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Xcelerator has problems

Rob

Mega Poster
Stop moaning, across the pond our accelerators are broken all the time =P. We get used to the lack of them.

With regards to the general accelerators are unreliable debate, I do find the ride type quite unreliable, but it really does vary from coaster to coaster. One of our members as I'm sure you all know was the Stealth head engineer and he worked extremely hard to get Stealth working correctly, yet he still told me on several occasions the ride threw up issues he was unprepared for. Simply put something's just happen and can't really be fixed within the scheduled time, budgets or limitations the engineers have.

I guess that's where you get the park to park issues with accelerators and the bad reputation they have over here, atleast. What can be said is in comparrison to other similar rides, they are very unreliable. Simple way to get a fair view of this is to look at Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. All their rides will be subject to similar maintenence limitations, and the B&M rides are always the most reliable, with the three Intamin's (Rita, Stealth and Colossus) falling behind. Clearly the ride type/manufacture are not the best, but this would vary from ride to ride, complexity of ride systems compared with B&M (ie: hydraulic launch vs. chain lift) and aging and subsequent effects of insufficient maintenence in earlier life (ie: Colossus) taken into account.
 

Nick P

Mega Poster
Way to bring a topic back from the dead. :lol:

My question is, why doesn't Storm Runner ever roll back? It seems that just about every other Intamin Accelerator featuring a top hat rolls back, except Storm Runner. :(
 

bmac

Giga Poster
Storm Runner is the only Top Hat coaster I've ridden where I got air time on the top of the hat, in the middle seat. I think Storm Runner's launch is just so powerful that there's very little chance for the ride to roll back, whereas rides like TTD, Kingda Ka, and Xcelerator can roll back under the right conditions. I know Kingda Ka runs the risk of rollbacks if it's under 45 degrees F, but I'm unsure if any other Intamins have the similarity.

I feel bad for Knott's anyways, it seems a lot of their rides have been plagued with major issues in the last four-five years. They've gotten quite a bad rap from the GP about it, and the Southern California media is pretty hard hitting when it comes to amusement incidents.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
When you stick a whole gondola full of riders on WindSeeker for 3 and a half hours - it's easy to get a bad rap.

Between that and being located immediately next to Disneyland (not to mention an hour away from SFMM and Universal Studios Hollywood) - it's easy to understand why Knott's is not favored.
 

Tman389

Roller Poster
Xcelerator is always down for part of the day but I've been going to Knott's for about 8 years now and I have never seen a rollback. The fact is Xcelerator is just old and it's always had problems so it's a miracle the ride hasn't broken for good by now. Knott's just doesn't put the money into maintaining it and now the ride suffers.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
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Xcelerator was running all day yesterday as far as I could tell.
 

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Can't you read Matt??? ;) :p

Tman389 said:
Xcelerator is always down for part of the day but I've been going to Knott's for about 8 years now and I have never seen a rollback. The fact is Xcelerator is just old and it's always had problems so it's a miracle the ride hasn't broken for good by now. Knott's just doesn't put the money into maintaining it and now the ride suffers.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
furie said:
Can't you read Matt??? ;) :p

Tman389 said:
Xcelerator is always down for part of the day but I've been going to Knott's for about 8 years now and I have never seen a rollback. The fact is Xcelerator is just old and it's always had problems so it's a miracle the ride hasn't broken for good by now. Knott's just doesn't put the money into maintaining it and now the ride suffers.
If the first train going over the top hat after about 10 mins of the park opening counts as 'downtime' then I stand corrected. Otherwise it seemed to be running all day. :lol:
 
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