Some of the worst and most dangerous amusement rides are the trailer mounted portable ones owned by the small carnival teams, who rove from town to town. Obviously not all of them but a few carnies will run their rides until they are so worn out without doing proper maintenance on them, it is a wonder they can even set them up. One year a carnival company set up there in Saginaw where I had my machine and fabrication shop. They had some worn pins so the fire chief and the city inspector directed the man to my shop to ask if I could make them some new pins.
Yes, we can make new pins, but as badly worn as these pins are the locations are probably just as bad, I told him. We made the pins I took my welding rig over and repaired some of the worst locations. Got the 3 suspect rides in condition enough that the city inspector and fire chief signed off on them for the guy. Then after the carnival was over he brought every one of his rides to my place and left them there for the winter for us to repair any cracks we found and just in general go over all of them, and repair or replace anything we thought needed fixed. He drove up from Houston every week to check on things and each time he came he found more things he wanted us to repair. By the time their season started again in April 100s of bearings and lots of chains and several hydraulic hoses had been replaced We must have repacked a couple dozen cylinders as well. his 3 sons spent the whole winter repainting every part of every ride in my paint shop. If I never see another carnival ride in my life it will be too soon.