Bumper Inspection Discrepency

[RMS11]

At Alamo, our bumpers passed inspection with flying colors and were even complemented by many inspectors for how effective they were. They are one single assembly that we slide over the top of our robot into slots in the frame.

At Peachtree, we were informed from the beginning that our bumpers were illegal. The butt joints created by the wood at the corners of the bumpers were ruled not legal. We reconsulted the rules and figured that under <R07> L, "Hard" parts of the BUMPER (i.e. plywood backing, fastening system, and clamping angles) may extend up to a maximum of 1" beyond the FRAME PERIMETER." made us legal.

The inspectors called FIRST headquarters, who said that our bumpers were illegal, as wooden backing may only extend the length of the horizontal projection. We spent the next few hours removing the bumper fabric, cutting off the butt joints with the reciprocating saw, installing angle brackets on the inside of the bumpers, and reassembling the fabric. It was annoying, to say the least, and made our bumpers much less attractive, much less structurally sound, and was just an overall pain. we were annoyed that they called this, yet allowed teams to pass who's bumpers dragged on the ground, were ziptied on, and even some without numbers on all sides. But ok, I do not fault the inspectors as the ruling came from FIRST headquarters.

I was just curious, have other regionals been calling teams on this? I just wanted to let other teams who built their bumpers like us to be prepared for this possible ruling. How does everyone else interpret this rule? We plan to remake our bumpers for North Carolina...