Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber
I was using the verbiage in the quoted thread. I assumed it was hyperbole.
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Fair enough!
I just had pictures of someone naievely reading one post and saying "It's okay to strap ten pounds of iron to the bumper! I read it on Chief Delphi."
But I like the example of the "thinnest 12 gauge wire I've ever seen". We had a similar issue in '06 when we used speaker wire for many of the longer wire runs (downstream of the speed controllers only, of course, so colour was not an issue). We were actually one gauge "over", using 10 AWG where 12 was required, etc.
The inspector didn't like the speaker wire one bit... and if it were easy to replace the wire we would have done so without complaint... but it was pretty "built in", so we asked if it would be okay to get the LRI's opinion. The LRI wasn't sure so he asked the tournament director. Eventually the question went all the way to FRC HQ, and came back on Friday morning that there was no rule against it, so it was legal... thus supporting the inspection credo that if it's not illegal or unsafe, then it's fair game, even if you don't like it. (Later the inspector apologized for the hassle and explained that he'd had some negative experiences with speaker wire when using it in a different application that made him feel it was unsuitable for FRC.)
Although it made for a stressful Thursday night, we did go on to win the Sportsmanship award at that event. I think it was due mainly to the kid's great efforts over Friday and Saturday... but it couldn't have hurt that we were polite and respectful during the whole inspection process Thursday despite our rather extreme concern at the potential of having to rip our entire machine apart, and said "Thank you for checking" rather than "Told ya so!" on Friday morning.
Jason
P.S. Haven't used speaker wire since... it's got nice soft insulation, and is fabulous to work with, but the benefit isn't worth the potential hassle.