Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit

[Craziiboiialex]

Screamscape said rockit was seen testing Late Thursday Night :O

 

[Latveria]

It's still testing this morning when I drove by.

 

[StarTrekGeek]

I wonder what they're doing...

 

[rewster]

Maybe the ghosts from the Wyandot Estate are taking it for a spin in their off shift? :shrug:

harhar.

 

[Felipe]

Testing already? It could be a good sign... and then again it could mean nothing :shrug:

 

[Roll N Fear]

I didn't see it running once the whole weekend. It looked like a big useless pile of yellow sh*t just sitting there.

 

[Rock'nRoller]

I didn't see it running once the whole weekend. It looked like a big useless pile of yellow sh*t just sitting there.

DIDDO!

 

[rewster]

Yeah it hasn't been testing during HHN at all, or any activity whatsoever. This testing must be happening after HHN and before park opening.

 

[Splatter]

Did not see it running once durring the weekend or HHN either.

Maybe it could be operations way of running it enough so the cars they do have availible will not have to be put through hours of test cycles again? I know that can happen after a coaster is dormant for so long.

If they expected it to be open anytime soon, I would doubt they would take the effort to change the event maps for HHN.

 

[Dr. Emmett Brown]

Remember folks, Rockit was testing for months before it actually opened, with little tweaks during testing. Don't expect this ride to be open until Thanksgiving (or later).

 

[universal chris]

Dose anyone know if universal sent the trains back to maruier or there wating for the parts to come in to replace them?

 

[White Rabbit]

Hey guys, what my sources tell me (from inside the park) is that the ride may have 2 trains ready to go. This is what I've heard, and it makes sense. The problem with the stress fractures were indeed discovered by Universal maintenance who contacted Maurer which led Maurer to release their safety bulletin. Prior to the problem discovered, a couple of trains were being completely refurbished to include B&M style wheel carriages (note, not B&M specific wheels, B&M style based ones) to cut down on the roughness of the ride. My guess is that the coupling problem was discovered while they were doing the wheel modifications, which led to Maurer sending them more parts and so forth. During this time, Universal shut down the ride due to the manufacturer's warning, and decided that since the ride had to be closed, to go ahead and rebuild the trains with the new wheel mounts from scratch...with the correct coupling bar. My guess is that those trains were the ones seen testing late PM/early AM.

I've also heard that it's been the confirmed that the ride will NOT open at all for HHN this year. I've also heard that the ride may open during normal operating hours THIS WEEK with VERY LIMITED capacity (note: up to 2 trains running). This is just what I've heard around the park, guys.

 

[Andy]

The trains themselves are still on site, what I really want to know is if there all still fully assembled. And if not whats being replaced by Maurer Sohne?

Edit: ^ Nevermind.

 

[mantaguy]

Hey guys, what my sources tell me (from inside the park) is that the ride may have 2 trains ready to go. This is what I've heard, and it makes sense. The problem with the stress fractures were indeed discovered by Universal maintenance who contacted Maurer which led Maurer to release their safety bulletin. Prior to the problem discovered, a couple of trains were being completely refurbished to include B&M style wheel carriages (note, not B&M specific wheels, B&M style based ones) to cut down on the roughness of the ride. My guess is that the coupling problem was discovered while they were doing the wheel modifications, which led to Maurer sending them more parts and so forth. During this time, Universal shut down the ride due to the manufacturer's warning, and decided that since the ride had to be closed, to go ahead and rebuild the trains with the new wheel mounts from scratch...with the correct coupling bar. My guess is that those trains were the ones seen testing late PM/early AM.

I've also heard that it's been the confirmed that the ride will NOT open at all for HHN this year. I've also heard that the ride may open during normal operating hours THIS WEEK with VERY LIMITED capacity (note: up to 2 trains running). This is just what I've heard around the park, guys.

Taking this with a grain of salt but this does sound very plausible to me. However I don't know why they'd run the ride with only two trains when running 5 trains had an hour long wait.

 

[Felipe]

What White Rabbit says makes a lot of sense, but I don't think new trains would be available to the general public until they've been thoroughly tested. I doubt it's opening anytime soon if cars are being modified.

 

[White Rabbit]

^Yeah I thought about that too. I mean, cycling the ride empty from midnight to lets say 8 am the next morning, times 7 days is 56 hours of cycling, times 2 weeks is 112 hours. I do not know if these were the exact hours that the ride ran during the night, but it is possible to get over 100 hours of testing time in 2 weeks. I'm not sure what Universal or Maurer would require though.

EDIT: If they wanted to get the hours up even more, they could agree to run it during the day, just beef up the staff out front of the attraction with a couple Leads to make sure guests know that it will NOT open. This would get it close to its required hours of testing.

It was also mentioned that it would be an hour wait with 5 trains. I went during the slow season right before it was closed and I waited half an hour with only 3 trains on. Yes, it is Horror Nights season, but the parks still are pretty empty during the day. Yes, 2 trains would be horrendous, but if the new trains are a huge improvement over the older ones, with a smoother ride like it is rumored for them to have, then I believe Universal should take that step to slowly integrate this ride back into normal operation.

 

[Obi Ubamba]

Do people think Rockit will be open by Thanksgiving? Assuming they keep it closed all of HHN, that should give them enough time to at least partially (at the least) open it up again for the Thanksgiving/ Christmas crowds.

 

[StarTrekGeek]

^I was thinking of asking the same thing since I'm going there in Thanksgiving...

And as for White Rabbit's post, nice to hear that they may be fixing the trains (though like I said, I didn't find the roughness all that bad). Kudos, Uni (if this is true)! :thumbs:

 

[PWT]

On opening day for HHN there were TMs just sitting around in the station, 3 up front, and the elevator was up to the top of the lift and they were doing something.

 

[Vyrus]

Since the problem seems to be more than just the coupling, I have a feeling the problem has something to do with the lift hill since they've been seen working on the top every night. Maybe its the anti-rollback system in place or something with the lift itself that needs to be changed/modified. But the biggest fix this coaster needs is in the computer program that it suppossed to allow 7 trains on at a time, which it is currently not.

Also another thing discussed it maybe with the new wheel on the trains, there is a smaller chance of another train valleying after the loop.