[EricH]

I would say legal, but silly.

And here's why: Your bumpers must be easily removable for inspection. 2 people in under 5 minutes is the guideline.

Can your two people remove all the fasteners from your robot and get the bumpers off in 5 minutes if you put them all the way across? Particularly if they're also being used for cross-bracing, and aren't just running through clearance holes? Right.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "I only have to remove my bumpers once, and I'm good! I can live with that!" Wrong. All robots at the event are subject to reinspection at any time. More particularly if they're in decent range of a chance at eliminations, and it's Saturday morning, or if they've made changes. And as part of that reinspection, the weighing of the robot may be required. Just as a note, bumpers don't count towards robot weight. Guess what you now have to take off and put back on, and maybe you have a match in 10 minutes and are being called to queue up?


tl;dr: legal, sure, but it could bite you pretty good.