Those Crazy Buses are just Crazy Baby

http://www.local6.com/news/17626870/detail.html?eref=googletoolbar

esspecially when everyone wants off haha.

seriously though i think the ride lost power or hydrolic pressure. when that happens the counterweights swing down to the bottom and the crazy bus, mother, and baby to the top. for most of the summer i know at least six flags had all of its crazy buses closed idk why but maybe this isnt the best feature in an attraction?

Thanks for your analysis, but it's completely wrong. There is no way that the counterweights (if there are any) would be heavier than the gondola... that would be just idiotic ride design. While it's true that many rides of this style have counterweights to take some of the load off the motors, they'd never be so large that the ride would stop up top if the motors or, ahem, *hydraulics* failed.

Operator error?

Do these things really go 40' high as the article says? (Doesn't look like it from the pictures on the Flat Joint.) But if it does, where did they find a 40' ladder to get everyone off the ride?

I'm not sure what the author was smoking, but the Crazy Trolley rides go up about 22', according to the Zamperla website.

Do you think the kids on the ride were terrified because they were on a stopped ride? Or because they could see and hear their hysterical, screaming parents?

OMG!!!!1!! Those rides are SOOO dangerous!!!1!!

Sensationalized! It's just a Crazy Bus ride, about 20 feet at it's highest point, maybe even 15 from the floor of the ride vehicle to the load platform. I bet the events portrayed in the article were greatly exaggerated.

I ran one of these at CP back when it was manually operated. You would have to turn the speed knob just right to lower the speed in order to stop the ride at the lowest point, and then turn the key to the off position. Sounds to me like the ride op didn't turn the key before running out to unlock the doors. He/she probably ran to hit the E-Stop as it was going up, and it got stuck in the position. Maybe that's what happened.

PhantomTails said:
Thanks for your analysis, but it's completely wrong. There is no way that the counterweights (if there are any) would be heavier than the gondola... that would be just idiotic ride design. While it's true that many rides of this style have counterweights to take some of the load off the motors, they'd never be so large that the ride would stop up top if the motors or, ahem, *hydraulics* failed.

maybe it just is idiotic ride design? apparently it didnt work that great in this case.

and ahem the hydrolics power the ahem motors, sir.

How can hydraulics power a motor? In every case study in fluid power that I have encountered, I have yet to see this scenario. It would be interesting to see how it would work. Please, enlighten me masterblaster!

I'm thinking anytime someone is left dangling unexpectedly from a ride because of a malfunction, it would be a pretty scary scenario for those involved. 20', 40'... does it matter when you are left hanging from it holding onto your kid?

1) Electricity powers the motors, not hydraulics. How would that even work?

2) The counterweights are usually heavier. On most rides, you need people to make the vehicle side heavier. For example: on a Huss Top Spin, the counterweights are heavier unless there are more than 10 people on the ride. On an Intamin Giant Drop if you release the brake, the vehicle will go up, not down, unless the car is over half full.

^^ No, but I'm saying that the parents on the ground that the article said were screaming and yelling probably only made a tense situation worse.

The video update said that the mother and child decided they weren't going to ride and were getting up to leave when the operator said he had to start the ride, then started it.

Yeah, I'm sure they did make it worse. A parent panicking can be one of the most frightening things a kid witnesses.

I absolutely hate it when a follow up news release details a completely different scenario than what was originally reported. Where's the accountability for the original journalist to have gotten his/her facts straight?

Looks like other have beat me to it but...

For the record, on a Crazy Bus or similar ride, as kpjb says, the counterweights ARE heavier than the ride vehicle. Or rather, the counterweights WILL hang the vehicle high. That's really a more accurate statement, as I believe the Crazy Bus may also take advantage of putting the counterweights further away from the center of the sweep than the pivot points on the car, giving a little more torque to the counterweight than to the car. I don't know that for certain, but the point remains...left to its own devices, the Crazy Bus will stall high. That's why if you see one on a carnival lot after hours, quite often it will be sitting with the gondola in the upper position; that's the position of minimum potential energy.

Oh, and there are lots of examples of hydraulic motors; the Chance Yo-Yo is a great example of an all-hydraulic ride, where the hydraulic motor, and both of the cylinders are all supplied fluid from a single pump. Hydraulic motors, though, depend more on flow than on pressure to operate...and in this case the issue is moot as the Crazy Bus has an electric drive system employing an electronic motor controller.

In a discussion of this incident in another forum, one person familiar with this type of ride suggested that the ride has a brake which must be energized to release, so once the ride was parked for unloading, killing the power should not have caused it to move.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Hydraulics but not "can most certainly power motors. Elevators, presses, and Top Thrill Dragster all work with hydraulic motors.

I don't know if a Camp Buss is powered by a hydraulic motor but it easily could be.

A study of fluid dynamics will not trump 10 years of experience in a factory that uses pneumatics and hydraulics.

^ I hear what you're saying. My dad deals with hydros on a daily basis, and has for about 10 years, as he works on utility trucks (the trucks you see working with a bucket in the air near power lines & trees).

BTW, I was referring to the "hydraulic powered motor" above when I asked how would that work. A hydromotor where a hydraulic pump drives a motor is, of course, different.

Also, I didn't watch the video first (and still haven't.) Just commenting on the basics of the ride, not this particular situation.

I was referring to the very rude, arrogant and errant comment by masterblaster that said hydraulics power motors. There is a big difference between a motor powering hydraulics and hydraulics powering a motor.

Well if you really want to get technical what would you call a Hydro Plant?
To me that is a motor powered completely by hydraulics albeit.

It's semantics I suppose, a pump aka a motor pushes fluid that powers a motor of another type.

It's all transfer of energy.