I have always loved rollercoaster wheels. In fact, it's the reason I got my dream job as a ride mechanic. I'll go over the basics nohow we inspect and when we replace these jems.
A good friend, longtime ACE member and the like was attending the media day for Goliath at Six flags Great America. He was outside the ride talking with Fred Grubb of RMC and mid conversation they heard a series of thumps emanating from the train, Fred runs over to the ride to solve the issue and my friend meets up with another friend who was on the ride during the suspect noises. The other friend was a bit shaken up as the wheel opposite his seat had delaminated and pelted him with a shower of polyurethane bits, interesting to learn that its not totally uncommon!
Mr Grubb is vary nice, very approachable, and VERY hands on! He wants to make sure that ride treats the park well and the park treats his ride well. I’ve had lots of RMC wheel fun. Mainly because their not the easiest to swap out. Good story!
I really enjoy the videos, keep them coming. As a ride-opp we where instructed to measure the wheels every day using a gauge (a u-shaped tool) and it was the main reason for changing out wheels back then. Unfortunately we could not do it ourselfs.
Awesome. Go/no-go gauges are best for messing the minimum diameter on wheels with cupping sense the OD in the middle of the wheel is thinner. …… till it’s gone haha
The small pieces of the surface of the wheels coming off likely explains why Skyrush and Fahrenheit at Hersheypark were so bumpy when I rode them. Also love your videos!
I think a video about magnetic braking systems would be interesting. I can't help but look down at the final brakes of Orion and wonder how hot those aluminum fins get
I think this it is from your older videos where you mentioned that Kong and Boomerang where named the “ twisted sisters” and how when mechanics work on a ride, they notice that the ride has a personality/common issues/quirks. Would love to hear your thoughts about the rides you worked on were like and if any had any distinct attributes. Anyway love how informative your videos are and sense of humor. Awesome job as always.
Randomly just got recommended this video, just want to say, I think you have an awesome attitude, you have a great way of presenting videos, great speed of presentation, keep up the good work. When you get bigger it will be hard to keep up with comments, but awesome you're trying. Hope you take off and become a big TH-camr. Keep being the simple friendly personality you seem to be. Have an awesome day!
yea I always wondered why creators never responded on their videos. Im only just past 300 subs and already having a hard time. Im glad you're here! my videos might not be the best to watch but the knowledge is the reason most people are here.
Corkscrew lost a chunk that landed on the midway a couple of weeks ago at Cedar Point. It seems dangerous how it goes right over guests heads as you walk right under it.
Yea Maclan was ok but had odd failures like batch material were not 100%. We did millennium for a while but only went back to uremet out of preference.
I have two wheels off of T3 at Kentucky Kingdom. They were given to me by the maintenance team, they're really cool and my favorite pieces in my amusement park collection!!
Last week, I attended Kings Dominion, and they have water spickets gushing all over the wheels on I-305. I understand that this ride would blow through wheels daily when it opened, and that Intamin had to work on their wheel compounds. My question is whether the more extreme heating and cooling cycles causes these wheels to degrade quicker? Also, the area under the station looked pretty wet and muddy and it seems like they don't have a good drainage system. My guess is that this creates a much dirtier environment for you to work in, which can't be fun.
The cooler that wheel is the longer the urethan surface will last. Some parks do things to heat and cool the wheels. I know a ride that uses water pumped through the transfer and station track to help cool the wheels between runs.
I was was a ride op/maintenance for defunct AstroWorld Houston, TX. We had a lot of Arrow "stuff" Arrow/Vekoma used polyurethane. Other Manufacturers used Nylon. When I heard about Cedar Point a few weeks ago. I KNEW what it was from. I used to make working models from model train shows. I had my wheels machined from Nylon. Lubricated with Prestone Silicon spray including the track/ chain. I used to watch mechanics install Nylon on Schwarzkopf shuttle loop 2. Yep! Launch coaster (back road wheels would lift during launch...they would be "egg shaped" + had to be changed out more frequently.) Arrows used crank case oil. Lighter oil in Fall. Heavier in summer. Mechs would heat pan of oil to expand soften Nylon (press fit the tire to the wheel) Clutch was changed 2 times each year. Ride went down in July. Wheels were replaced then also.
Have you seen what happened at Carowinds? Could you go depper into supports and how they differ by manufacturer/what to look for during maintenance and stuff like that?
😂😂A support of Fury 325 somewhat snapped/broke/cracked... apparently there was a crack the day before and the did not notice that... so the day after it came fully loose. Luckily nothing bad happened
Waiting on your video. I'm sure your in disgust seeing how this crack was missed. There are people coming forth with pictures from a week ago showing the visible crack. How their team missed this is baffling
Why does the wheel hub metal become thinner with every retread (so can only do it 2-3 times)? Do they have to machine it back into tolerance or remove metal somehow? Do they have to adjust the amount of urethane based on the outer diameter (OD) of the wheel? It's interesting that parks would go through all that hassle of shipping to a 3rd party and NDT, and some being found with cracks anyway, bore and OD measurement, recoating the wheel, the retread company being responsible for the performance of the new one, shipping back, if you can get a new cast one for $400!
They take off the old urethane by machining it off the face. You need to remove a little bit of parent material to get a perfect surface. They pour the new urethan then turn down the OD to match a new wheel. And it’s cheaper than a new wheel. So you could say wats $100 difference, well that’s over 50 wheels that might be sent in. Niger wheee have much more of a difference. New road wheels can be around $3600 each and a re-coat might run $300.
Loving your content man. Really unique into and I am going to spread your channel to my coaster buddies. Are you a coaster fan? No big deal if you aren't but man, you have the dream job of any coaster fan out there.
Thanks. So I’m actually out of the industry. One of my first videos goes over how I didn’t start this cannelloni until after I left the park. Sad for me but being submersed in the industry for 14 years straight I had no ambition to do this sort of stuff because it was just more work. I like to go and spend tim in the parks I always have. Never tried to join AcE or anything like that. The pictures a videos I use are from more recent trips mixed with older photos I still have. My videos I make are mainly to use the wealth of knowledge I accumulated over the 14 years as a ride mechanic, controls electrician and maintenance supervisor. Don’t want people thinking I’m something I’m not.
@@ryantheridemechanic Your knowledge is really interesting to the coaster community. I just let Taylor from Coaster Studios know about you . With a bit of luck if he contacted you, would you be willing to talk to him? He has a pretty massive coaster community following.
I’ve seen parks (Kings Island) pressure washing the track on Banshee after the park hours. Is that normal for wear and tear? I assume less dirt on the track means the less the wheels decay, and the smoother the ride experience would be. Just an interesting thought especially with how large B&Ms rails can get.
Typically the tracks are not washed unless there was a problem. To get flaking paint off. Maybe something is making dirt stick? Or mold moss is forming and needs to be removed. Kind of an odd thing.
@@ryantheridemechanic For sure, pretty interesting none the less. If I had to guess I’m going to assume something natural occurred that was allowing dirt to stick to the rails since they were only washing one tiny section. When I rode it that day the little patch they were working on had a heavier vibration compared to the rest of the ride.
@@cedarpointenthusiast hmmm interesting. They must be looking for something. Dirt built up on the road surface can cause some wicked vibrations. I know I had that problem once on a B&M where the track lube wasn’t mixed right. Caused it to build up in the low spots and made a nasty mess.
@@ryantheridemechanic Yeah. It was going into the batwing right when it starts to invert for the first time. I assume the way B&Ms spine is so thick i bet its just an absolute troff for debris and dirt. I’ve never seen them pressure washing during the main season though so something had to of been going on.
With my previous role I was able to cherry pick some things like this. In great condition but now junk to the park. You can’t call or ask for this stuff it will almost never happen.
Thats exactly what I did at KK. Except i know the entire maintenance team and the whole management team of the park, which is how I got both my wheels. And I might be fixing to get one off of Thunder Run.
Never tried it. Seems like it could do ok but no up front knowledge. We use liquid graphite on our old woodie what a mess that stuff is. But it had no abhility to stick around it was mainly just graphite in solvent.
Just over grease the wheels then I reverses direction on the track,…… On most trains it impossible. Typically trains are not built symmetrical, and most ARB and chain dogs can not be reversed.
Is it possible that Uremet not only refurbish wheels but also produce new wheels? A while ago, I had my hands on a road wheel that was taken off a Schwarzkopf coaster (not sure whether it was due to NDT discovering cracks or the bearing bores were out of spec), but the hub itself hat "Uremet" cast into it, like your wheel says "Vekoma". Of course, with Schwarzkopf being out of business for close to 40 years and wheels having a limited life, it's no surprise that they must have been made by someone else by now...
Yes they do build complete new wheels for ride. If the manufacture is still around they work with them to get an approved design. If not they have engendering that will work with the parks engineering to build something from scratch.
interesting video as always, just wondering if you've ever seen these polyurethane wheels blowing out? Also why might parks choose to use Nylon wheels over polyurethane wheels - is it down to their different working properties?
Nylons are very low resistance so they are considered speed wheels to make a train go faster. Typically it’s either all or nothing for those but I did work on one that only used 4 nylon wheels and urethane for the rest.
1:42 maybe it was Corkscrew at Cedar Point? I heard news articles talking about one of its wheels delaminating and polyurethane getting all over a pathway along the midway of Cedar Point Also you say you replace 1-2 wheels a week… how many wheels do you have in storage per ride? Do you repair the old wheels or something?
Not really. Most old parts are useless to people unless you like to build/weld, and machine things the amusements parks are awesome for scrap material. I always loved wheels so when I had the chance for some nice dumpster diving treasure I took it. The park had to release these wheels saying I wouldn’t hold them responsible for any damages or lawsuits.
@@chriss1019 soon as that bearing race goes bad, wheel is trash. Typical train might loose 2 or 3 a year to the trash can. Mainly happens on old old wheels unless you had a severe bearing lock up and it overheated the hub.
@ryantheridemechanic That's quite light but that's to be expected for aluminum. I'm sure the wheels on say, like the GateKeeper or Millennium Force at Cedar Point would be twice as heavy or more since they're much larger.
Selling old wheels to customers could lead to lawsuits. It leaves public logs to your maintenance and evidence in the hands of the jury. I’m sure they go somewhere and someone pays for them. Like he said. A knock off is a great idea
I once did a school project that included talking about how expensive i305 was on wheel maintenance. my estimate was $6,400 a day, assuming one train burns one set of wheels a day and it only runs one train ($100 per wheel estimate x 8 cars x 8 wheels per car) but i know most of that is fairly eyeballed. what do oyu think the actual cost might be?
Depends on all those numbers. General trains run 96 wheels. Roads run close to $1200 per wheel new. But a retread is only about 400. So I want to know what you mean by go through wheels. Are you suggesting they are breaking all those wheels? Or are you asking average wheel rehab costs?
Hey Ryan, I have another question: Arent the newer style wheels, like the "billet" style wheels much more expensive than the cast aluminum ones, like the one you have? For example, a wheel off of a B&M vs an old arrow or a vekoma slc. Am I correct?
@@ryantheridemechanic isnt it because the aluminum from the billet wheels is less prone to wear when they undergo retread? Like, it machines less off the face of the wheel? Im sorry Ryan if Im bothering you!! Ive just acquired another wheel from KK, off of Lightning Run!! Id love to email ya some photos of em if your interested! Also, thank you for being polite to your fanbase!
@@pizzafroth1521 always! Awesome you got another one! The benefits from billet are the material is stronger so it’s less prone to cracking. Stronger material also means you can install and remove bearings with less damage. Most wheels that have to be tossed in the trash is because the bearing bore went bad done damage to the bore by maintenance generally. The putter surface could be built thicker giving the wheel longer life (6 retreads vs 3 retreads) so yes you are correct but is not the main reason for billet. Less NDT is the main reason.
@@ryantheridemechanic my large wheel off of T3 is cast aluminum. Its bearing race is out of tolerance, but other than that its in very good condition. My wheel off of Lightning run is the same situation. But my side (guide) wheel from T3 and my upstop from thunder run are beat to heck and back. Both of those two look a bit rusty, but oh well. Also, the urethane on the small T3 wheel is really cracked. Also, what about chain? Is chain on a rollercoaster specialized? Like, is there specific requirements for it? Ect.
@@pizzafroth1521 they do make special chains with AP (amusement park) ratings but in reality, no they are just oversized for the application to get the safety rating. Just a regular roller chain.
A good friend, longtime ACE member and the like was attending the media day for Goliath at Six flags Great America. He was outside the ride talking with Fred Grubb of RMC and mid conversation they heard a series of thumps emanating from the train, Fred runs over to the ride to solve the issue and my friend meets up with another friend who was on the ride during the suspect noises. The other friend was a bit shaken up as the wheel opposite his seat had delaminated and pelted him with a shower of polyurethane bits, interesting to learn that its not totally uncommon!
Mr Grubb is vary nice, very approachable, and VERY hands on! He wants to make sure that ride treats the park well and the park treats his ride well. I’ve had lots of RMC wheel fun. Mainly because their not the easiest to swap out. Good story!
I really enjoy the videos, keep them coming. As a ride-opp we where instructed to measure the wheels every day using a gauge (a u-shaped tool) and it was the main reason for changing out wheels back then. Unfortunately we could not do it ourselfs.
Awesome. Go/no-go gauges are best for messing the minimum diameter on wheels with cupping sense the OD in the middle of the wheel is thinner. …… till it’s gone haha
I like how excited you were about the wheel... I feel the same about being in the electrical trade. It's the only thing I'm really good at😅
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. You are absolutely amazing and I am so so grateful!
Your welcome
I like to ride Gatekeeper on an inside seat because the wheels are right there and they're massive
The small pieces of the surface of the wheels coming off likely explains why Skyrush and Fahrenheit at Hersheypark were so bumpy when I rode them. Also love your videos!
I’ve also had track lube clip up on wheels and cause vibrations. Could also be part of the problem.
Very informative, fun to know the small details that help produce great thrills.
watching this video while making a coaster in no limits. great video
you should make a video about rollercoaster tyres and the electric motors for them.
I think a video about magnetic braking systems would be interesting. I can't help but look down at the final brakes of Orion and wonder how hot those aluminum fins get
I think this it is from your older videos where you mentioned that Kong and Boomerang where named the “ twisted sisters” and how when mechanics work on a ride, they notice that the ride has a personality/common issues/quirks. Would love to hear your thoughts about the rides you worked on were like and if any had any distinct attributes. Anyway love how informative your videos are and sense of humor. Awesome job as always.
Yea I could come up with something like that. Good idea.
Randomly just got recommended this video, just want to say, I think you have an awesome attitude, you have a great way of presenting videos, great speed of presentation, keep up the good work. When you get bigger it will be hard to keep up with comments, but awesome you're trying. Hope you take off and become a big TH-camr. Keep being the simple friendly personality you seem to be. Have an awesome day!
yea I always wondered why creators never responded on their videos. Im only just past 300 subs and already having a hard time. Im glad you're here! my videos might not be the best to watch but the knowledge is the reason most people are here.
Fantastic video
Thank you!
Corkscrew lost a chunk that landed on the midway a couple of weeks ago at Cedar Point. It seems dangerous how it goes right over guests heads as you walk right under it.
Uremet is amazing! Did not have as great results with maclan.
Yea Maclan was ok but had odd failures like batch material were not 100%. We did millennium for a while but only went back to uremet out of preference.
I have two wheels off of T3 at Kentucky Kingdom. They were given to me by the maintenance team, they're really cool and my favorite pieces in my amusement park collection!!
Thanks for sharing
Last week, I attended Kings Dominion, and they have water spickets gushing all over the wheels on I-305. I understand that this ride would blow through wheels daily when it opened, and that Intamin had to work on their wheel compounds. My question is whether the more extreme heating and cooling cycles causes these wheels to degrade quicker? Also, the area under the station looked pretty wet and muddy and it seems like they don't have a good drainage system. My guess is that this creates a much dirtier environment for you to work in, which can't be fun.
The cooler that wheel is the longer the urethan surface will last. Some parks do things to heat and cool the wheels. I know a ride that uses water pumped through the transfer and station track to help cool the wheels between runs.
I was was a ride op/maintenance for defunct AstroWorld Houston, TX. We had a lot of Arrow "stuff" Arrow/Vekoma used polyurethane. Other Manufacturers used Nylon. When I heard about Cedar Point a few weeks ago. I KNEW what it was from. I used to make working models from model train shows. I had my wheels machined from Nylon. Lubricated with Prestone Silicon spray including the track/ chain. I used to watch mechanics install Nylon on Schwarzkopf shuttle loop 2. Yep! Launch coaster (back road wheels would lift during launch...they would be "egg shaped" + had to be changed out more frequently.) Arrows used crank case oil. Lighter oil in Fall. Heavier in summer. Mechs would heat pan of oil to expand soften Nylon (press fit the tire to the wheel) Clutch was changed 2 times each year. Ride went down in July. Wheels were replaced then also.
Cool. Thanks for the comment!
Have you seen what happened at Carowinds? Could you go depper into supports and how they differ by manufacturer/what to look for during maintenance and stuff like that?
I have not seen anything. To what are you referring to at Carowinds? A support video? Hmmm I’ll see if I could …. Support… that.
😂😂A support of Fury 325 somewhat snapped/broke/cracked... apparently there was a crack the day before and the did not notice that... so the day after it came fully loose. Luckily nothing bad happened
@@lars7395 wow a support?! That’s extremely odd. Hmmm I’ll look for it thanks.
Waiting on your video. I'm sure your in disgust seeing how this crack was missed. There are people coming forth with pictures from a week ago showing the visible crack. How their team missed this is baffling
@@robertstephens5185 my video will for sure blow you away! And not in the way your thinking. I’m putting it together now.
Why does the wheel hub metal become thinner with every retread (so can only do it 2-3 times)? Do they have to machine it back into tolerance or remove metal somehow? Do they have to adjust the amount of urethane based on the outer diameter (OD) of the wheel?
It's interesting that parks would go through all that hassle of shipping to a 3rd party and NDT, and some being found with cracks anyway, bore and OD measurement, recoating the wheel, the retread company being responsible for the performance of the new one, shipping back, if you can get a new cast one for $400!
They take off the old urethane by machining it off the face. You need to remove a little bit of parent material to get a perfect surface. They pour the new urethan then turn down the OD to match a new wheel. And it’s cheaper than a new wheel. So you could say wats $100 difference, well that’s over 50 wheels that might be sent in. Niger wheee have much more of a difference. New road wheels can be around $3600 each and a re-coat might run $300.
@@ryantheridemechanic Ahh, awesome!
Loving your content man. Really unique into and I am going to spread your channel to my coaster buddies. Are you a coaster fan? No big deal if you aren't but man, you have the dream job of any coaster fan out there.
Thanks. So I’m actually out of the industry. One of my first videos goes over how I didn’t start this cannelloni until after I left the park. Sad for me but being submersed in the industry for 14 years straight I had no ambition to do this sort of stuff because it was just more work. I like to go and spend tim in the parks I always have. Never tried to join AcE or anything like that. The pictures a videos I use are from more recent trips mixed with older photos I still have. My videos I make are mainly to use the wealth of knowledge I accumulated over the 14 years as a ride mechanic, controls electrician and maintenance supervisor. Don’t want people thinking I’m something I’m not.
@@ryantheridemechanic Your knowledge is really interesting to the coaster community. I just let Taylor from Coaster Studios know about you . With a bit of luck if he contacted you, would you be willing to talk to him? He has a pretty massive coaster community following.
@@gametime2473 yea I’d have no problems with that.
Speaking of SLCs, what is it about them that makes them so rough? What did they do differently to that one in NJ to make it (so I've heard) smoother?
It’s a lot of variable put together, design, fabrication, maintenance. Very large topic.
I’ve seen parks (Kings Island) pressure washing the track on Banshee after the park hours. Is that normal for wear and tear? I assume less dirt on the track means the less the wheels decay, and the smoother the ride experience would be. Just an interesting thought especially with how large B&Ms rails can get.
Typically the tracks are not washed unless there was a problem. To get flaking paint off. Maybe something is making dirt stick? Or mold moss is forming and needs to be removed. Kind of an odd thing.
@@ryantheridemechanic For sure, pretty interesting none the less. If I had to guess I’m going to assume something natural occurred that was allowing dirt to stick to the rails since they were only washing one tiny section. When I rode it that day the little patch they were working on had a heavier vibration compared to the rest of the ride.
@@cedarpointenthusiast hmmm interesting. They must be looking for something. Dirt built up on the road surface can cause some wicked vibrations. I know I had that problem once on a B&M where the track lube wasn’t mixed right. Caused it to build up in the low spots and made a nasty mess.
@@ryantheridemechanic Yeah. It was going into the batwing right when it starts to invert for the first time. I assume the way B&Ms spine is so thick i bet its just an absolute troff for debris and dirt. I’ve never seen them pressure washing during the main season though so something had to of been going on.
@@cedarpointenthusiast or some high up boss is coming to the park haha
I've been trying to get my hands on a real wheel for YEARS. How did you get that? I'd give anything to get a real rollercoaster wheel.
With my previous role I was able to cherry pick some things like this. In great condition but now junk to the park. You can’t call or ask for this stuff it will almost never happen.
Thats exactly what I did at KK.
Except i know the entire maintenance team and the whole management team of the park, which is how I got both my wheels. And I might be fixing to get one off of Thunder Run.
How do you feel about an old woodie with steel wheels with track lube plus? On my steels, ive always used it. My park has a beach rust problem.
Never tried it. Seems like it could do ok but no up front knowledge. We use liquid graphite on our old woodie what a mess that stuff is. But it had no abhility to stick around it was mainly just graphite in solvent.
We used graphite on our two woodies at Magic Mtn
Great videos Ryan, thanks for sharing! I have a question: How difficult is it to reverse the direction of trains on a roller coaster?
Just over grease the wheels then I reverses direction on the track,……
On most trains it impossible. Typically trains are not built symmetrical, and most ARB and chain dogs can not be reversed.
I think Corkscrew in general, has reached its life span.
Is it possible that Uremet not only refurbish wheels but also produce new wheels? A while ago, I had my hands on a road wheel that was taken off a Schwarzkopf coaster (not sure whether it was due to NDT discovering cracks or the bearing bores were out of spec), but the hub itself hat "Uremet" cast into it, like your wheel says "Vekoma". Of course, with Schwarzkopf being out of business for close to 40 years and wheels having a limited life, it's no surprise that they must have been made by someone else by now...
Yes they do build complete new wheels for ride. If the manufacture is still around they work with them to get an approved design. If not they have engendering that will work with the parks engineering to build something from scratch.
interesting video as always, just wondering if you've ever seen these polyurethane wheels blowing out? Also why might parks choose to use Nylon wheels over polyurethane wheels - is it down to their different working properties?
Nylons are very low resistance so they are considered speed wheels to make a train go faster. Typically it’s either all or nothing for those but I did work on one that only used 4 nylon wheels and urethane for the rest.
@@ryantheridemechanic Understood. Thanks Ryan!
1:42 maybe it was Corkscrew at Cedar Point? I heard news articles talking about one of its wheels delaminating and polyurethane getting all over a pathway along the midway of Cedar Point
Also you say you replace 1-2 wheels a week… how many wheels do you have in storage per ride? Do you repair the old wheels or something?
Depends on the old wheels condition. Most can be resurfaced ok. Stock about 15 roads and 30 guide up stops per train I’d say is good numbers.
Do you have a lot of old ride parts laying around from your years working on rides?
Not really. Most old parts are useless to people unless you like to build/weld, and machine things the amusements parks are awesome for scrap material. I always loved wheels so when I had the chance for some nice dumpster diving treasure I took it. The park had to release these wheels saying I wouldn’t hold them responsible for any damages or lawsuits.
Makes sense. How common is it that you need to trash the wheels completely as opposed to having them restored?
@@chriss1019 soon as that bearing race goes bad, wheel is trash. Typical train might loose 2 or 3 a year to the trash can. Mainly happens on old old wheels unless you had a severe bearing lock up and it overheated the hub.
How much can roller coaster wheels weigh?
Depends on the type and size. The one I use in this video is 3lbs and it’s 156mm wide
@ryantheridemechanic That's quite light but that's to be expected for aluminum. I'm sure the wheels on say, like the GateKeeper or Millennium Force at Cedar Point would be twice as heavy or more since they're much larger.
@@tubepotato500 road wheels on a wooden coaster are the heaviest. About 10-12in in diameter and made from solid steel. About 21pounds a wheel.
My road wheel off of T3 weighs about 20 pounds. Its quite hefty!!
Me: I have too much junk and need to seriously clean house
Also Me: I wish I had a coaster wheel...why don't they sell the old ones in the gift shop?
Would you buy a knock off if you could? Or the fact that it came off the ride is the thing you want?
@@ryantheridemechanic I would!!! I'd LOVE to get my hands on a wheel somehow. I've been trying for years and no luck!!
Selling old wheels to customers could lead to lawsuits. It leaves public logs to your maintenance and evidence in the hands of the jury. I’m sure they go somewhere and someone pays for them. Like he said. A knock off is a great idea
I once did a school project that included talking about how expensive i305 was on wheel maintenance. my estimate was $6,400 a day, assuming one train burns one set of wheels a day and it only runs one train ($100 per wheel estimate x 8 cars x 8 wheels per car) but i know most of that is fairly eyeballed. what do oyu think the actual cost might be?
Depends on all those numbers. General trains run 96 wheels. Roads run close to $1200 per wheel new. But a retread is only about 400. So I want to know what you mean by go through wheels. Are you suggesting they are breaking all those wheels? Or are you asking average wheel rehab costs?
Is he high?
Hey Ryan, I have another question: Arent the newer style wheels, like the "billet" style wheels much more expensive than the cast aluminum ones, like the one you have? For example, a wheel off of a B&M vs an old arrow or a vekoma slc. Am I correct?
Yes they are more expensive. But also more durable. So builders actually offer billet as a cost savings with longer life and lower NDT.
@@ryantheridemechanic isnt it because the aluminum from the billet wheels is less prone to wear when they undergo retread? Like, it machines less off the face of the wheel? Im sorry Ryan if Im bothering you!! Ive just acquired another wheel from KK, off of Lightning Run!! Id love to email ya some photos of em if your interested! Also, thank you for being polite to your fanbase!
@@pizzafroth1521 always! Awesome you got another one! The benefits from billet are the material is stronger so it’s less prone to cracking. Stronger material also means you can install and remove bearings with less damage. Most wheels that have to be tossed in the trash is because the bearing bore went bad done damage to the bore by maintenance generally. The putter surface could be built thicker giving the wheel longer life (6 retreads vs 3 retreads) so yes you are correct but is not the main reason for billet. Less NDT is the main reason.
@@ryantheridemechanic my large wheel off of T3 is cast aluminum. Its bearing race is out of tolerance, but other than that its in very good condition. My wheel off of Lightning run is the same situation. But my side (guide) wheel from T3 and my upstop from thunder run are beat to heck and back. Both of those two look a bit rusty, but oh well. Also, the urethane on the small T3 wheel is really cracked.
Also, what about chain? Is chain on a rollercoaster specialized? Like, is there specific requirements for it? Ect.
@@pizzafroth1521 they do make special chains with AP (amusement park) ratings but in reality, no they are just oversized for the application to get the safety rating. Just a regular roller chain.