Carnival terminology

Welcome to carnival terminology. This page will explain some words and phrases that might appear in posts, that don't make too much sense. It might talk about hydraulic rams, and you might not understand what that means. Well read this and I promise it will make more sense when your done!

1= Hydraulic ram

The picture above is the hydraulic rams on the paratrooper. A hydraulic ram is 2 or more polls that go inside of each other. They decrease in size as they come out. When activated, they can lift tremendously heavy objects, such as the Ferris wheel, or other rides. Not all rides use Hydraulic rams, but most do.

2= Rim drive

 A rim drive ride is when they have a metal inner ring, usually silver, in the middle of a ride.(the rim) Tires run against the metal ring, and when the tires move, the ride itself moves. The picture above is on a Ferris wheel, Eli HY 5II, but this is also used on the paratrooper and a few others. In similar cases, rides like the round up run like this, except the rim is on the outer part of the wheel, and is less noticeable, as it blends in! Rides that use rim drive are usually Ferris wheels and paratroopers, but can also be seen on wipeouts, round ups, scats, and scramblers use them to move the seats around!

3= Cable drive

Cable drive is used more on Ferris wheels. Cable drive is when a single cable is ran all the way around a ride. In this case, the Ferris wheel, the cable goes all the way around 1 side of the wheel. Normally there are metal plates that the cable goes threw. Then the cable wraps into a separate wheel, and when that wheel moves, the cable moves around and moves the Ferris wheel. Cable drive is normally only used on Eli wheels, like the HY5 as this picture shows.

4= Chain drive

Chain drive is the most common form of running a ride, and is ironically the one I know least about. The reason being the chain drive motors are usually inside rides, and aren't very visible, whereas cable and rim drives are out in the open. All I can say is, from what I can gather, chain drive is the old 2 wheel and chain driver. The chain wraps around one wheel, and when that spins, it moves the second bigger wheel, usually connected to the main wheel. It kinda resembles a conveyer belt. This is more commonly used than cable or rim drive. This type of drive is used on swings, carousels, heartflips, scramblers to move the main wheel around (but the seats are moved by rim drive normally). Also older kiddie rides use them such as tubs of fun, etc.

5= kiddie rides.

A kiddie ride is a ride more for little children. Above you see one of the more common ones, the Hampton umbrella ride. Kiddie rides vary greatly. Oddly, kiddie rides rarely have names. They are normally small and not very well lit. Some kiddie rides, though rare, can be so old they don't have lights at all. They normally feature cars or cartoons, and can normally tear down easily. Other kiddie rides are the dizzy dragons, whitch is one of the most mass produced rides, going under many names. They are all the same except the 4 tubs are different characters or objects. A few I know are, the more common dizzy dragons (dragon tubs), bear affair (bear tubs), berry go around (strawberry tubs), Spin the apple (apple tubs), pumpkin patch (pumpkin tubs), tons of fun (elephant tubs, very rare). There are also aliens, barrels, monkeys, and even penguin's. Some even come in cross overs, such as instead of 4 pumpkins, there would be 2 pumpkins and 2 bears, etc etc.

6= A frame

An A frame is, as far as I know, only used on Eli Ferris wheels. It consists of 6, or sometimes on bigger wheels 8, sweeps in the shape of triangles. Its purpose is a cable runs from a winch at the back of the base, up, around the first few sweeps of the A frame, and down to the first sweep of the racked wheel. It is used to stabilize the cable that pulls the sweeps out. It serves no purpose once the ride is up. When racked, the sweeps fold together, 3 on 1 side, 3 on the other.

7= Feather lights

Feather lights are little lights, more commonly seen on swingers, way-out swings, and music chairs swings, that poke out, or upwards from the original sweep. The serve no operation purpose. The only purpose they serve is decorative. The first picture above is of them on a swinger. The second one is of feather lights racked on the round up trailer. (check below for a picture of a cluster light with feather lights.) But they might be seen on many more ride then just swings. They are used on slides, heartflips, scramblers, round ups, and others. They vary from sticks of light with tube lights or bulbs, to shapes such as hearts on the heartflip, or bigger with as many as 4 tube lights on the scrambler. Now, some of them might not be called feather lights, but I know the swing lights are called feather lights, so I assume the term is transferable.

8= Cluster lights

 Cluster lights vary greatly, between the funnel shaped lights on the paratrooper,(above) to thin tall lights on the front of a ride (below on the Eli HY 5II wheel). They again serve only decorative purpose, but sometimes must be racked, such as on the mini scrambler, where the cluster light must be lowered backwards.

 

The picture below is a picture of a cluster light on the round up with feather lights attached to the top.

9= Bally

A bally is a decorative plastic tarp that goes around the base of a ride, often to hide racking pieces etc
etc. They come in many styles, normally just multi colored stripes, but some have logos or a more complex design. The one above is on the expo wheel.

10= Rim iron

A rim iron is the rim in rim drive. (see rim drive above) It is the metal plate that runs all the way around a ride and eventually hits a wheel, making the ride move. The picture above is the rim iron on the paratrooper, but often they are just silver plates, not painted to match the ride. Rim irons can be seen on paratroopers, eli hy 5 2 wheels, expo wheels, mulligan wheels, century wheels, and giant wheels. Some rides have permanent rim irons, like the scat, but the rides listed above the rim irons must be racked somehow.  

11= camel back

A camel back is basically the deformed m shaped bar on the end of each sweep of the paratrooper. (aka the outer ring) As far as I know, they are only used on paratroopers, but I could be wrong. They hold the seats when the ride is up.

I hope this page helps you understand the carnival a bit better. If this page is updated I will post about it so you can learn more. Now remember, almost all of the elements shown here are added to the knex rides, but do not function as so. All of the knex rides move on there own, and wile the Ferris wheel might have a silver rim, on the knex rides it serves no purpose except to become more accurate. However, the A frames on the knex rides do work, and serve a purpose. But hydraulic rams might be added, they don't fold in like real hydraulic rams. The Rams on the knex rides are normally just knex wrapped in grey and another color pipe cleaner. All of the terms shown above are real, and while some terms might not stretch to all rides, they have come from reliable sources, and do apply to 1 or more ride types.