Kentucky Giant (looping wooden coaster)

What inspired me to make this was reading about how the concept of a looping coaster is not what's broken but how badly engineered Son of Beast was. I'm pretty much trying to make a looping woodie that does not have Son of Beast's flaws, and I have wanted to ever since reading about how the concept could have worked if it was built better. I read something about Gravity Group having designed but never built woodies with inversions, so I think that is possible. Ladies and gentlemen, Kentucky Giant!

Sustained airtime!

The loop is right after this stretch of track.

And here's the loop! This is as far as I got. I am planning to make a custom steel frame for the loop.

The first hill.

The first hill, closer up.

The layout from a vantage point. I almost think the loop should be closer to the rest of the layout. The way it is now might be a little problematic if I am planning to inspire the layout somewhat by (new) Texas Giant (small hills around and below the upper parts.) I kinda want the layout to not be so spread out, so I may change the little segment with the loop.
Another thing: I don't think I'll work on making the supports look better until I finish the layout. I just didn't want a bunch of floating track.
This is handbuilt BTW.

I think the loop would look better parrallel with the first camelback, that or take the track after the loop into a rosebowl of some sort
(turning to the right) instead of a flat turn.

Originally posted by A.S.C.

I think the loop would look better parrallel with the first camelback

I think I'll go with something like that idea because I don't really want a rosebowl. You mean the hill right after the initial drop?

I actually disagree that the loop would look better parallel to the first camelback. I like the layout as is, though I too question the flat turn after the loop.

Originally posted by dcs221

I actually disagree that the loop would look better parallel to the first camelback.

I already changed it before you made that post.

Like I possibly said, I don't want it to be too much spread out but not too compact either. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the loop would look better next to the bottom of the first drop. That way I can have room for some pops of airtime before the loop (oh, how I hate wasting track), and maybe right after the loop can be the MCBR. I'm kinda making up the layout as I go, with a sorta vague vision of what kind of layout I want. That bit of track after the loop can be ignored, I guess.

Yeah I don't like the layout or aesthetics much now. It worked better before for me. Your ride though.

make the loop structurally sound (not like everyone else who adds loops to their rides) and I might actually be interested in this. And to me, that doesn't mean steel v-supports.

What I though when I saw the title of this thread first : "oh no another RMC looper"
Then I was pretty well surprised, looks actually pretty cool. Also, it would be amazing to have the track going into the loop !

^Glad you at least took a look anyway and was pleasantly surprised. I think Rocky Mountain is too mainstream, even tho I was thinking about making one myself.

Originally posted by richie5126

make the loop structurally sound (not like everyone else who adds loops to their rides) and I might actually be interested in this. And to me, that doesn't mean steel v-supports.

I was planning to make a steel frame from CK, after I finalize the loop smoothing and shaping. Not sure why I didn't do that in my SoB rec.
Forgot to post an update:

EDIT: Since nobody's posted since this one, I might as well edit with this:

Originally posted by richie5126
make the loop structurally sound (not like everyone else who adds loops to their rides) and I might actually be interested in this

You can be interested in it now [:)]

please change color on the loop. looks cool, first drop seems amazing

^agreed. Maybe accentuate the SoB influence and color it grey, or if you have a 3d modeling program (discluding OC) then you could do additional plating/spinal bracing for the loop.

That looks really cool! Great work.

Haven't updated in a few days, so I might as well show some progress:

The drop after the MCBR.

The curved drop hugs one of the earlier turns.

Not sure how I'm going to lateral brace the track on the lower left.

I'd try placing the sections of track against each other, and lateral support the outside section of track as necessary.

Originally posted by S4mumu

What I though when I saw the title of this thread first : "oh no another RMC looper"

...? Oh 'no'?

I think he means that RMC's are too mainstream.

Originally posted by dcs221

I'd try placing the sections of track against each other, and lateral support the outside section of track as necessary.

Changed the curved drop somewhat.

90 degree bank.

I thought about making the track go through the loop, but then the laterals on that turn are too high, plus lateral bracing on that part in front of the loop track might be a problem. If I somehow decide to keep this, it will not be an overbank because this is not a Rocky Mountain.
Anyone have any suggestions for what color the loop should be? I need to make a new looping spine anyway since it's not perfectly aligned to the track due to repeated smoothenings.

I believe I had already offered a simple metallic gray color scheme, to play up to the SoB connection.

Yep, and you can also have the bottom half of those turns run through the lateral structure of the upper half. Been done lots of times...it's legit.

Originally posted by richie5126

I believe I had already offered a simple metallic gray color scheme, to play up to the SoB connection.

I don't remember that, but thanks.
I am not quite sure exactly what path the track should take, but I know I want a bit of airtime, probably underneath the structure, and I'm also trying to think of some kind of finale.

I wonder if anyone besides me has forgotten about this.

Let's recap with the high banked shallow turn. After that, we have...

Another banked turn going behind the loop.

Spaghetti helix finale.

I was thinking about a double up into the brake run, but I didn't have enough room. It's 5,589.95 feet long, and and yes, it does make it all the way to the end stopping at the MCBR.

Just wondering, when they measure the height of a lift hill, is the standard way the height of the peak above the main ground level or just the vertical distance from the bottom track piece of the lift to the peak? Because those would produce two different numbers in most cases.

vertical height I believe

I hope you guys don't mind me having gone ahead and uploading this to the exchange, making this my last ride of the year. I work kinda fast, but usually not enough to make the quality appear rushed.
I apologize for double posting. It's easy to forget that editing posts bumps the thread here, especially when I am also active on another message board where editing posts does nothing to the thread.
Despite being a "Mega Coaster rider" I only learned that fairly recently when I was puzzled at why the thread showed on the forums page despite having no new posts and I thought it might be a glitch.

Originally posted by CKidd

vertical height I believe

Above what, the ground or just the bottom of the lift?