Roughness of Classic Wooden Coasters

That's the issue I have with ratcheting lap bars. It's not the fact that they're adjustable- heck, I know some enthusiasts that LIKE that because it allows for people of larger size to ride comfortably. What I don't like about ratcheting lap bars is that they fall further into my lap as the ride continues. Knoebels Twister seems to be an exception- an example of how to do ratcheting lap bars and circumvent the seat belt thing.

First SRM with Legend with PTC's. Leave station with lapbar touching. Double up! Come back in in severe pain because it went down another two or three clicks.

Not fun but I thank them for FIXING IT!

Chuck

That seems to happen on a lot of intense wood coasters- the lap bar drops father than it would if someone were sitting on it in the station. Strange how that works- blame those wonderful forces, I suppose!

I blame weak factory springs.

I'm sure that's the case... whether or not that's on purpose in another story.

Here's a solution: how about just bringing the lap bar down until it rests firmly on your thighs?

I've often wondered why no one is building flange wheeled coaster trains these days. They track beautifully without the shuffling. They also seem to absorb track deficiencies much better. What we call potholes. For those not familiar with the flanged wheel assembly's, see the link below.

http://www.geocities.com/ultimatethrillparks/flangedwheel.jpg

Sadly, there aren't too many flange wheeled coasters left. I believe all the Scooby Doo's (I'll always call them that...sorry) are, as well as Vancouver's COASTER, and the Puyallup COASTER. Any more out there? Is ROLLO COASTER?

Both Giant Dipper trains on the west coast use to run with flange wheels and ran much better than the current style.

Does anyone else "feel" the difference in the rides given by these style trains? It's like night & day to me. *** Edited 2/25/2007 5:37:23 AM UTC by swampfoxer***

Not sure about Rollo Coaster, though Waldameer's Comet has flanged wheels.

It's probably too expensive, especally with everybody being reluctahnt try try anything that isn't virtually maintance free.

Seems that all (or most) PTC junior coasters have flanged wheels. As for full-sized coasters, I can't recall one that was built in recent years with flanged wheels. I wonder why that is? Flanged wheels would probably go a long way to fixing the "shuffling" issues of many coasters.

I think some parks are just a little skittish about not having that extra wheel there. Even though physically the flanged wheels are fine, I can see how someone not knowledgable would feel that they're unsafe when going around turns because there's no side wheels.

Maybe so. But any park that knows what they're doing would know that the flange acts as a side wheel. After all, they were good enough for Fred Church's demented masterpieces.

I think a lot of it has to do with the strength of the laterals. Think of the junior coasters. Most of them do not have any significant laterals to them. Because of this, the flanged wheel may work better. But, as the amount of laterals increase, so would the wear on the flange as it tried to keep the car going around the curve. On the older, church style trains, even though the cars had a flanged wheel, the tracks were banked accordingly to cut down on the stresses on the flange.

Maybe it would make sense for a company like GCII to start designing their rides with flanged wheels in mind? Or is the difference in banking requirements not all that significant?