I was checking out coaster gallery.com and i came across some pictures of SOB and on the description of the ride it said "Kings Island sued some of the companys who helped build the ride and provided the wood" Why did theys ue and hwo did they sue? Ive been googling this but to no avail, do any of you guys know?

why not sue RCCA?

I hate that company!

LMAO

I think they may have, but im not sure.

Originally, the wood on the coaster was supposed to be the same color as The Beast, a stained dark color. But when the wood arrived, only a little of it was stained (this stained wood is on the outer double helix). Now the coaster has the brighter wood color to it instead of looking like The Beast. I am pretty sure that is why PKI sued. If it is not, then I am sorry and you can correct me.

I think its because it wasnt constructed properly, the year it was opened SOB had a ton of downtime and was shut down for a period of time to reconstruct part of the track. It was all over the news that 1st year, although i never heard about a lawsuit.

Yeah - and didnt part of it collapse too?

Ride it and you will know why.

Yeah part of it collapsed during construction, due to "Not being properly secure yet since it was still in the construction stages" There was an article in the paper about that and PKI got fined a lot of money over that.

I believe they sued due to the fact that the wood they received, or part of it, was not the correct type and therefore was either not going to be structurally stable, or not structurally stable a few years down the road. Also, I'm not sure if PKI ever wanted Son of Beast's wood to be stained seeing as there's so much wood and they tried to cut back wherever they could to keep the giant ride affordable. Not sure how much money it would take to stain that much, but I'm sure it'd take awhile though.

The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH); 11/24/2000

MASON, Ohio -- Paramount's Kings Island is suing three companies involved in building its $15 million Son of Beast roller coaster, claiming shoddy design and construction forced the park to close the ride last summer.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Warren County Court, says the design of the world's tallest and fastest looping wooden roller coaster contained insufficient support structures and other defects. Kings Island is seeking unspecified damages.

ohoo my neck! Man that is one rough ride. I am going to try riding it another way this season though.

Also, I'm not sure if PKI ever wanted Son of Beast's wood to be stained seeing as there's so much wood and they tried to cut back wherever they could to keep the giant ride affordable. Not sure how much money it would take to stain that much, but I'm sure it'd take awhile though.

Bull Crap, at Fall Freak Out, Jeff told us that the original plan for the ride included the staining of all the wood. It was supposed to look like The Beast.

To the best of my knowledge the suit was settled out of court. I don`t think stain on Son of Beast would be necessary (and as stated before would be an unnecessary cost). I would much rather them spend some money on adding a tunnel or two to Sonny and continue to work on smoothing out the track then to have spent it on stain. I don`t think Son of Beast will receive tunnels anytime in the near future, as the park is more concerned about making the ride smoother and more enjoyable.

They probably sued RCCA. That is the roughest ride I have ever ridden.

SOB isn't rough.

Well it may not be rough to u but it beats the heck outta me. Probably where i am smaller.

Why do they only run 2 trains? Another problem?

SOB isn't rough.

Seems Rough to me when i ride

Why do they only run 2 trains? Another problem?

3 trains would server no positive purpose, it would constantly be setting up, thus not increasing times.

Yes, while it was originally designed to run three trains (in fact the park owns all three trains) there is no benefit in capacity to having three trains on. Also, if they don`t clear the station on time then a triain will be stuck all the way out at the mid course break run, quite a far distance from the station.

Also the park is Kind of anal rentitive about having trains stacked on block brakes, they don't really want to take the risk of some type of failure and have a train miss the block brakes(which is there purpose). Also good luck getting an empty train through that loop after its stopped in the block brake.

Yes, while it was originally designed to run three trains (in fact the park owns all three trains) there is no benefit in capacity to having three trains on. Also, if they don`t clear the station on time then a triain will be stuck all the way out at the mid course break run, quite a far distance from the station.

I never knew that...I thought there were 3 trains.

The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH); 11/24/2000

MASON, Ohio -- Paramount's Kings Island is suing three companies involved in building its $15 million Son of Beast roller coaster, claiming shoddy design and construction forced the park to close the ride last summer.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Warren County Court, says the design of the world's tallest and fastest looping wooden roller coaster contained insufficient support structures and other defects. Kings Island is seeking unspecified damages.

I think we should all remember too, there are always two sides to the story. I'm sorry, but I place just as much fault with Paramount Parks for the results of Son of Beast. Afterall, Paramount Parks was listed as the general contractor. Rumors that were buzzing around (NOT rumors around the Park, but from other sources in the industry) made some claims that Paramount Parks made a few cutbacks during the construction, thus resulting in some of the problems the ride was plagued with. Either way, I think its safe to say that Son of Beast can be looked at as a failure. I certainly give PKI props for maintanance on it. I think it runs about as good as can be expected and runs far better than it would at most other parks. Still to this day, I will never understand why they built that thing.....quite possibly the worse investment that I think the Park has ever made.

Wasn't there some other issue about the design of the ride being goofed up during construction, mainly in the station, lift approach, final brake run area? I seem to remember reading somewhere that a goof in construction, resulted in the brake run and station being improperly located, and forced the brake run to be shorter than originally planned, forcing them to reduce the number of trains used? If this is incorrect, or untrue, please correct me.

The ride is rough, but it's not really the roughness that gets me. It's the size of the trains. I'm about 6'3, and it doesn't feel good to have my knees pushed up against bare metal handles, especially when the trains run so harsh. I do believe that they are the smallest cars I've ever sat in. While the design has it's flaws, the whole lot of people....the park, the construction crews, the materials company, the designer....etc etc are collectively at fault for one of the the biggest disappointments in amusement history. Staining the wood darker was the least of their worries. Hopefully the rehabbing that they have done will go a long way to help out the ride.

I am with you. That thing will kill your knees. Between that and those hard banking turns killing my kidneys and head.

I think we should all remember too, there are always two sides to the story.  I'm sorry, but I place just as much fault with Paramount Parks for the results of Son of Beast.

You bring up a great point here Todd...What I don't get is they sued everyone under the sun except Premiere. Honestly, who here hasn't dreamed of that thing with some custom Millennium Flyers on it?

The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH); 11/24/2000

MASON, Ohio -- Paramount's Kings Island is suing three companies involved in building its $15 million Son of Beast roller coaster, claiming shoddy design and construction forced the park to close the ride last summer.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Warren County Court, says the design of the world's tallest and fastest looping wooden roller coaster contained insufficient support structures and other defects. Kings Island is seeking unspecified damages.

I think we should all remember too, there are always two sides to the story. I'm sorry, but I place just as much fault with Paramount Parks for the results of Son of Beast. Afterall, Paramount Parks was listed as the general contractor. Rumors that were buzzing around (NOT rumors around the Park, but from other sources in the industry) made some claims that Paramount Parks made a few cutbacks during the construction, thus resulting in some of the problems the ride was plagued with. Either way, I think its safe to say that Son of Beast can be looked at as a failure. I certainly give PKI props for maintanance on it. I think it runs about as good as can be expected and runs far better than it would at most other parks. Still to this day, I will never understand why they built that thing.....quite possibly the worse investment that I think the Park has ever made.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/12/1..._firm_says.html

If you want to read more.

Yeah, the same people whom built The Beast were the ones who did Son of Beast. Obviously, they are not as skilled at it as they would like to believe.

People also forget, hindsight is 20/20. I'm sure when PKI announced they would be building the world's tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden coaster, there was a lot of buzz about it. It wasn't until afterwards that coaster lovers have realized that bigger does not always equal better.

You bring up a great point here Todd...What I don't get is they sued everyone under the sun except Premiere. Honestly, who here hasn't dreamed of that thing with some custom Millennium Flyers on it?

I dream of anything other than those horrid trains that are currently running. Without a doubt, *the* worse riding trains *ever*. Touching on your Premier comment, hmmmm........isn't it ironic that the Flight of Fear retrofits were completed that off season? Just a guess, but I'd be willing to say Paramount Parks paid ZERO for those modiications. All the while, I'd be willing to say that a vast majority of SOB's problems ARE those stupid Premier trains. Sadly though, it seems as though no one was interested in putting in bids for the rolling stock, so I guess they got what was available. I think a lot of experienced people in the industry steered clear of SOB, could ya blame them?

- Todd