When will the new ride start testing?

From the Power Tower cam this ride looks awfully close to being complete. There's a lot of work left on the tower and they will have to finish the lauch house along with station but I thought that this would be a good time to place bets on when testing will start.

I'm guessing the end of Febuary.

*** This post was edited by jive 12/9/2002 10:26:04 AM ***

I'm guessing whenever everything is installed and the bolts are all torqued down.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED!

Are you saying that as they're building the ride, they don't tighten the bolts completely, then after the whole thing is built, they go back through and tighten the bolts further? Just curious...

Beats me. I mean, I'm sure everything is bolted together enough to be stable, but I'm also sure that the manufacturer has a certain standard that they bolts have to be torqued to. Then they can paint their little X's on them to see if any have slipped loose.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED!

That is correct, Kevin. They do this to allow for a little 'play' in the parts while they're piecing it together. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be necessary, but several factors affect ride parts in such a way as to change their size, so they don't fit 'perfectly'. By leaving the bolts loose, they can 'wiggle' the parts into place, and then tighten the bolts to the proper tension. This may sound somewhat alarming, but we're talking discrepencies of 1/8th of an inch or so...and on a ride that's 400feet tall, 1/8th of an inch is virtually nothing.

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--Seth

I would guess that they've been tightening bolts one level at a time. That may explain why it appears that the erection goes so slowly at times.

I'm not even going to touch that one.

They have to leave them loose then go back and torque them. I put together a steel bench, and tried to save time by tightening the bolts as I go, there was a couple pieces that I simply couldn't put together. I had to go back and loosen the other bolts so it could fit together. When I did tighten it the second time it went together perfectly.

With a 400' steel coaster, just getting the bolt holes to line up properly is a challenge. The construction company knows what their doing, They have done projects like this many times before.

Now about testing. They haven’t even completed the circuit yet. They have to finish building it, and then they have to wire EVERYTHING together. It will be at least late January or early February before they can test. I don’t think they will start testing till March because of the weather.

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House of Tomorrow: Only technology makes live worth living
*** This post was edited by SteelMonsters 12/9/2002 2:50:35 PM ***

probably when they finish it.....

Funny, that's what I was going to say. :)

Aparently this is a tougher question than I had originally thought. Let's try this a different way. ;)

When do you think the ride will be complete (aka testing begins)?

I would say that the tower is almost finished, not the track but the tower needs only a few more pieces. If the track will go higher past the tower then I would add a few days to the earliest guesses, of which I have none.

it's like when you put a wheel on your car, you don't tighten all the lugs nuts one at a time, you put them on until they stop turning, go in a star pattern THEN really go back and tighten them. you have to give it a little bit of play.

The bolts are not fully torqued until the structure is finished. They are tightened enough to be sound, but not completely solid.

In the pictures below you can see that on the last day the park was open, and the tower was four levels high, that none of the jam nuts at the base had been tightened yet. I'm willing to bet they will stay that way until the final torquing is done next month. A lot of settling will take place between now and then.

http://www.setecx.com/pics/cp102602const/imagepages/PICT0259.html

http://www.setecx.com/pics/cp102602const/imagepages/PICT0268.html

That also brings up the fact that the grout work won't be finished until everything is in place as well (that's the concrete they "squirt" to fill in the gap between the footers and the steel).

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED!

Plus, I think a lot of people are forgetting the fact that they still have to install the elevator. This installation will probably take awhile by itself, I would guess that they don't start testing until about mid-late march. And even while they are testing they will still be doing work, like working out any kinks, and small stuff like que lines, and any trees they plan to replace.

Mmmm....grout.

I'm guessing that there must be some minimum outdoor temperature that must be present in order operate the ride? Between the launch equipment and behavior of a train in colder wether, this seems like a logical issue. With temperatures already setting new record lows this fall, it could be a while after construction finishes before the testing starts.

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James Draeger
-Captain Sarcasm

I'm thinking testing will start around late february to mid march. They know what kinds of problems xcellerator had and they don't want them to be factors here, not for something this big. They are the flagship park, they aren't supposed to have errors.