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Lightning Rod Status

Snoo

The Legend
Just in defense of RMC.. LR has really been the only "**** up" of the rides they've made. What other coaster have they built that has issues like this? NTG did have the death but that more had to do with Six Flags negligence then bad ride design and Wildfire was closed due to Sweden's laws, not bad ride design. All the other rides have been moderately to enormously successful.

I also wouldn't go as far as say they're not a successful company because they most definitely are. And given their track record thus far, I'll take a 95% success rate (1 in 19 thus far) after only operating for nearly a decade because we know for damn sure Intamin certainly hasn't maintained that high of a record in it's history.

This one is definitely mind boggling tho. As not many people have the in on whats going on and what has been heard has been hearsay, it's tough to verify if its the launch, ride design, control systems.. etc that are actually causing the problems.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Don't forget the Steel Vengeance bump though. And the fact they tried to turn Colossus into a pile of ashes.

A bump though? That's not a lot to hang your hat on in stating the entire manufacturer is not successful. Steel Vengeance has had it's issues but it hasn't kept the ride closed for extended portions of the season in any way (and with it being a redesign of an existing coaster, something almost all manufactures don't even try, I'd give them a smidgen more slack then you normally would). That being said, blocking on a redesign is a technical hurdle that can be tough to overcome for anyone, regardless of your experience.

And the Colossus fire may or may not have been their fault but from the looks of the damage itself, it happened after the ride closed permanently as well as before construction on said lift hill began. Did we ever find out the root cause? I don't remember ever seeing one.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
Again, feel the need to clarify my stance. RMC are without a doubt a successful company, and they've done a wonderful job of disrupting the industry, but I can't stand this "they can do no wrong" attitude that some (not all) enthusiasts have.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Again, feel the need to clarify my stance. RMC are without a doubt a successful company, and they've done a wonderful job of disrupting the industry, but I can't stand this "they can do no wrong" attitude that some (not all) enthusiasts have.

Agreed on this point completely. They are not above reproach by any stretch of the imagination. You see that with some people and B&M as well, but the RMC fandom has been overreaching and overbearing at times as well when it comes to mentioning that company. Lightning Rod and Steel Vengeance are proof the company can be flawed in their designs and can and will have issues with their installations. Yeah, their creations are great, but let's remove them from god-like status and bring them down to reality.
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
Don't forget the Steel Vengeance bump though. And the fact they tried to turn Colossus into a pile of ashes.

You'd be surprised at the amount of rides that bump (hell, have any sort of issue) during testing that you don't hear about, because that number is more than just Steel Vengeance. And why are we even worried about Colossus? They were actively deconstructing that portion of the ride.

I will also add to the discussion that I can't for the life of me understand what the obsession with blaming the launch for Lightning Rod's issues. The park itself has stated that they've ironed out the launch's teething issues. The ride operated for much of the 2017 season with a fairly reliable launch. What we ALSO know is that the ride suffers from multiple other issues that don't involve the launch at all. For a while in its opening year, the ride was just barely slipping through one of its blocks due to excess train weight, which triggered an E-stop. There have been reports that certain sections of the track have some jarring bumps. There are probably a number of other items that we don't even know about.

RMC is quite innovative, and to do so, they SHOULD be expected to break ****. I'm working on a fairly innovative project at work and we've broken A LOT of ****. It happens.
 

Snoo

The Legend
Well well well. Look what we have here.
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