Bumper Clearence on the ramp

[Charger_07]

Is anyone having the problem i am having of trying to design a bumper that will be high enough to let the robot go up the ramp?? We had one design but only to be told it was against the rules.

[tjanson]

It's called lots of torque and 4 wheel drive. Mmmmm.
Sorry for not making a worthwhile contribution.

[sanddrag]

who says you need bumpers?

[ctshirk7]

we were havin a hard time and then we discovered eye bolts... they work quite nicely... eye bolts that are long enough that you can mount the bumper high and its easy to remove... you might like to use it...

[artdutra04]

Remember, you cannot possibly get everything you want in FIRST. If you want to get up the ramp, you may have to give up on having bumpers on the ends of your robot. If you want bumpers on the ends of your robot, you may not have enough clearance to get up the ramp. It is all about compromise and what your team views as the higher priority.

And if you are mad about this, the bumper rule was purposely designed this way.

[Ben Piecuch]

To work within the bumper rules, we're only able to have bumpers on the corners of the robot. We need close to 4.5" of clearance in the center of our wheelbase, which doesn't allow for the placement of bumpers.

However, we're only losing a 15" or so wide span of bumpers on the side of the robot. That still ensures that most robot-to-robot contact will be against our bumper, and not a direct hit to the frame. I'm mostly worried about the front of our robot, which will not have any bumpers at all (due to the ball collection device.) A direct hit in this area is sure to do some damage, as the corner of a low robot can get under our frame and into some pretty important parts. (Don't worry, we're not mounting electronics there...)

Bumpers this year are a blessing and a bother. Use them where you can and just be happy that you don't have to fit them into your 120 lbs.

[Rohith Surampudi]

what rule did they tell you that design was against?

[Ben Piecuch]

Originally Posted by rvssnake

what rule did they tell you that design was against?

Rule <R35> specifically. And, the following responses, among many, on the Q&A forum. As these are the only official answers, I won't link to any of the discussions from here on CD...

Q&A 1

Q&A 2

Q&A 3

And so forth...

BEN

[Charger_07]

we were planning on using hinges so whenever the front hit the ramp the bumper would have moved out of the way.....i have about 3 bumpers built and they seem like they will work if i can attach them easily and get them off easily....how exactly are you using the eye bolts???

[Kevin Sevcik]

Careful on your hinges idea. There have been a couple of recent Q&As that state that bumpers must remain in the same vertical orientation they started in, throughout the match. That's relative to the robot, of course, but it means you can't hinge the tops of your bumpers so they'll flip up slightly out of the way when you hit the ramp.
I suspect your only option for using a full set of bumpers this year is to have a 6-wheel drive chassis or something that gets your effective wheelbase as small as possible

[Charger_07]

Ya we completely scrapped the hinge idea saturday and we thought we had another way of attaching using 80-20 but the 80-20 will extend too far out so im gonna try to look into the eye bolt idea, if i can find the right size ones