources - http://clik.to/rrcr

Did the S:RoS's or Goliath SFH or EGF have any major problems? Thunder Dolphin? What about the standard inverts (Tornados)? Sit down loopers? Seems to me that Intamin only has problems when they try to push the envelope a little bit (just like every other company, save B&M for some reason).

While we're here, what's the story on the half-pipe? Has anyone ridden it? Is it any good?
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff

Andy,

Yes, all SRoS' suffered downtime in there first season with *some* kind of problem. SFDL threw a guy out (not really mechanical downtime there), ran one train a helluvalot (maybe SF? Maybe not). SFNE's was down for about two weeks straight in either June or July back in its opening season. SFA's broke one or two chains, I can't remember in its opening season. Some downtime occured.

With Goliath, it opened on time and when I was there, ran consistently and flawlessly all day, just like every other Intamin on the trip (Colossus, Colossos, EGF, and Goliath). The only downtime I recall on any of them was a few minutes during ERT on Colossus at Thorpe. Other than that I never saw the others go down at all. Strange, eh?

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Top Thrill Dragster -- The most intense, unbelievable, and spectacular fifteen seconds on any coaster, anywhere, ever.

Sure some of Intamin's ride open late, but they are usually the ones that are a bit more complex. Also, it seems that usually after a warm-up season, they run quite reliable and consistant. I remember hearing about volcano's huge amount of downtime in 1998, but now when I go it seems to be always open.

The way I see it is that coasters might as well still be in their testing phase when it actually opens. Its not that there is something wrong with Intamin, its just that the ride needs some time before some of the issues are noticed.

But in any case, I bet everyone here would rather TTD here with downtime, than no TTD at all.

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1. Millennium Force
2. HypersonicXLC
3. Alpengeist

Well Intamin rides ocasionally open way past schedule or have extensive down time they are no hassle compared to Vekoma. Vekoma rides are ok but they always have HUGE problems with operating in a productive way. Also after the first year or so Intamin rides almost always operate at least 90% of the time.
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Are You Ready To Take The Red Pill? Matrix RCT parks
Enter The Matrix V.2

ApolloAndy: B&M flyers(at least S:UE at SFGAd) have had downtime I think(or maybe it's just the ride ops)

Legendary: I don't remember any downtime with Colossus at Thorpe or with any other coaster during ERT. You're talking about the ACE European Coaster Odyssey right?

ApolloAndy said:
Did the S:RoS's or Goliath SFH or EGF have any major problems? Thunder Dolphin? What about the standard inverts (Tornados)? Sit down loopers? Seems to me that Intamin only has problems when they try to push the envelope a little bit (just like every other company, save B&M for some reason).

While we're here, what's the story on the half-pipe? Has anyone ridden it? Is it any good?
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff
Did the S:RoS's have any problems? I remember driving to SFNE on my first visit in 2000 eagerly expecting to ride S:RoS only to drive into the parking lot past a sign saying "Sorry but Superman will not be operasting today".
*** This post was edited by SFNE Dude 7/5/2003 6:13:28 PM ***

*** This post was edited by SFNE Dude 7/5/2003 6:14:01 PM ***

Eurpo-Mir,

Yes, I was referring to the ECO trip last July...It was about a five to ten minute downtime almost right when the ERT started. I remember as I was waiting in line for the front row with Sean Flaharty and was thinking "Oh great, we're here for two mins and the Intamin goes down." Little did I know that would be it for the trip! :)

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Top Thrill Dragster -- The most intense, unbelievable, and spectacular fifteen seconds on any coaster, anywhere, ever.

We're still having massive problems with Typhoon Seacoaster at SFA, which was installed in 1997. Yes, it's a prototype, but you think the bugs would've been worked out by now. A park manager told me last year that they gave up on Intamin fixing the ride, and decided to make a go of it themselves several years ago. I did see it running successfully with 8 boats at one time last year. Besides testing, no ones been on it this year to the best of my knowledge. Maybe they should modify the ride and remove the turntables, including the backwards one. I bet it would be a much more reliable ride.
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If you have a problem with clones, the solution is real simple—Stop traveling.

Wow, I guess I should consider myself fortunate that I caught Typhoon running normally when I was there last year. It's a fantastic ride, and removing the turntables would really take away from it. All of the turntables are at really sharp angles, meaning that the several parts of the ride would have to be modified if they were removed.

On a related note, what company made the Viking ride at Epcot? That ride utilizes turntables also, and seems to have excellent reliability. Perhaps they could work on it?

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Six Flags Worlds of Adventure Online
"We find that people don't pay any attention to what's underneath the ride."--SFMM Rep discussing Scream! as quoted in AT

At least those rides have "cahones." Mindbender still beats the crap outta any of those "perfect mechanical family rides." Give em a break! Intamin rocks :)

TTD techincally opened on time. It just broke down a few weeks later...lol. But hey, it's back up, so hurrah for CP.

It's more like the girl you do,but don't want to do.;)

Don't you just hate having one to many??????
*** This post was edited by DirtyVern 7/6/2003 9:13:02 AM ***

I'm new to all this, what causes these companies to not open on time like that? I have heard about all of the TTD problems... do the companies just not take everything into account? Why not shoot for a later opening and hope for the best with that? Just some questions from a newcomer.

I think the fact that Intamins are "perceived" to have problems is because there is a very prominent Intamin in Ohio with some problems.... either that, or because Intamin products enjoy a particularly HIGH level of scrutiny whenever one is opened up.

Well, from what I've seen with Intamin rides, they seem to be a little ahead of their time. Such as STE still not being able to run correctly, and the hydraulically launched coasters.

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