MY backyard coaster.

Rob,

the ride was exceptionally smooth. At lower speeds, like the turn to the lift, it had some side to side shuffle [see: leap the dips] which was actually pretty enjoyable, but it would have gone away with a little more work on the track like, say, when it was re-built at the campground.

The turnaround's problems were more of an upstop clearance/guide wheel problem that John later corrected (after it was in peices, so it never got put to use) but it would basically hang up in the turnaround if it was moving too slow and you'd have to jump out and push.

There was originally going to be an unload station just after the turnaround, hence the flat part, but after time ran out, it was converted into a trim/double down area which would have been really cool.

I've talked to John about possibly moving it back to town and resurrecting it. Now that we have the structure, the work will lie mostly in correcting tracking problems and making the ride run as smoothly as possible.

The chassis of the trains/cars was aluminum and all the wheels were made of a [1200 LB load bearing] resin that was cheaper and a LOT lighter than steel. The wheels were also fully articulated, similar to Lost Coaster trains. (No, we didnt rip off Mike Graham's design - it's only similar and I told him about it:) ) There were a lot of long nights, 24-hour shifts, and a few minor injuries, like having a hammer dropped on my head from 13 ft, but it was worth it.

John's got a design for a spring/bungee launch that we were joking about building for funone of these days. Might happen, but that stuff gets expensive. :)

Who knows what we'll come up with.

Ride of Steel, you're using bungee cords to launch yours? what are you anchoring them to, and do you have them protected in case they snap?

-Josh

That sounds like one hell of a ride, Josh. I'd give anything to have ridden it. Its amazing that you engineered it so well... the problems you mentioned seem like very minor flaws that could easily be corrected.

Am I asking too much by asking what you sold it for? Or how much it cost to build... not including labor hours, of course!

Wow! That is amazing. I have a backyard large enough for that, and it's in the country. Are you looking to move it? It could actually make me like central Illinois a bit more.! :)

Well I have to give the engineering credits to John - he was in his 3rd year at CMU for Mech. Engineering at that time :)

Anything I ever come up with for our projects, I always run it by him, and we crunch some numbers.

I'll really have to check with him on how much all the materials cost, but I think it was originally going to sell for $20,000+ but like I said they decided to try and re-write the contract and John put a hold on that one.

It was a real challenge, and really fun - I seriously hope to do it again someday.

-Josh

After purchasing a home someday, I will construct the first drop of my coaster from the roof!

Someone did do that. An ACE member, I think his name was Kim Pederson. He constructed two backyard coasters and the later one included a drop from the roof of his ranch house. I think he recently built a backyard monorail.