[WIP] Tower Ride

[m00se]

Hi everyone

I'm currently working on a tower-style amusement ride. Apart from just going upwards followed by a free fall, the gondola will also rotate while going up, and at the top - right before dropping - the seats tilt forward 90 degrees.

The gondola will be pulled upwards using strings (so no separate pull cart) which will wind up at the bottom of the tower.

The gondola itself is finished. It's build around the turntable from the rough terrain crane. A wheel on the inside will rotate as the gondola is pulled up. When the gondola is nearly at the top the big yellow ring is pressed down which makes the seats tilt forwards.

The tower itself is however just a test a this moment. At 170cm in height it is rather unstable and a bit wobbly. I'll probably make it a bit lower in the end. On the inside of the tower will be mechanisms for braking and to make the gondola rotate.

FYI, this is not just a crazy idea, these kind of drop towers with 90 degree tilt actually exist; check out "Falcon's Fury" in Busch Gardens Tampa for example (not sure if there are towers that have both rotation of the gondolas and 90 degrees tilt combined however).

Edited July 21, 2019 by m00se

[pleegwat]

Would it make sense to rotate the gondola from the rotation of the pulleys holding the lift cables?

[m00se]

Just now, pleegwat said:

Would it make sense to rotate the gondola from the rotation of the pulleys holding the lift cables?

There won't be a separate pulley, the cables will be attached directly to the gondola. The rotation happens by a wheel inside the structure that runs against a beam at the side of the tower (which will subtract before going down so you won't have rotation then).

 

Will post some clearer pictures about that later.

[pagicence]

Maaaaan, that is scaaaaryyy... plummeting face straight down... I certainly won't be riding that one.

[shadow_elenter]

The chairs tilting forward is a really nice touch.
I know this is a harder build than it looks, and the hardest part is to get it to "reasonably realistically break" at the bottom.
You have the skills however, so I'm curious to see how it will all end up!

[m00se]

4 hours ago, shadow_elenter said:

 the hardest part is to get it to "reasonably realistically break" at the bottom.
 

That will certainly be a challenge, especially as the gondola is very heavy, mainly due to the tilting mechanism. That's why it won't be a pure freefall (with independent pull car). Instead the gondola will stay attached to the cables, and the breaking mechanism will be applied to the cylinders at the bottom.

[Carsten Svendsen]

On 4/30/2019 at 5:42 AM, m00se said:

That will certainly be a challenge, especially as the gondola is very heavy, mainly due to the tilting mechanism. That's why it won't be a pure freefall (with independent pull car). Instead the gondola will stay attached to the cables, and the breaking mechanism will be applied to the cylinders at the bottom.

I'm thinking something like this:

1. The rope attached to the gondola for lifting it to the top, would be attached to a platform inside the tower.
2. The platform is pulled down to lift the gondola
3. You install airbrakes at the top of the tower that the platform will hit and contract

The airbrakes could be a pair of normal cylinders in each corner which has been pumped to the correct pressure using the older brackets. Then, there could be a switch at the bottom which is automatically flipped when the gondala bottoms out to relieve the air pressure, so that the gondala will remain stationed at complete ground level.

 

[m00se]

Small update: I started on the bottom of the ride which includes the winches for the cables. I will have to disconnect the motor so the gondola will drop, but a standard "16 tooth with clutch" would not be strong enough, so I used a custom made decoupling mechanism.

The winches are connected to two wheels that act as brake discs, and to a set of gears that very slowly pushes brake pads against these wheels as the gondola drops. However, it's also necessary to disengage this braking mechanism to pull the gondola back up (after recoupling with the motor) which is possible using a mechanism that disengages the brakes.

Will this work (i.e. slow the gondola down in a more or less realistic way)? I have absolutely no idea, so we'll see.

I hope the picture makes this a bit more clear. Motor will be attached on the right. The orange pins show where the actual tower will be connected.

 

[m00se]

Update on the tower:

 

Short video of the gondola. Honestly, this really feels satisfying:

 

 

 

[Mechbuilds]

Oh man, that video sure was satisfying to watch. 

[Frequenzberater]

Loks great so far! I am excited to see your final brake mechanism. 

[m00se]

Had to rebuild the gondola to make it stronger. Tilting mechanism is also more reliable now: