Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

With the aid of my pickup truck, I saved all of our teams robotics stuff.

At our school we store ALL of our robotics stuff in a seatainer which is frequently moved due to construction.

The seatainers newest home is a very soft spot of dirt and silty sand.

Tonight I was on my drive home in the pouring rain, rain so heavy that I was doing 20 in a 45 with my wipers on full tilt and still couldnt see.

I decided to go check on our shed, because I knew it was in a bad place, and wanted to make sure it wasnt flooding.

I drove down to the back of my school, and there was the shed. Sinking.

In the shed is ALL of our robotics stuff. Old robots, parts, tools, etc..

I backed up as far as I could to the shed without getting into the dirt and grabbed a 2x4 piece i had in my bed.

I started digging out the front hook holds of the seatainer, and digging below it so I could put some fenceboards that I had under it to act as skids.

I moved about 100lbs of water logged dirt, stuck the boards under then grabbed the only things I had for rope. I fashioned a tow cable out of 4 tie downs, and jumper cables.

I hooked it ontto the shed, then onto the frame rails of my truck since I dont have a tow package.


I put her in low, and used about a 1/4 tank of gas dragging a seatainer that weighs god knows how much about 25 feet.


Then I left it in the middle of the parking lot behind my school.


Come monday, the school is going to be "What?" and see a huge trail of tire marks and dirt flung.

I <3 my Dodge Ram.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Respect.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Perhaps you can put a positive spin to the incident and ask your achool for your own building space? ;)

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

maybe that will be next years game.....having to rescue robotics stuff...lol

glad you caught it
/forest

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

How about a sponsor? Great job!

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Wow. I agree. Use this as an example on why you need your own building space. But props man. sounds like a blast.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

lol. Thanks to the lot of you.

We have a build space, but we cant build and store in the same area.


Stupid school.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Someone needs to put this in rock ballad form

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Haha, great story. Yeah, I love pulling stuff with my Ranger. :)

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Props!

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

New Slogan?

"Even Robotics needs a pickup every once and a while"

Thats calling for a sponsorship
:D

/respect

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

A tip of my hat to you man. That is awesome. Now that is one heck of a story to tell your administrators come Monday.

Pavan.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

We store our stuff in the back of a lab thats used for physics and bio. Other people use the space so we cant leave things out, but it sure beat putting it in a shed and having what happened to you. Hopefully your school will igve you more now.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Tell that story to Dodge :D


cool stuff dude :D

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Maybe I should.

Then I can say after all that, "So Daimler, son of Chrysler, would you be willing to send us a few dollers so I can put your nice large logo on our robot? ahh ahh! it would be fun *nudges*"

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

It already has.


"WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT, NO WERE NOT GONNA TAKE IT!"

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Way to go Viper! Your did good son!

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Nice job!!:D


As a Dodge truck owner myself (96 SLT, Cummins diesel) I know what they are capable of.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Suggestion (which you may have done already)
take photos:
- the seatainer
- the place where it was sinking and was pulled from
- the place where it is now, safely (hopefully)
- the 'equipment' that you used to secure its safety

Present those to the administrators. They could be used to aid your search for safe storage and to reflect the tenacity of a robotics team.

Jane

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

<3

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I will do as soon as it stops raining. :) Thank you for the advice.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

All I have to say: Wow. Nice job, and I guess it's a darn good thing you thought about it. How far into the ground was it sunk- aka if you hadn't saved it, would you have been able to pull it out of the mud at all so you could get the stuff inside of it out?

Kudos.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

We would have been able to dig it out, but half of the contents of the shed were already damp when I opened it, so if it had pooled in there overnight and until we dug it out, it would have been a disaster.

Also, I couldnt have opened the doors the way it sank.

It sank about 5 inches on the front. Enough to cause a headache.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I have a 2001 1500 318 V8. It does the job, but nowhere as well as yours!

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Good job. That would have been a devastating "Christmas Present" for the team. I can only imagine how stressful that would have been. Good job! :D

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Wow, props, that was an amazing save.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

You might also think about sending those photos and your story to the PR people at Dodge. I think you may have written the next Dodge TV commercial. Who knows? You might even pick up a new sponsor!

Seriously, at least post the photos here in CD. Gotta love that American V8 power! My wife has a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the same 318 V8.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Thats some mad skill there Viper.

Since i know how hard it is to get schools to help you with something like this when you need it i would suggest buying a tow strap for your truck. If you(r school) owns the seatainer weld some loops to attach to the tow strap to.

way to go saving ur stuff tho

I know how well the dodge line works, they have saved me a few times.
(sold)1998 Ram Sport 2500 V10
'06 2500 5.7L Hemi
Between these 2 ive pulled a lot of stuff

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

If they won't move the container to another location or give you some other storage space there's something else you could suggest to them. Putting a gravel base under the container would keep it higher and allow drainage under it. Supporting it on blocks may not work since the ground is soft and the container would just push them into the ground over time. The containers weight will be better spread out over the gravel, plus it could also make a nice driveway to it if they extend it out the front.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Im shooting them an Email today. If this became a commercial, I would laugh into next year.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

tha'd be a beastly commercial, and i'm sure all of FIRST would laugh into next year.

great story-telling too, im glad you saved your team!

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

So I agree with the rest of the folks hear by saying that's a pretty cool move.. but uh.. what the heck is a seatainer?

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I assume a seatainer is one of the metal containers that are used to transport cargo on large container ships.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

Yup.

You know, a sea container. :)
lol

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

did you get us some pictures?

or did I miss the link?

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

A seatainer... http://lidar.ssec.wisc.edu/syst/ahsr..._seatainer.jpg


Must have a big truck :)


That is mad cool.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I have a 1500 Ram.

Sadly, I have no pictures. The school moved the seatainer to a nice corner of the parking lot for now. :)

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I sent the email off to Dodge. Ill post it as soon as I can get back into my gmail account... :confused:

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

VERY nice. I bet you're the new hero of your team now. Like someone else already said, albeit slightly differently, that's a great Christmas present to your team: Saving all of their (your) stuff. And good job on getting the school to allow you another space. They can be so strict about that sort of thing, I'm surprised.

Re: Tonight I saved our robotics program.
 

I have been told that the reason you see so many empty containers in areas where there are seaports where the containers come in is, it cost more money to ship an empty container back to CHINA (or whrere ever they came from) than is does to buy a new overseas and fill it up to ship it here. Since we import ALOT MORE then we export they have no use for alot of the seacans except for storage sheds..:]