Disney style parking lot people mover

[Petersing]

Does anybody have any info on who makes the cars that form a train for the people movers at Disney and other parks? Or just the geometry of how they steer and track? I have an application for that style of train but can't find any information or a manufacturer. I don't know the correct terminology, as you can tell.

 

[MikeHalloran]

{"rubber-tire" tram} was the least ineffective search that I tried.

I'm pretty sure that Disney made their own, but other places have bought them since, so somebody is, or was, making them.

It may be one of those markets like jetways, where the market is saturated in just a few years and the manufacturers prosper briefly and then starve.





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MintJulep]

According to

http://theparkingtram.com/tram-information.php

the Disney trams are made by Arrow Dynamics. They also make coasters.

I think others are made bye the same companies that make baggage tractors. FMC, Yale maybe even Toyota.

 

[mcgyvr]

http://www.tramfactory.com/

 

[HDS]

TUG manufacturing
Golf carts also work

 

[ornerynorsk]

Any trailer with a steering front axle arrangement will follow its leader in a snake like fashion, no matter how many you put in series.

 

[Petersing]

I think the last post is in error. If you snake together a bunch of regular wagons, like a kid's wagon that steers the front and the rear is fixed, the wagons will take tighter and tighter turns around a relatively sharp corner. (you won't notice it on wide turns) A four-wheel steer wagon where both front and rear axles pivot like the kid's front axle, tied together with a diagonal bar will follow a lot better, but the trailing wagons will try to shoot outside the perfect turn. (I think). I need a perfect track (or nearly), and I think the Disney type cars do it, even on tight turns, but I don't know what the geometry is.

 

[GregLocock]

I'd /guess/ they steer both axles by an equal and opposite amount, but that would be very poor for high speed work.

Cheers

Greg Locock

SIGlease see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[frankreid]

Arrow Dynamics was in Clearfield, Utah until 2001 when they filed for bankrupcy. They were bought by another similar company in Logan, Utah, S&S Power, now S&S Worldwide. See Wikipedia under Arrow Dynamics.

I was an employee there about twenty years ago and it was a fun place to work and design rides. They survived mostly as a long time vendor for Disney (I worked on a free-fall tower ride), Six-Flags of Texas, and other theme parks in the States and in London, Paris, and Tokyo.

You might want to go to the S&S Worldwide website to see if they can help you. They are at:

http://www.s-spower.com/about.php

and also:

S&S Worldwide, Inc.
350 West 2500 North
Logan, UT 84341
Phone: (435) 752-1987
FAX (435) 752-1948

Frank Reid

 

[ornerynorsk]

Post was not in error. As long as the steering tongue of one trailer is connected to the rear non-steering axle (or body) of the trailer in front of it, they will follow. I've watched it a hundred times when farmers are pulling a string of gravity boxes to the elevator, sometimes 4 or 5 connected in a string. Same deal with road trains in Oz.

 

[MikeHalloran]

Anything with proper steering knuckles on one axle is going to follow a track such that the rear unsteered axle is aligned with the geometric center of the turn, each of the front wheels' centerlines intersect the rear wheel centerline at the center of the turn, and the center of the front axle follows a circular track a little larger than the circular track followed by the center of the rear axle. There used to be nice diagrams in the SAE bible.

Now, there are more geometric elements in play. The tongue that steers the front trailer axle should be always tangent to the front axle center track, which means the hitch ball/ring on the trailer in front has to swing the hitch point outside of its own track, which happens if the hitch is mounted to the rear of the trailer, some distance behind the rear axle. So the tongue length and the hitch overhang have to be accounted for.

( I'm supposed to be doing something else now; anybody want to make a diagram? )





Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Petersing]

All of these posts are very helpful. It seems like such a simple problem, and maybe it is. However, just last week I sat on the Disney tram at the front of a car so I could watch the rear wheels of the car in front. The rear wheels of the car do steer, as well as the fronts ones of course. The wheels don't appear to be on a fixed axle with center pivot, but rather look like they use an Ackerman style steer, and this exists at both the front and rear of the car. It may be that the steering geometry really doesn't have a direction, and indeed you could pull the train forward or backward, as both 'tongues' move as the cars go around curves. Some clever person figured this all out long ago.