Kingda Ka Breakdown... Sound Familiar?

I think it's funny that so many [of us] are trying to figure out what's wrong with this ride, when there are actually people out there making a good pay check to figure it out.

I don't think any enthusiast knows the COMPLETE in's and out's of a rocket coaster, so why bother with all the hypotheses on what's wrong with KK? It's broken indefinitely, and that's good enough of a note for me.

Albeit interesting to try and figure things out, I think it's best left to the professionals. The last thing we need is to be "those people" who talk up entire lines of people on what we THINK we know about a ride.

lmmfao ttd

cha-ching

I think Grady has to chill out. Stop blaming things on Intamin and SF and what not. It's getting old.

hey we at CP were blaming intamin for what happened to TTD and intamin was blaming CP for not running the ride properly. so im sure right now SF and intamin are pointing fingers at each other in one aspect or another.

Now to add to the topic and on top of the first post...

We have gotten word from PR of gadv that KK has suffered a malfunction.

Here is the direct quote from xtremecoasters.com
" During routine testing of the Kingda Ka roller coaster June 8, the ride experienced a malfunction and is temporarily out of service. As this was a test run of the coaster, no one was on the ride. We apologize for the inconvenience and are working diligently to have the ride operating as soon as possible. We thank our valued guests for their patience and understanding."

KK has been running pretty good except for a cable snap earlier in the season, but it only takes one major break down to finish it off and this looks like it did. Pictures show torn up brake pieces and some are missing. How bad of a malfunction did this have to be to start tearing up the rollback brakes, obviously something wasn't inspected right. The static magnets on the train should never come in contact with the copper fins.

Big D said:

The static magnets on the train should never come in contact with the copper fins.

That's exactly what I've been wondering. The magnets should not have been bent and ripped up, because the magnets are stopping the train at 128 MPH regardless. Whether it's a rollback, or a train finishing a lap, the magnets stop the 128 MPH train. So something went wrong and caused the brake fins to come in contact with the train.

I think SF is really lucky that no one was on this ride while this happened. Serious damage could have been done to the bottom of the train really harming someone's legs. I just hope that SFGA fixes whatever the problem is before they reopen it (which is inevitable) and that the same problem can never happen at CP or any other parks who decide to build a rocket coaster.

Kyle, I haven't thought about such a theory before but I am starting to see where you may be right. I did read that they were having malfunctions with the transfer track. Perhaps the train did launch, the brake fins popped up, but a mechanical failure caused the cable to continue its pull which, in turn, caused the track to rip through the brake fins at extreme speeds. I think this would definately cause some structural damage to the track, brake fins, and the brake magnets on the trains. Interesting idea to ponder...

Even if the fins did pop up would that really cause a problem. I know alot of you think that if the fins popped up during a launch the train would be going so fast it could cause a problem. Well during a launch the train would be traveling no faster over the fins than if there was a rollback or even the normal break fins. Something else would have had to happen to a fin before the train got there to knock it out of alignment or bend it potentially causing a problem.

normal Estop during a launch causing the brakes to come up is perfectly fine and the ride is designed to do it.

Gomez, this is a thread about the KK breakdown, who do you suggest I blame, CP?
*** Edited 6/11/2005 9:51:20 PM UTC by Grady***

Vince982 said:
Cedar Point has had many problems with Dragster and once Kingda Ka was announced people thought "AHhhhhhh now there is a taller and faster coaster out there, now the spotlight if off Dragster" and this quote from one of Jay-Z's songs is oh so fitting "99 problems and that bitch ain't one."

Wow, that is one big, long, pointless, unpunctuated PHRASE-pile of useless crap.

Well, although I'm not a big fan of SF, I do hope they figure out what happened to KK, because if they don't, it may mean the shutting down of TTD as well. I.E. VertiGo

I have an idea...this is a cedar point fan site...if you wanna talk about the KK breakdown ...go HERE. Seriously, we need to stick to Cedar Point and just forget about their problems.

Hmmm... that's why your account got hammered, eh?

Jason Hammond said:
Well, although I'm not a big fan of SF, I do hope they figure out what happened to KK, because if they don't, it may mean the shutting down of TTD as well. I.E. VertiGo

If SF can't fix KK, that doesn't mean that TTD will be shut down. It means that TTD will be the tallest and fastest operating roller coaster on the planet.

Also, VertiGo had one of its towers collapse, I don't see how this has to do with KKs problem and if TTD will be shut down due to KKs problems.

Benjamin, I think I know what J.H. is getting at. Vertigo had a tower fall down, and after that happened CF took down all Vertigo clones at there other parks, in case it was a design flaw. So his comparison is, if they find out that it is an inharent design flaw on KK that caused it's, for lack of a better word, demise, than he is concerned that CF would consider taking down TTD. Although I find this very unlikely and don't believe it would happen, I believe that is what J.H. is getting at.
*** Edited 6/13/2005 2:21:13 PM UTC by Grady***

But the removal of those rides from CF parks didn't stop SF from building more of them.

I understand what Jason was getting at. CF doesn't own Great Adventure, so if KK doesn't get fixed, CP is going to laugh and rub this in their faces.

When VertiGo collapsed, that didn't cause SF to shut down all of their versions of it.

Grady, that is what I meant. And although i feel it is an unlikely scenerio, if Intamin told them to shutdown, wouldn't they have to do it?

Yep. I say that because MF had nothing to do with the guy flying out of the train but still had to have the seatbelt policy changed.