The electric requirements would stop you from putting it in your backyard.
The motor is 3 Phase around 150A. Residential areas are generally not wired to be able to offer 3P power to customers. You would likely need to rent some commercial space to be able to get the electric hookup.
Shut up, nerd! Let me have my gravitron
Yeah four-eyes! We want results, not complaints! Now get back in the HOLE!
If you didn’t run the lights, it’s only 33kW motor, less in newer Starships
Assuming you had 208V 3ph, that’s under 100A. Much less if you are in commercial area with 240V 3ph
If you don’t plan to spin 48 people, you could replace motor with a 120V single phase motor 5hp and remove a lot of weight from the ride (cut holes in every other fiberglass panel)
A decently small generator (relative to a full trailer carnival ride)… could power this. There are many tow behind 50kVA diesel generators. (Another $8k)
BTW the reason these UFO/gravs are for sale is because they are all rotting, the fiberglass panels that hold it together are like paper now and too expensive to repair.
nods knowingly
Indeed. 3p.
Look what I really pay them for is for them to know and for me not having to. They say 3p, 3p it is, whatever gets the monkeyfunkin’ GRAVITRON spinning!!
Where I’m from that’s enough for your ice lollies, your entry into the picture house, with enough left over for the bus home!
How many belt onions?
I mean if you’re going tonreplace the motor just put in a small car or motorbike engine at that point.
Nothing that a couple of cat batteries hooked up in parallel can’t fix.
Sounds like an innovative, potentially disruptive technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk3xBhqcjqY
Ooooh. I could hook this up outside my uncle’s store.
I hear him talking about his setup all the time when something goes wrong and I regularly hear “it’s 3 phase”.
I mean a residential area home isn’t gonna have room anywhere for the thing in the first place.
which is why I had mine installed out back behind the stables, that we me and the livestock can all enjoy it.
Mmmmmmmm, Milkshakes…
His milkshakes brings all the boys to the yard.
And they’re like, it’s gravitron.
Damn right, it’s gravitron.
I could teach you, but it’s five tickets to get on.
Better still, buy an empty lot and it is your residential home
THIS IS MY PERSONAL DOMICILE, BITCH
You’d also need a buddy to be the operator for it to work
Cheap timer clock from the dollar store you say?
Nah, just get a Bluetooth power button that you strap to your wrist.
Power company asked if I wanted a three phase meter when I was checking power requirements for wiring my shop up.
I just needed a different meter.
Usually it’s the meter and the cabling that needs changing, like an extra phase needs to be introduced but it should be available at street level if any commercial place is around.
Your shop might have had the cables already and just needed the meter change.
Three phase motors are the bane of every siren enthusiasts’ existence for this reason. Anything with a motor over 5 hp is likely three phase.
Nowadays VFDs have gotten cheap enough that you can just use one of them to create 3 phases.
Or you just have 3 phase power at home (laughs in Germany).
(I actually dont right now, but my house is one of the last ones not to, and its all already prepared for it)
Or you just have 3 phase power at home (laughs in Germany).
aside from running carney rides, and maybe a shed with a gigantic cnc or end mill - what are the reasons for pushing 3p to the domicile level? I have no doubt there must be, DE knows engineering so…
It reduces the thickness of the cables and improves the balance of loads over all 3 phases.
There are some good zoning laws I guess
Seriously. If this guy thinks his neighbors would be cool with his COLLECTION of sirens that operate on three-phase power, he’s got a wad of expanded polyethylene foam where his brain ought to reside.
You’d be surprised when you’re respectful about it and/or live in the middle of nowhere. We don’t just set them off willy nilly.
I’ll have to take your word for it. The way I figure it, there’s a neighbor-to-neighbor noise spectrum on which everybody is constantly, even unconsciously evaluating everyone who lives around them.
On one end of the spectrum is the concept of “I don’t want to be that guy who calls the cops about this fucking noise, but I LITERALLY HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO SLEEP FOR THREE DAYS.” I suppose the other end of the spectrum would be something like “all these fellows have been so quiet and considerate that they could give their collectible sirens a couple of good blasts, and I’d be happy for the break in the near-oppressive silence.”
See, the thing is, everywhere I’ve ever lived, I have been just about a notch and a half below the “I’m going to call the fucking cops” end of the spectrum. Always. The whole time.
Here’s a non-exhaustive (but certainly exhausting) set of examples, off the top of my head: dogs barking over and over and over, kids screaming, people deciding they just HAVE to mow the lawn at 6:00 AM on a Saturday, people with speaker systems that literally count as earthquake simulation machines, people who think it’s hilarious to illegally modify their muscle cars’ exhaust systems to basically have no muffler, people running their wood jointer machine for so long that I can only imagine they’re operating an illegal, untaxed lumber supply racket, people interminably screaming at their spouses and significant enemies in their driveways and on the sidewalks, etc, on and on.
It’s just a ceaseless and endlessly varied cacophony of fucking sound, from these rude motherfuckers. If any one of the shitheads who has lived near me over the last 40-something years had ever started collecting sirens, I would have lost my mind in the same arguably constructive way that a young Bruce Wayne lost his marbles. There would be some guy called “Decibel Dude” stalking the streets, pouring sugar in leafblower gas tanks, muzzling dogs, removing chains from chainsaws and blades from lawnmowers, and whatever else I could think of to FINALLY MAKE PEOPLE JUST A LITTLE FUCKING QUIETER, FOR FUCK’S SAKE.
I’m just saying. Your world of “we’re all respectfully quiet, around here” is an utterly alien utopia, from where I’m sitting.
Sure, most girls aren’t likely to respond in a positive way, if you say something like: “hey, if you ride my dick in that thing, are you on top? Or are you technically to the side?”
Most girls are gonna be like “eew, no. Just no.”
But the thing is…a few girls who hear that shit will respond with something like “LET’S FIND OUT!”
They are the real ones. You don’t just want to hang out with them for sex. You want to hang out with them, in general.
Username checks out.
Don’t bring up middle English words to him yo, it’s a can of worms.
This is the kind of comment I’m here for.
Who would down vote this?!? You, sir, are able to see the wold with a clarity most can only dream of. 😉
Honey, I’m home! Fire up the mothafunking GRAVITRON!
I used to turn my body upside down in this death trap and the dude in the middle yelled at us.
They did? The dude in the middle just sat there smoking meth every time I was on one of these. I stood up on the wall once, with my whole body perpendicular to the floor. It was awesome!
I stood up . . . perpendicular
Whoooooa. You are legend.
It’s pretty crazy! The farther from the wall your head is, the more you can feel the spinning forces. It definitely felt like I was in a blender by the time I was standing up.
I had exactly this idea. I tried it but could never make it to a full standing position I don’t think. It was more like an awkward crouch.
Haha I did that too if it’s the same machine. It had an open top and you just stick to the side as it spins and hinges 90 degrees. There was a chain but you had clearance to flip yourself.
The Gravitron wasn’t the open top kind with the chain. That was the Round Up, and it would lift up after getting g up to speed and go almost vertical.
The Gravitron was enclosed and had angled walls. I think the walls were padded and would slide up a bit when the machine was up to speed. Heavier people would have their section slide up sooner than others.
You are taking about a Round Up/Zero Gravity
And no you never turned yourself upside down in a zerog cage.
Erm… were you there mate?
Yes, I’ve been there. You can turn around facing backwards, but you would slide down even if you could fit sideways between the bars in the cage. https://brisbaneamusementridehire.com.au/images/round-up-ride-lge.jpg
Only in UFO/graviton do people spin upside down because of the centrifugal forces and angle of the wall.
All I can say is I did this on a ride similar to this, perhaps it’s not that machine, but it looks very similar to the post you linked but it was more a solid outside rather than the individual bays in the image.
It was the centrifugal forces I believe as we would literally be stuck to the back wall but with enough strength you could flip yourself 180 and just get dizzy and a head rush.
I literally have no reason to make this up my guy.
Right, well it’s a gravitron then, and it didn’t go up in the air https://i.ytimg.com/vi/F2pqT-VdPl0/sddefault.jpg
I was so jealous of the carny who would get up and walk around on the inside wall.
Yeah one of them did that near me and then he fell in and get splattered on everyone.
In? In the Gravitron I rode, it was just sleds on the slightly-slanted walls that went up when it got up enough speed. There wasn’t really anywhere to fall into. I mean yeah, he could easily break an arm or something, but nothing that would splatter him.
It’s actually going to set you back $120k, but still a better investment than a cyber truck
Why does it have a Denny’s light package?
Just to be serious for a mo; why the fuck would I want a sports car anyway?
Showy cars are for smoothbrained insecure chucklefucks. I don’t come from money, and I have very little, but I certainly have no psychological need to attempt to appear like I do. Even if I got a gazillion bucks tomorrow there’s no way in hell I’m going to start purchasing shiny shit to show off with.
I take it you’ve never driven a finely tuned automobile. It’s quite the fun experience.
I actually have but I felt embarrassed as hell each time.
I’m not against fine tuning and efficiency. I am against A: “LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!!!” And B: any sort of aggressive driving on public roads.
If there were such a thing a really ‘nice’ car that was ‘luxurious’ inside etc., but looked like absolutely nothing extraordinary outside, then I might buy one (in the alternative universe where I had lots of money to blow on new cars).
so there’s lot of people - kids who ate lead paint in their childhoods, victims of being dropped on their heads, FAS babies etc., who suffer from cognitive deficits but LOVE the vroom vroom. They love it so much they do illegal shit to their vehicles just so more vroom vroom smoke comes out. They love it more than they love having a livable ecosystem, more than their own children’s futures. And if you try to get the crayons out and explain it to them, it just makes them angry.
that’s my take on the situation.
LOL
You put a new of these bad boys in your yard and no one will mistake you for being wealthy.
This is true.
This was, by a long shot, my absolute favorite ride and memory as a kid. 🥹
You spin me right round baby right round like a record baby right round round round
A puke extractor?
Ye old pukerator
The more I think about it, the more I figure…if you had one at your house, you could become the fucking Rodney Mullen of that thing. Like, forget just being able to stand up and walk around. A few hundred hours of practice, and you could jump rope, juggle, have a whole tea party without spilling anything, sleep in it to see if it gives you superpowers and/or immortality. The possibilities are endless.
It’s like NASA training at home. Next stop, SPAAAAAAACE!
But that’s the very first thing we did to space.
No, that was the Matterhorn. Who designs a tight circular track and then not only spin people forwards, but stop mid way through and spin them backwards? I think that was the 3rd hardest I’ve ever puked in my life.
3rd hardest I’ve ever puked
You can’t just hit and run like this. Spill it.
OK, well the 2nd hardest I puked was at a cottage with some buddies not long after college. I didn’t have much experience drinking, and I thought it would be a great idea to drink a magnum of red wine on the first night. I was doing good for most of the night, even ate dinner and was having a great time. And then…I didn’t feel so good. And then I really didn’t feel so good. I ran to the railing with a bright red spray, as my buddies laughed their asses off because they thought I sounded like Donald Duck when he’s angry. I thought that was funny and started laughing while puking, which just made me sound more like Donald Duck when he’s angry. They called me Donald for the rest of that week. I had a love/hate relationship with red wine ever since.
The hardest I’ve ever puked though was during my year of hell, when I was going through my Crohn’s diagnosis. I had hit a pretty major flare and my bowels were practically swollen shut. My doctor wanted to do a scope, which meant I had to be cleaned out first. And for that, they give you powerful laxatives. They told me to drink Gatorade with the water to help hydrate me since it blasted all the water through your bowels. What they didn’t tell me was to avoid red Gatorade. So I’ve downed the laxatives mixed into a bottle of water, and I’m sipping on Gatorade on the couch when my stomach starts hurting. My stomach was already hurting, but this is a stretching kind of pain. The laxatives are working, I think. But then I got that feeling at the top of my stomach, and I knew what was about to happen. I ran to the bathroom, got to the door and couldn’t hold back anymore. I projectile puked 6 feet and hit the toilet. An almost perfect red arc, but some got in the bowl. And then…I felt the other end. I barely made it to the puke covered seat and began shitting my brains out while still puking hard into the bathtub. I was crying and sobbing by the end of it while still puking. My bathroom looked like a murder scene. I’m covered in red puke. And I still had 3 more bottles of laxative to get through. I’ll be honest, I contemplated my continuing existence in that moment.
Those wacky college kids and their… red wine!
I was still trying to find what I liked. Beer was and is disgusting. Hard liquor required mixing to make it taste good, which I wasn’t good at. Coolers aren’t bad, which I drank for the rest of that week. But red wine was tasty. Really tasty. Deceptively tasty. It also contains a lot of tannins, which I found out the hard way later can cause stomach cramps and nausea in some people such as those with Crohn’s that I didn’t know about at the time. So does tea for that matter. It’s all part of the journey. I know what to avoid for the most part now.
Well if you’re okay with the perpetual maintenance costs which include paying someone who knows how to maintain it if you don’t know how to
If the meth head Carnies can figure it out, it can’t be that hard to work on.
