Kings Dominion (KD) Discussion Thread

[cfc]

The Haunt maze in the queue does make the line seem longer from the outside than it really is.

[robbalvey]

Kind of pointless if the test seat doesn't have the same restraint as the ride. I always wondered what happend because early in the rides construction the park openly said it would not have hard restraints but straps. This is getting weird...

It makes perfect sense if it's a quick fix for a temporary problem. Let's just say, hypothetically, that for whatever reason they NEEDED to canibalize the restraint on the test seat to use on the actual train. I would bet there is a better than average chance they might have had the strap based restraint if in fact Intamin might have tested it on the ride at some point during development.

 

So I can totaly see it happening where...

 

"Hey we actually need the OTSR from the test seat for the real train."

"Should we just pull the test seat?"

"How about putting on the shoulder strap thingy that we have sitting in the maintenance bay and we can replace it with a real one again when our shipment from Intamin comes in?"

"Good idea! Let me go swap it out..."

 

This is what I think *could* have happened. And remember, the test seat doens't really test the OTSR, it's more testing to see if the lap bar portion of the restraint comes down all the way.

 

--Robb "When you work at a park, you see stuff like this happen all the time and you make do with what you have on hand..." Alvey

[Capitalize]

Apparently there's a "new" front seat POV video showing off the added hardware to the first drop, does anyone know where one can find it?

[Fooz]

Apparently there's a "new" front seat POV video showing off the added hardware to the first drop, does anyone know where one can find it?

 

I'm not sure about the board policy for posting 'illegal' pov's is, but a good way might be to search "intimidator 305 pov" into youtube, and organizing the results by upload date.

[coasterfreak101]

Apparently there's a "new" front seat POV video showing off the added hardware to the first drop, does anyone know where one can find it?

 

I'm not sure about the board policy for posting 'illegal' pov's is, but a good way might be to search "intimidator 305 pov" into youtube, and organizing the results by upload date.

 

Exactly what I did yesterday, and it's right there.

 

I, personally, don't think it looks like a trim bracket. Not like the ones on the smaller hill. And it covers the middle half of the drop, which would be the weirdest place to put a trim, if you ask me. But I guess we'll know soon enough!

[bgwfreak777]

There wasn't anything trimming us on the drop Saturday, but maybe that's something added Sunday morning.

[Jive]

I took a look at the original POV and the new one from 2 days ago.

 

There is something new on the drop. It doesn't look as if the actual brake fins have been installed though. Just the bracket that will hold them.

[Skycoastin Steve]

I went to the illegal POV in question, and instead of posting it, got a couple screen captures from it. I hate to say it, but the mysterious object on the first drop looks eerily similar to one of the brackets that holds the trim later in the ride. You can be the judge.

305 drop.bmp

Object on the drop.

305 trim.bmp

Original trim.

[eddie200330]

Not to sound too stupid, but does it make a difference if the object in question is on the left side of the track instead of the right side like the original piece?

[Skycoastin Steve]

There's a fin on each side where the original trim is. It's a bit tough to see in the picture just because of the angle, but there are two fins there. I don't know if the object on the first drop is just the beginning of the process to add a trim, but that's what it appears to be. One would think there would be two sides to a trim on the first drop (just like the original trim), so who knows how this will turn out.

[eddie200330]

I would tend to think if they were going to do any work, the ride would be shut down, work finished all the way through, and then tested and reopened. Why would they add pieces here and there at a random pace?

[Skycoastin Steve]

^Not sure, but they still have some time before daily operation starts if they want to pull the trigger on this. I just hope if it is something that shuts the ride down for a period of time, that it doesn't happen during either of my visits there in early June.

[CHILLERLC1]

Kingda Ka has a trim at the top on both the left and right side of the track. At Intimidator's midcourse it looks like the brake is on the right side, the same at the final brakes. Perhaps on the midsection that is only an unused bracket on the left side of the track that is red?

[A113]

I found it, but I'm afraid of posting it as it's not legal (I believe).

[Fooz]

Kingda Ka has a trim at the top on both the left and right side of the track. At Intimidator's midcourse it looks like the brake is on the right side, the same at the final brakes. Perhaps on the midsection that is only an unused bracket on the left side of the track that is red?

 

Both the midcourse and final brakes have fins on both sides. This looks like a bracket for a long, single fin trim, to slow the train more gradually than either of the other brakes.

[cfc]

I found it, but I'm afraid of posting it as it's not legal (I believe).

 

Wise decision.

[Thom25]

It's on youtube titled Intimidator 305 HD posted 2 days ago. You can clearly see something new has been added to the first drop.

[TheStig]

Something tells me trains are starting to fall victim to the extreme maneuvers of this ride. I'm guessing that drop will soon be trimmed.

 

You think they would have learned with Maverick.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^Yeah I gotta imagine that is the case. I also heard a rumbling from someone that got pretty reliable information about the lift hill having some structural issues as far back as opening weekend. Nothing catastrophic, just that the lift track was going crooked due to not enough lateral support in the lift hill. Intamin seemed to really stretch the limits on this coaster, and it's starting to become apparent that they may have overstepped the boundaries a bit.

[Josh Linn]

I might have to rush and move my trip up to next week to get a ride in before this is finished, but even next week might be too late.

[PKI Jizzman]

Something tells me trains are starting to fall victim to the extreme maneuvers of this ride. I'm guessing that drop will soon be trimmed.

 

You think they would have learned with Maverick.

 

Well hopefully this CF park is buying the right quality of wheels for this ride. I know Busch Gardens treats Apollo better than KI treats Diamondback.

[HCLcoasters]

^^^The lift has a massive bend in it. Not vertically as you might expect, but laterally. It's clearly visible when riding.

[Skycoastin Steve]

^Doesn't surprise me one bit with the lack of lateral support and the massive amount of force applied to that structure both by the fast lift hill and the first drop.

[Josh Linn]

What a massive oversight on Intamin's part...how does something like that get through to construction without an engineer thinking "you know, maybe we should stick an extra support or two there"? You'd think they would learn their lesson after all the issues they've had in the past with under-supported rides (Xcelerator and Wicked Twister come to mind).

[Skycoastin Steve]

^What I was told was Adena sorta screwed up the alignment. So it could once again be joint responsibility between the engineers and the people building it. I honestly wasn't told a whole bunch about it, but that was the general idea of what I was told.