JustinJames
  •  JustinJames
  • 85.68% (Honored)
  • Operations Foreman Topic Starter
Saturday, December 4, 2004 2:36:19 PM
I worked for many years for Wade and then this past season for McDonagh's Amusements as a Ride Sup/lighting/driver.

With Wade we teardown till it's done mostly. Foremens and Sups carry radios. We opened in the rain and winds quite a bit. Things were very corporate style with the procedures. Overall a pretty good operation as far as getting moved.

With McDonaghs we sometimes would call it a night around 4am or so on teardowns if we weren't in a hurry. I would usually keep my guys out until we were done with the Blizzard and my tractor was hooked to it. I felt that I would rather work at night than in the hot hours of the next day. We would close if the weather got bad depending on the spot. Tom and Jeanne weren't afraid to say that's it when it rained. Another VERY big difference was how open the McDonagh's were with us supervisors and such. We usually knew what was up with new purchases and such and our opinions were USUALLY solicited. We operated a little bit more by the seat of our pants but at least there wasn't a dull moment LOL.

What about your shows people???[8D]
BSA Mike
Saturday, December 4, 2004 2:49:55 PM
May be one of the best posts here in awhile,

on our show, we would tear the majority of the rides down on sunday night and come back the next day to finish the rest, it was usually the bobs and the wire to be picked up on the next day, we have a very good relationship with most of our employees, if you take care of us, we take care of you...we would move almost all of the stuff we could off of the lot on sunday night, so we can have the cleanup crews come in and take care of the lot, we run things pretty smooth, with alot of my family there, my uncle is the ride super, aunt runs the office, uncle is the electrician, brother took care of the joints and i did whatever was needed of me, the show runs pretty smooth when all cylinders are firing...

We also had alot of fun when we did things like a softball game or a company fourth of july bbq! and when its someones birthday we usually get a cake and have some cake after work...
Greg
  •  Greg
  • 55.58% (Neutral)
  • Maintenance Supervisor
Saturday, December 4, 2004 4:05:11 PM
Our show usually tears down on Saturday night after closing. The hardest ride we have is the Tilt & we can pretty tear down the rest of the show in the same amount of time as it takes to do the Tilt. Unless we get townhelp, we do the Tilt on Sunday while the drivers move the rest of the show, then we move to the next spot & set up Monday. The show is like a mom & pops operation with a brother who owns 14 rides & sister who owns 12. Each has their own crew, like 2 separate shows booked together. They really treat people like family & would help out anyone they can. Its very laid back, we have cookouts often. Most of our jumps are around 50-80 miles.
My albums are all on Facebook!
crazyspin
Saturday, December 4, 2004 4:06:54 PM
That sounds great Greg! What show is that?
JustinJames
  •  JustinJames
  • 85.68% (Honored)
  • Operations Foreman Topic Starter
Saturday, December 4, 2004 4:34:58 PM
Good question Cspin. What show are ya with Greg???
archived01
Saturday, December 4, 2004 8:48:25 PM
We take down on Sunday night. Most weeks we close 9 or 10 pm and are done by 1 or 2AM. Setup 8am start usualy done by 5pm, no one is done until every ride has run. Everyone sets up and takes down that includes management. Depending on the jump I would usualy get one load done then go to sleep and do the rest on monday after trafic. We don't close for rain we may close an hour early but we always at least open. We don't hire green help very often and to be honest I don't miss them half the time. Each crew were assigned tasks that they were responsible for doing. Wipeout crew moved the ride and put away the cable & box they were on, Tilt Crew did the ride and 2nd set of cables and the box, Kid rides split up and did MGR, Mini Jet, Pumpkins, slide, and train. I did Drop Tower, Wheel, Dragon Wagon and electric. Scooter crew did the ride, picked up benches, garbage cans, and matts.
Ryan
  •  Ryan
  • 57.38% (Neutral)
  • Lot Foreman
Sunday, December 5, 2004 7:46:09 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by Scuba875

We take down on Sunday night. Most weeks we close 9 or 10 pm and are done by 1 or 2AM. Setup 8am start usualy done by 5pm, no one is done until every ride has run. Everyone sets up and takes down that includes management. Depending on the jump I would usualy get one load done then go to sleep and do the rest on monday after trafic. We don't close for rain we may close an hour early but we always at least open. We don't hire green help very often and to be honest I don't miss them half the time. Each crew were assigned tasks that they were responsible for doing. Wipeout crew moved the ride and put away the cable & box they were on, Tilt Crew did the ride and 2nd set of cables and the box, Kid rides split up and did MGR, Mini Jet, Pumpkins, slide, and train. I did Drop Tower, Wheel, Dragon Wagon and electric. Scooter crew did the ride, picked up benches, garbage cans, and matts.



wow, you guys got it down to a scenice.

Heres the better question though for everyone. Does the food and game help heelp with the rides and electric, or do they jump ship when loaded??
www.modernmidways.com 
"If life was fair elvis would be alive and the impersonators would be dead"-carson
archived01
Sunday, December 5, 2004 8:04:17 AM
Our food help and game help take down games and food then start pulling ball loads. It wasn't always like that Ryan. There were plenty of time a few years ago when we were out there at 5 or 6 AM.
Ryan
  •  Ryan
  • 57.38% (Neutral)
  • Lot Foreman
Sunday, December 5, 2004 8:22:19 AM
I have torn down plenty of times back in the day and watched the sun go down and come back up
www.modernmidways.com 
"If life was fair elvis would be alive and the impersonators would be dead"-carson
BSA Mike
Sunday, December 5, 2004 8:55:21 AM
Our jointees hook up and screw come time for tear down but when they need help w/ marquees or something for their joints, they don't hesitate to * untill a rideguy does it....bastard jointees!
carnygirl
Sunday, December 5, 2004 9:40:03 AM
i can remember tearing down my game and hooking it all up then going and help with the rides and sometimes we did help with the food.if we all helped with everything and get it done the sooner we all could go to go home.then us jointes would go around and clean up the lot and trash. i think thats the way it should be. [:o)]
(all for one one for all)
squirrel
Sunday, December 5, 2004 10:26:14 AM
Every show is different -- When I was with Miller Amusements, we toredown everything in one night - anything from 10-15 rides on one unit to 30+ rides when the show came together. Things started with all the iron hitting the truck -- 2 crews for kiddie land, and each major had it's own crew -- some majors, like the Wipeout and Zipper shared a crew. Zipper first (bout 1.5 hours) then go back and slam the Wipeout in like 2.5 hours... Rides like the Sea Dragon or Sky Diver had their own crew and they would sometimes race eachother to the trailer. Morale was good back then -- a little competition never hurt. After all the iron was gone, the ride crews then dropped all power and EVERYONE jumped on cable and generators. On that show, the jointies were jointies -- ride crews were for rides -- there was a <s>definate</s> definite (I'll get this word right someday) dividing line there, and very few ever crossed it. But even when we were knocking down 30+ rides, we were ALWAYS done by the time the sun came up. That included hooking up the doubles loads because the drivers only came and hooked up to the trailer and went -- they were almost always no-touch loads. On setups, the power was usually on before most of the rides were even spotted. Electricians had power spread out and ready for hookups right away.

When I was with GAS, we had a lot more relaxed approach to things (but the crew was ALOT smaller, too). We would setup Tuesday and Wednesday, cleanup and operational testing/inspections on Thursdays, then open Thursday or Friday night (depends on the contract)... All rides ran once they were in the air, incase something had to be repaired/dealt with, but other than that, the big day was Thursday -- everyone cleaned rides and did whatever possible to make it all look good. On setups, we usually didn't run power till the second day (mid afternoon at that) because not many rides needed anything more than 110 power to setup except the ones with towers that needed the hydraulics. Here, when the power shutdown on teardown, it was like the motivation died and everyone wanted to sleep, so if we tried taking power down before the last piece was on the truck, whatever was left got knocked out the next day (Monday)... I was one for getting it all down and having the next day to move and get situated/rested but we all know how burned out a Sunday can get after opening and operation, then tearing down. Here, the approach with the help was alot more family related though. Everyone tried to look out for eachother, while at Miller it was every-man-for-himself when it came to things... Unless you were part of the goon-squad over there, you were a pee-on and you were treated accordingly...

I don't really have anything bad to say about the way either show moved. No matter what happened, the iron always got open and it always moved -- no exceptions. As far as the help went, with GAS you actually meant something to the company, and they let you know it, while at Miller you didn't mean squat, whether you had all the experience and brains in the world or you were the biggest idiot that walked the face of the earth.

Two totally different ways to reach the same means to an end...
JustinJames
  •  JustinJames
  • 85.68% (Honored)
  • Operations Foreman Topic Starter
Sunday, December 5, 2004 10:48:49 AM
Matt and Blake McDonagh raced this year in Southgate.

Ring of Fire was...
Matt McDonagh
Joe Stoutenburg (guy that had the blizzard prior to me)
Tony Gomez
1 hour and 45 minutes

Pharoah's Fury
Blake McDonagh
Gary Hardenburgh (blake's right hand man, good aggressive worker)
Terry ???&lt;--last name
1 hour 40

Blizzard
Justin Goodell
Ed
Jamar
6 hours[:(!]
Hey, it was my first teardown after 1 time of instruction LOL
BSA Mike
Sunday, December 5, 2004 11:21:53 AM
lol 6 hours isnt so bad on the wisdom himalaya,in 2002 we had 1 guy who knew the ride and 4 local guys doing it adn it took from about 12am till about 830-9 am, it was the 1st time we had that ride on our unit since it was new in 1996
squirrel
Sunday, December 5, 2004 11:31:11 AM
Quote:

quote:


Originally posted by BSA Mike

lol 6 hours isnt so bad on the wisdom himalaya,in 2002 we had 1 guy who knew the ride and 4 local guys doing it adn it took from about 12am till about 830-9 am, it was the 1st time we had that ride on our unit since it was new in 1996


First time they dropped the Chaos at Miller, it took them almost two days... When I got the Wipeout on that show, it took me about 6 hours to get it on the truck with a green help, but within about a month, I had it down in under 3 hours on average... Teardown always depends on the crew and how bad they wanna see the rides hit the truck -- that's the way I see it.