Ride Maintenance round table discussions you want to hear.

I always loved talking with people from other parks about rides. It's so fun to hear how other people do things. So ive invited 2 other ride maintenance mechanics on the show to have a round table style discussion about ride stuff in general.
Thank you so. much to my Special Guests, Jenn and Matt for taking time out of their day to come tell some stories and release their thoughts.
You can See Jenn at Belmont park in San Diego California.
www.belmontpark.com

[@jaybrown1458]

Y’all are the unsung heroes of the amusement park industry. Thank you all for your hard work

[@CritterCrossingFam]

Oh wow, I haven’t finished the video yet, but thank you so much for having a passionate lady like Jenn on here. My nine year old daughter is mechanically inclined and LOVES coasters as well (she had no fear on TT2), and I don’t have the experience or background obviously that you all, and Jenn have. Thank you for representing lady mechanics!!

[@Jenlovescoasters]

I wish your daughter the best, and I encourage her to follow her passion like I did❤

[@jjhatch69]

Great chat guys. I feel ancient as I have been in the industry for 22 years. Past 6 years I have worked mostly on design, development and delivery of new attractions, so I work with all of the ride manufacturers around the world. The progress in not only safety, but rider comfort, longevity of the parts and ingenuity of new equipment is as a result of guys like us, feeding back what we need to make everything better in our day jobs. I have seen and built some awesome stuff at the cutting edge of the industry, and it is only getting better. I have not installed a coaster with a chain lift for 8 years and I have installed 9 coasters in that time period, and have another 5 in development at the moment, and not a chain lift in sight.

[@dfgwm30]

I wish I could give you ten million bucks, but I can give you a great deal of gratitude for your channel, and sharing you insider information. I'm sure you are inspiring a great number of people to check out career choices in the parks,

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you I’ll take it. But I have no change haha!!

[@stephenboshears4832]

I would love to have a video about X2 it’s such a mechanical oddity

[@stefandosch6021]

Nice video of competent people talking about things they and I love 👍

[@Jimbob-in7hl]

Another great video 👍🏼 Ps Hi from Nottingham UK 🇬🇧

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Hello! Glad to see you

[@r.mcintosh7657]

I've often wished I had followed my maintenance career to a park, other than my factory setting, but that's a done deal at this point. I do always remind the doom sayers though when I'm in the parks.. " They are NOT in the business of hurting people!"

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Definitely

[@FloriDUH_JBot]

Rode Giant Dipper at Belmont for the 1st time in November. Ran insanely well for a coaster nearing its 100th birthday. That tunnel to start the ride is just so much fun. Busch Gardens Tampa is my home park. Love Iron Gwazi. But I agree, it is almost too much. One and done when I visit the park.

[@thehamelsduck1600]

I worked at a local Amusement park for 15 years. Loved every day of it. Went from working games to working rides to Maintenance/ Operations supervisor. I was more of the mechanical side and hated the electrical. Electrical always scared me. Ironically when the park shut down I got into the electrical apprenticeship program and now I deal with 13-8 switch gear down to low voltage PLC stuff and adding safety gates to production lines. Love watching all your stuff Ryan. Really enjoying you interacting with the other Ride mechanics.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you! Have fun with 13-8. 690v was the biggest I’ve ever done.

[@thehamelsduck1600]

@@ryantheridemechanic Haha I refer to use an Instrument screwdriver over putting on the Bomb Suit any day.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@thehamelsduck1600 me to! For sure. Let me get my trusty pocket panel screwdriver that does everything thing!

[@Bogarttherideop]

This is like my ideal group to have a conversation with. The amount of times I almost relate things to being a ride operator and nerd about this stuff is crazy. Just hearing you all talk about it makes me believe I’m with you there. And yes I am guilty of some of the things. I’ll tell people that they can have one more ride if they come back the next day or the ride home. I sometimes also like to do some funny excuses on why rides are down. I had some kids ask what was going on and why a bunch of maintenance members were on their phone while working on the ride and I told them they were watching a KZbin video on how to fix it.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Haha!!! I plan on making more of them. I enjoyed it and I believe more mechanics would want to come in as well.

[@JessNovak-ox9dk]

Outstanding episode , I enjoy all of your videos and this one is particularly fun. Thank you for sharing your experiences and expertise. It is Great to hear from industry veterans that maintain our favorite attractions. I really enjoyed the interaction between you and your guests, you all share the same passion. Thanks for another Great video !

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Great to hear thank you!

[@martindooley4439]

Another SCADA and Controls Engineer here.....tne things that bugs me is when local media go all hysterical when a ride stops and has to be evacuated. The real headline should be safety system works as designed everyone safe.... Great channel keep up the good work 😀🎢🎢

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you. Yea unfortunately the click bait titles work. I’ve tried it multiple times with my videos. Every time I make a clickbait thumb nail for the video, it’s watch analytics go through the roof.

[@lwkjr]

Great hearing stories from the 3 of you. Excellent.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thanks

[@Scjheinen]

Great video, enjoyed the conversation between you guys!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thanks I plan on another in the future

[@jpgiles1725]

Definitely, need to do another one of these in the future. This was a fun listen!

[@malichim5560]

Been a ride mechanic for about 2 months now and it’s the most interesting job ever

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Awesome!

[@Calakapepe]

Cp is a great choice if you always want something to do cause their rides break down a ton! Lol

[@kmccurdy21]

GioVanilla is a good way of describing Goliath.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I knew I would hear some vanilla comment there hahaha!

[@litz13]

Here's a fun real world way to demonstrate static electricity and a metal object isolated from the ground by nylon wheels: Next time you're in Costco, Sams Club, or any place with shopping carts and a bare concrete floor, grab the cart from the side and walk away with it, holding onto the metal frame instead of the push handle. That tingling feeling in your hand is the static buildup discharging through your body to ground.

[@happycoasterdad]

Love your videos!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you

[@alexlail7481]

Cool video, great guest.... I am one of those guest who would love to know about all of the test results and such because I have a background in engineering and find it fascinating....but I 100% agree people in general can't handle the truth and frequently overreact.... Carowinds and Fury 325 were an excellent example of people freaking out without having relevant information....

[@skydivedoug]

Was on the platform for Top Thrill 2 yesterday when the ride went down. When the ride mechanic showed up (quickly) the crowd burst into applause. I don't think I have ever seen someone smile bigger than that mechanic at that moment. The rid was back online within 15 minuets.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Nice!

[@owen24165]

w can you do a video on how elevator lifts work? or how flying coasters work

[@MrMakoFL]

Mo-z-er’s Rides 😉 learned that during the Soriani & Moser days

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I learn so much. But will I remember. Haha

[@MrMakoFL]

@@ryantheridemechanic indeed

[@nathanielp5959]

You can now advertise your channel as peer reviewed mechanic approved!! Great video and I’d love to share some of my experiences at my park as a ride op

[@gg-vc4eh]

Once again, such a cool video, so glad to have watched it! It answered more questions that I knew I had. I have to admit that I personally am a bit of a guilty guest: Once in my home-park I was visiting with a bunch of friends, and the weather wasn't great. About 15 minutes before the rides closed we walked onto a Gerstlauer launched Infinity Coaster, and when we returned to the station there wasn't a single person standing in line. We kept chanting "One more! One more!" and the ride-ops actually gave us one more ride, and one more, and more. In those last 15 minutes we were nonstop cycling the ride, some of my friends even got out because they got very dizzy. In total I think we made 6 or 7 cycles, and when we had to get out we saw the operators take the last ride themselves. We then dashed to the car because it started pouring. Despite the weather still one of the best visits to that park, because I also managed to get 39 inversions on their Gerstlauer Skyfly. That was the record for the day, I even made sure to take a photo of the leaderboard.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Wow! Cool. I think if I were on the last train of the night I would also join in on the “one more time” chant!

[@sumguy8]

great video!

[@twelvmonkees]

1:06:18 "For those of you who are unfamiliar..." 😂

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I don’t know how many people on my channel are unfamiliar with the block system, but I guess I should make a video on it. I don’t think I’ve made one.

[@twelvmonkees]

@@ryantheridemechanic I would absolutely love a collaboration between you and El Toro Ryan, especially a block zone centered video ! You are my two favorite channels regarding technical aspects of roller coasters !

[@Shredxcam22]

The true reason SLC's are so rough. Relay logic......

[@EveryoneIsFamily]

Awesome Video!!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Thank you

[@kendonagan5535]

Always great content! I'd love to have a chat with you. So will this week's video be touching on top thrill 2? I see a lot of speculation about those trains.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I’m thinking of doing it. My only problem honestly is will it be relevant when it’s released on Friday. I think I might make one though.

[@kendonagan5535]

@@ryantheridemechanic I doubt we'll get any new information by then. Play the algorithm and get those views! It worked for Fury, after all.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@kendonagan5535 yea I guess so hmm. In that case I’ll have to make some ends of the world click bait to haha!!!!!

[@MythicHellebore]

I enjoyed this round table video it good to have more perspectives. So many stories with three people. Speaking of Steel Vengeance, I got a ride last Sunday with no trims. That second half was so fast and insane. I absolutely love TT2 go try it. In the last row my butt never hit the seat all the way over the top hat and got ejected hard into my restraint.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

That’s cool. Is ejector time over the top hat normal for the OLd top thrills ride?

[@MythicHellebore]

@ryantheridemechanic I don't know, didn't ride it. When it isn't windy, it goes considerably faster over the top hat now. Before, it creeped over at a few miles an hour. It now clears it at least 15mph. Although, as expected, if you get a strong enough gust of wind, guess who is getting a real rollback? We have seen it in testing a few times on Thursday. It's amazing how wind at that height can be way more intense than what we feel at the ground level. People are a little upset that they will not be running today as ground level winds are projected to be 20mph a lot today with rain. I suspect even Millennium Force may have downtime this afternoon. I highly doubt maintenance wants to take her train apart because she valleys. I'm sure the rain would make that job even more miserable.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@MythicHellebore most people don’t understand winds up high until you have to work up high. Windy and cold typically. Lots of wind just 100ft off the ground. Which makes sense if you think about all the trees and buildings shielding you from the full speed wind.

[@MythicHellebore]

@ryantheridemechanic I forgot about it until your valley story. Back when I used to try to storm chase, we always looked at windspeed with height, direction, and shear. Too much speed or changing direction. at the different heights meant a storm would not form or be ripped apart if it did. It's just way higher than 420 ft.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@MythicHellebore I can imagine. What height were you watching for storms? 30-50k?

[@DJWezzyK]

I have a question: The old Vekoma Booster Bike models are using Hydraulic launches. Why did you say Flywheel launch? Can you explain the difference?

[@Shredxcam22]

Noticed some of the b and Ms used sew eurodrive motors. How hard are those to source compared to baldor ? I'm guessing there is a lot of metric and bspp on them as well.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Most all rides built in Europe use SEW. They are easy enough to get parts for lots of local vendors. Just different. There is no model for the motor and model for the gearbox it’s all one SO number so if you don’t know what you need and only want parts it might be a little tricky.

[@Shredxcam22]

@@ryantheridemechanic We always have the gear boxes on em break, then have to wait to order an entire unit or cannibalize 2 to make one. Then they have metric fittings. I always enjoy seeing the same equipment on rides as we have at work. Any particular flavor of PLC you guys prefer or are they just about all Allen Bradley ?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@Shredxcam22 corporate was very much always Allen Bradley. Had a few pilz, and like Bekoff. But the AB push was to standardize the programming language so it lessened the chance of mistakes and problems during commissioning.

[@Shredxcam22]

@@ryantheridemechanic interesting. Our industry is mostly Siemens. I saw an Allen Bradley once. We consider them like kids toys. I've have seen more push for programming with higher level languages like Siemens SCL or STL and ABB rapid language. Do you see that coming in the ride industry ?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@Shredxcam22 I would imagine so. It’s mainly how insurance and 3rd party can verify the project. Then the manufacturers safety ratings on the components themselves.

[@aldoparise1224]

I believe Zierer is pronounced "zee-er"

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Hmm okay

[@brittariedel3446]

​@@ryantheridemechanic German here: i would say it is pronounced like: Tzeee - rar

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@brittariedel3446 my family thinks I’m nuts. Sitting in the kitchen by my self staring into the distances trying to say tzee-rar haha! Thanks.

[@robertstephens5185]

Just curious about your racing background you spoke of. Do you still race, and what kind? Asphalt, dirt?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Don’t race anymore. Stopped in 2003. I raced nascar on a paved 1/2 mile. Never tracked with it. Just the one track. Engine had just over 400hp purpose built frame and body. It was fun.

[@robertstephens5185]

@@ryantheridemechanic those were some good drivers out west. Rick Carelli, Ron Hornaday, alot of those guys really got the truck series off the ground in the early days. I did race dirt cars for many years, kinda want to get back into it. Bout the closest thing to that rush has been becoming a roller coaster enthusiast.

[@robertstephens5185]

Love the channel BTW

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@robertstephens5185 yea coasters are like a small spike. Racing is like a marathon of adrenaline to me. Nothing can give a rush like double wide green flag going into turn 1. 😀

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@robertstephens5185 thank you

[@MrMakoFL]

Iron Gwazi > SteVe

[@FranklinArmstrongjr]

STEEL.VENGEANCE〽️ IS THE BEST.⚡ AND... 🤠 OL' YEA YOU CAN GET A JOB AT C.P. THEY ARE HIRING MAINTENANCE WORKERS I HEARD THIS WEEK AT THE PARK. 👍 COME WORK AT THE BEST COASTER.🏆 GREAT DISCUSSION GUYS YOU GOT THE BEST REAL CONTENT. 👍