Setting Up the KMG Fireball / Afterburner Ride

I'm back out on the lot with Majestic midways to see how a few more carnival rides are set up so there it is huh we come focusing on the kmg fireball or afterburner as it's also called This is the first ride we've done that uses multiple trailers and I've always wondered how they align those trailers so precisely the rear trailer has what I can best describe as Gates That Swing Out a line with notches in the front trailer the front trailer has a pair of hydraulic controlled feet that basically allow you to walk it into position foreign once everything's lined up large pins are inserted and that holds everything in place these yellow pyramids are the bases the ride rests on there's large hydraulic cylinders in all four corners of the ride that are lowered onto these bases allowing you to level and support it that rear tandem axle can pivot out of the way I had some reservations about doing this particular ride build up I'm primarily interested in classic and vintage rides and this is quite a bit newer than that this ride was completely rebuilt within the last few years and every bit of wiring was replaced each trailer has a pendant that's used to control all the hydraulic and winch functions [Music] the next step is to install the decking between the trailers there's a stationary section at each end of the ride that's being built up here foreign decks are installed the next step is to lower the center decks this ride has two winches one on each trailer that's used throughout the setup process here the cables are being strung to lower the center decks [Applause] so the crew got pulled away that afternoon to take care of other issues and didn't get back to it till later that evening their goal was to get the two Tower sections joined together before calling it a night a few racks of seats need to be rolled out of the way so the tower legs can be pivoted into position a hydraulic cylinder is used to Pivot the rear leg forward [Music] another hydraulic cylinder is used to Pivot the front leg towards the rear the swing arm is also attached to the front leg making it a lot heavier to move the weight of the swing arm is carried by this wheeled tripod large sheets of a thick plastic are put over the deck to help handle the weight and make it easier to roll [Music] with the swing arm rolled into position the hinge plate is bolted making a solid structure incidentally I've been asked a few times how electricity is transmitted through rotating joints these are the slip rings that make that possible and I'll talk about that a little bit more later the last step for the night was to install bolts through this large bearing tying the front and rear of the ride together through its Pivot Point here's a nice shot of the Gravitron across the Midway that I didn't know I had everything's a little clearer in the light of day and all of those bolts that were installed last night need to be torqued I guess okay these are some color changing LED flood lights getting latched into position in this shot you can see the wiring feeding under the slip rings to make their connections on the other side these brushes rub the Rings as they rotate completing the circuit orange color always reminds me of Hot Wheels tracks these are also called collector Rings or around carnivals they're usually called commutators but they're not technically a commutator prior to lifting the tower the swing arm is supported by Steel cables to prevent it from well swinging these yellow struts create a four bar parallel linkage that allow the tower legs to Pivot towards the center now that the two halves are joined the struts and the hydraulic cylinders can all be removed in preparation for lifting the tower [Music] thank you the hydraulic cylinders that lift the tower can be maneuvered to help take the pressure off these lower cylinders to Aid their removal [Music] [Music] before the towers lifted some snatch blocks are installed which will be used later during the assembly as the tower begins to lift the landing gear can be taken off the swing arm [Music] those yellow struts will eventually be removed and the openings covered with decking [Music] with the tower all the way up the left legs need to be unlatched and swung into position to do this the winches are reeled out and run through snatch blocks about this time another part of the crew showed up that had just finished on another ride they made quick work of all the ramps and fences [Music] foreign like a lot of European rides this ride originally would have had a Scenic back wall but it was removed when it was rebuilt the idea was to be able to load and on load from both sides of the ride it also means it doesn't have a bad side and can go in the middle of the Midway in my opinion the lighting package they put on more than makes up for the missing back wall the left legs are lowered into the center and then the winches are moved to pull them up into position [Music] all right she's like with the legs in position large pins are inserted and secured with bolts [Music] God damn it the winches are repositioned again connecting to the swing arm so the steel cables can be removed and the swing arm lowered have you kept track of how many different jobs this winch has done so far foreign the winch is once again repositioned this time through the snatch blocks that were installed before the tower was raised in this configuration the winch can be used to pick up the stub arms or swing arm sweeps and moved into position [Music] the stub arms are bolted into position out the end of the swing arm [Music] there's eight bolts per arm and just like before these have to be torqued to the manufacturer's specification this is repeated for all six arms foreign [Music] [Music] foreign s are attached the winch cables move to a lower snatch block that's in alignment with the ends of the stub arms this allows the seat gondolas to be lifted into place [Music] here again there's more bolts and more torquing repeating the process for each of the six seat gondolas one of the last steps is to fill the trailers with several thousand gallons of water this provides tens of thousands of pounds of ballast while still allowing you to travel over the roads with the trailers by draining the water these pipe nipples are where the water is added I didn't see them do it but I imagine it looks like this if you like seeing carnival rides set up or you enjoy seeing vintage carnival rides restored click that link to the left and come along for the rides

Channel: Pete Rondeau

Views: 29,663

Keywords: Pete Rondeau, kmg afterburner, kmg fireball, feuerball ride, fireball kmg, kmg afterburner ride, kmg fireball ride, peter rondeau, carnival ride setup

Id: qUkiMDjgfsg

Length: 12min 0sec (720 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 24 2022