[Dillon Carey]

Bumpers have been around for quite a while now, and the Bumper Zone has pretty much always stayed the same. The main rule I would like to address is the height limitations on the bumper zone. It has been 2"-10" off the ground for as long as I remember. This may have been a good height when bumpers were introduced (2006 I believe), however, since then the average wheel size has shrunk dramatically. Mounting bumpers 2" off the ground is extremely inconvenient in many cases and I don't see a reason the rule shouldn't be changed to 1" off the ground.

On a side note, forcing the bumpers to start/stay in the bumper zone really limits a teams creativity when it comes to flop bots or other interesting configurations. (check out team 16 in 2008 for a good example)