Largest Ferris Wheel

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GregLeg said:
The Eye is a fabulous experience (especially if you ride it at dusk in December), but I don't believe it still holds the title of tallest.

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Dang, where's Peter Pan or Mary Poppins? ;)

Heck, The Eye's half hour ride was fun in the middle of April also. However, BPB and Alton Towers were a lot more fun...

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darienlakefan said:
Excuse me SFDL ferris wheel is the second largest in the U.S and it does stand at 165ft it is not new it has been there for quite a while maybe since when the park opened.

So SFDL is the second largest wheel next to the one at the texas state fair.

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Even if it was 165 feet, (which according to my sources it is not) that would still place it third in North America. I hope you're not getting your information from the SF website because SF makes a lot of dubious claims on their website.

1.) Texas Star 212 feet
2.) Colossus 184 feet

Upon further investigation it appears that the SFDL wheel is a standard Vekoma 40 tub 45 meter wheel which actually makes it 147.64 feet tall (not 158 feet as I claimed earlier) It was originally installed at the Knoxville World's Fair in 1982 and moved to Darien Lake in 1983. The Knoxville fair advertised it as being 148 feet tall. I don't know how it managed to "grow" 17 feet when it moved to Darien.

*** Edited 4/7/2005 2:08:30 PM UTC by Jeffrey Seifert***

Very large footers? ;)

i cant wait to ride this incredible ferris wheel over looking some lame ass office park in Texas.

the plate on the SFDL wheel says 165 feet and thats not the park plate its the accual verkoma plate thats mounted to the ride itself

The SFDL (former Knoxville Worlds Fair) Wheel is a stock Vekoma 45 meter Giant Wheel. Following info is from an original Vekoma factory spec sheet- wheel height 45 m(148ft), wheel diameter 42,4m(139ft), height of main axle 23,8m(78ft), no. of cabins 40, allowable weight per cabin 6@75kg (6@165.35lbs.) max load,240 persons, weight empty, 195 metric tons.

Is anyone else NOT surprised that Vekoma couldn't "do the math"? ;)

Just rode the Eye again last week, and they are still calling it "the world's largest observation wheel."

I actually think this is correct, as I have not seen or heard of any larger than this 460 foot ride.

The "Eye" is the one the built for the millennium, right? That things looks huge, how much does a ride cost?

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a1967Tigers said:
i cant wait to ride this incredible ferris wheel over looking some lame ass office park in Texas.

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It over looks Fair Park and the ghetto .. well for now. Has nice views of Downtown Dallas, that's about it .. aerial views of the Midway and Smirnoff Amphitheatre .. other than that, the ghetto area of South Dallas.

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RamblinWreck said:
The "Eye" is the one the built for the millennium, right? That things looks huge, how much does a ride cost?

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Yeah, it was built for 2000. It costs 12 pounds (roughly 22 dollars) to ride. It is expensive, but so is everything in England if you are an American. :) I have certainly found that out the hard way this semester.

Up until 1991, for 13 years, the tallest ferris wheel in the western hemisphere was actually located in Niagara Falls,Ont. at Maple Leaf Village.. It was higher than SFDL, and was sold overseas when the park closed after the 91 season. I am trying to locate the wheel to see if it has been reassembled and operating, or if it'sjust sitting inthe weeds somewhere. I had the pleasure of operating this wheel for the last official day of service in 1991. I'm actually the person who shut the pumps down and locked the door after the final officially open night. (we ran the giant wheel weeknights in the spring and fall, when the park was only open on weekends.) I have a bunch of shots of it being disassembled, but would like to see it operating again. After it closed, SFDL became the highest in these parts.

Ken Jones Jr.
Niagara Falls, Ont.

My information, which is a few years old, is that the wheel at Indiana Beach is the second largest ever built entirely in the U.S. Can anybody confirm or deny this ?

I can't confirm it, but it wouldn't surprise me. Many of the large wheels in the U.S. came from overseas. The Ferris wheel at IB came from Chance which would make it American, and for a Chance wheel it is pretty big, possibly the largest one from that company.

Ken, do you know who actually manufactured the Maple Leaf Village wheel? The cars were much more ornate than a standard Vekoma wheel and I know it wasn't a Schwarzkopf wheel. I remember riding that every year when we'd go to Niagara Falls and made our usual stop at MLV. It's a shame that little park died. It was actually a lot of fun for a park with mostly trailer-mounted rides.

Ray P.

Edited for spelling to avoid the Spelling Police ;)! *** Edited 4/29/2005 3:13:05 PM UTC by ProgRay***