6 December 2018 — 1129 mst
Electrifying news about GNP’s red jammer buses
Many people come to Glacier National Park to enjoy its glaciated mountains, its miles of backcountry trails, and perhaps the opportunity to see a grizzly bear at a safe distance. Others come for the chance to travel the Going to the Sun Road in an antiquated open air bus that’s painted fire engine red.
A road weary red jammer bus hogging parking spaces at Logan Pass in 1998. This is the original version, held together by baling wire, chewing gum, and prayer.
After structural defects were discovered (or finally admitted to exist) in 1999 — Chris Peterson has an excellent story at the Hungry Horse News — the buses were withdrawn from service while the red bodies were mounted on a new Ford chassis. Now a second cycle of renewal has begun. A few buses at a time will be mounted on a new Ford chassis, powered by a 6.2-liter V-8 (≈ 350 hp) and a small electric motor (no details on the motor) that will receive its power from a battery charged by regenerative braking on downhill runs. Ford offers a propane/methane conversion kit for that engine, but evidently that technology will be eschewed.
All sorts of historical niceties are promised. There’ll be no modern dashboard with modern instruments. Instead, there’ll be an old style dashboard with instruments that look like that era’s primitive dials and gauges. And, I suspect, the driver will have a tablet or laptop computer that receives signals best presented on an LCD screen.
The attempt to replicate the original appearance extends to the tires, which are being increased from 16 to 19.5 inches. Hollywood would appreciate that touch.
But how stable will the new configuration be? Larger tires will raise the center of gravity slightly. Will that increase sway and the risk of tipping over? How much will the propulsion battery weigh, where will it be installed, and how will it affect the vehicle’s stability? I hope the decision to make these changes occurred after a proper engineering analysis of the proposed changes.
I’ve never ridden in one of the jammers, and I never will. I’m skeptical that they’re safe. I would just as soon traverse the park by riding a Duck Boat up Lake MacDonald, then riding the Ducker on the Sun Road. But I’m one of those throwbacks who thinks the less asphalt and fewer engines in the park, the better the park and the better the experience for the visitor. Vacationers who want to ride in pimped-out touring cars can go to DisneyLand or Europe.