Mamba is having problems

This is to let anyone know that is planing on Visiting WOF next Weekend, Please call ahead to check if Mamba (if that you purpose of visiting) is gonna be open or not. Today on the ride a bearing on the top of the lift went out and was casing it to have smoke and bad fumes to come out at the top of the lift. The ride was closed soon after. The maintence was called up and check on it adn couldn't get it fixed so it was down for the rest of the day. When I did run into and asked various maintence guys on rather or not it will be up next weekend and they said that they don't think they'll have the problem fixed before then.

I am bummed out Mamba was having a good day until this happend and yes I rode it and didn't like the smoke or fumes coming from the top of the lift. From what I heard this wasn't the first time this happend this year. I have reason to belive the excessive heat and humidity had something to do with this. Doesn't Morgan know how to build a ride to withstand lots of days of 90 degree temps and high humidity.

Get Well Soon Mamba.

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Chris Knight
The Mantis is real. The Mantis is out there. The Mantis is protecting my yard from West Nile Mosquitos (No Joke).

*** This post was edited by Sawblade5 on 9/9/2002. ***

Mamba is smoking
Surgeon General warned her
cancer is coming

If this hasn't happened in previous years, and has happened twice in one year, it's time to figure out what has changed to destroy the bearing. It's probably not the weather. Most likely would be a lubrication issue or something else that isn't right and is causing an overload on the bearing.

That's funny.....VF's WOF is two years older, 7 feet taller and holds up in 90-degree weather just fine.

I don't think it's a Morgan flaw per se. Wheels, yes. Chainlift, no.

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

Valleyfair's Worlds of Fun????

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I, am nobody, and nobody is pefect!

Duh, whoops. VF's WT not to be confused with CP's WT. Also future home of SV, not to be confused with SFWOA's S:UE or SFGAM's VV, which is not to be confused with SFMW's VV although now it's pretty hard to.

There, I think I've worked out the acronyms now.

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

Bearings, and all things mechanical, can wear out and break or sieze up. Does not reflect on Morgan. Do you own a car Chris? Do you not have to replace tires, brakes, struts, tie rods, etc?

Jim W.

JWolg said:

Bearings, and all things mechanical, can wear out and break or sieze up. Does not reflect on Morgan. Do you own a car Chris? Do you not have to replace tires, brakes, struts, tie rods, etc?
Jim W.

Inf act I need to still wrok on my cars. There's a problems with breaks in 2 of my cars. Tires need to be changed and rotated on my truck.

Now to get back on topic. As of Today Wednesday 9-11-2002 the Mamba has a crane sitting by the top of the lift, so they can fix the problem. Don't let this fool you on new coaster constrution becasue it issn't. They are fixing the top of the lift and problay doing other things to the chain lift. I am hoping to be able to ride Mamba this weekend but I doubt that I'll be able too. If it is closed you will more likly see me power riding the Orient Express or the ThunderHawk (I love our new ride). This all that I can say for now, I hope to get my cars and trucks to 100% and WOF has Mamba to 100% and runing well.

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Chris Knight
The Mantis is real. The Mantis is out there. The Mantis is protecting my yard from West Nile Mosquitos (No Joke).

Darn, I was supposed to take a friend down to WOF this weekend for his first roller coaster experience. Bummer...
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

I just got an e-mail back from Worlds of Fun:
"The Mamba has been down for routine maintenance and is ready for operation
this weekend."
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

I love how partks never admit something is wrong, and just say it is routine maintnace.....why cant they just tell the truth.

Matt Scott said:
I just got an e-mail back from Worlds of Fun:
"The Mamba has been down for routine maintenance and is ready for operation
this weekend."
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

I'm happy to hear this. I'm ready to ride Mamba see ya Sunday.

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Chris Knight
The Mantis is real. The Mantis is out there. The Mantis is protecting my yard from West Nile Mosquitos (No Joke).

I just might be there on Sunday as well. Gotta get a bit more use out of my season pass before it's too late.
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

Well, I made it down to WOF on Sunday and Mamba was open. They really need to let up on the block brake. It totally ruins the return leg of the ride, just like on WIld Thing.
Around 7pm, they closed it down saying it would reopen in 20 minutes, but my friend and I just headed over to Timber Wolf for the rest of the night. Knowing WOF, I'm guessing they were going to take off the second train and run it solo for the last hour, but something looked to be up as the mechs were underneath the transfer track examining the train I was on as we returned into the station (I was in the last seat looking down at them) and I heard one of them say "I don't see anything" or something like that.
This trip was my friend's first roller coaster experience. We started with the Timber Wolf and he really liked it. Then we did Mamba and he said Timber Wolf was a lot better. He even liked Orient Express more than Mamba which really surprised me, especially considering how rough the Orient has gotten.
It was really fun getting to witness a newbie getting a taste of "our world."
We finished the night with 5 consecutive laps on the Timber Wolf in the last seat (my fave). The Wolf was running quite well despite the trim brake trying to hold him back.
OK, so this turned out to be a bit of a trip report; oh well. Sorry. :-) I'm curious if anyone who was there knows what actually was going on with Mamba at the end of the night.
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

Maintenance periodically checks the trains throughout the day...making a visual check of the wheel conditions, and viewable axle components. The 20 min timeframe is a little long for removing a train...but then again they might have increased the time so thst everyone didn't come back at once. I can say I wish our maintenence guys performed checks like Valleyfairs do. Not only do they do the visual check, bu they measure wheel distance (at least on Corkscrew), check the lock on the harness...not simply when it is down, but several slots, as well as many other things. I don't know if this is typical of VF, but that is what I have seen on my 4 trips there.

Anyway, I really hope they get some paint to paint over the now black supports directly under the lift crown. When that bearing went, it made a huge mess...but then again they could leave it and make it look like the Orient does.

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Waiting for the CP announcement to be made so that about 1000+ posts will be made complaining about it.

Matt, all the steel coasters at Valleyfair receive the same kind of maintainance inspection each day with the exception of Mad Mouse where all the sensors are checked during the day and everything else is checked early in the morning.

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Top 5 Steel: #1 Millenium Force #2 Phantom's Revenge #3 Ice Dragon #4 Incredible Hulk #5 Wild Thing
Top 5 Wood #1 Viper #2 Thunderbolt #3 Timberwolf #4 Outlaw #5 Screaming Eagle

An hour before the park closes?
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

If that's directed to me then the answer is, no. Valleyfair generally tries to get its inspections done in the middle of the day. Depending on when the park closes these times could vary from 2-5 pm.

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Top 5 Steel: #1 Millenium Force #2 Phantom's Revenge #3 Ice Dragon #4 Incredible Hulk #5 Wild Thing
Top 5 Wood #1 Viper #2 Thunderbolt #3 Timberwolf #4 Outlaw #5 Screaming Eagle

Doesn't every coaster have a mess at the top of the lift hill? If WOF is going to paint something then I would hope that they pick Boomerange and not the last 10' of the Mamba's lift.

Mamba is back open as of last weekend.

PS Come Ride the Bloody Nile!!!