Hi,
We’re a rookie team from San Jose, CA.
We’re wondering about how big the KOP crates are, usually? Would two vans be large enough to transport them? Or do we need a truck?
Thanks!
Jeff
You should be ok with vans. Here are the dimensions from an email sent out to MN teams:
The Kit of Parts contains: 2 totes (27"x17"x12" weighing 70lbs each), the
robot controller kit (medium size box), drive train kit (medium size box),
battery box (small - motorcycle battery) and a few envelopes.
Alrighty. Thanks for your quick response.
Jeff,
You should be able to easily fit them into a single van.
The last 3 years I’ve put them in my SUV with no problems.
For future reference, the term crate typically refers to the pallet sized box you will ship your robot in. The plastic boxes the KOP comes with are most often called totes.
PS. Welcome to First, and good luck on your first year!
OK. I will relay on this to the team members.
Alrighty, thanks for the clarification 
The first year we did FRC I borrowed the cargo van from the IT dept. That was major overkill. Since then we have removed the backseat of the Wrangler and used that for transportation. Sadly, my Wife has already said I can’t use the new Mazda 3 this year. She said something about robots and new paint not mixing. sigh
A suggestion to bring a 4-wheel dolly or 2-wheel cart. The totes are heavy to carry any distance.
Ambitious team! Wouldn’t it be great if we needed a truck to carry the KOP? :ahh:
it would be great to have to have a truck. or just have the kop delivered in a crate the size of our shipping crates that would be glorious to come in and see. Welcome to the wonderful world of FIRST and chief delphi
One of our mentors bought a new Ford truck a couple weeks ago. Getting ready for build season, first thing we had to do was to move some robots and parts from the school storage room to the on-post facilities where we build. Of course one of the robots ended up in his new truck, and the paint in the bed got scratched. At least it was by a good cause, not just hauling a load of garbage to the dump.
I’ve put three KOP totes and a slightly smaller tool tote in the back of my VW Rabbit in the offseason. I’m sure I could fit two just in the trunk area if I arranged it right.
One bad winter build season a few years back, we had to take the robot to my employer’s, as the school facilities were shut down in a snow/ice storm. I had a 6 foot tall, bright blue crate in the back of my little Toyota short-bed pickup for about a week. It looked like an outhouse 
The box that last year’s kitbot came in was 36" x 4" x 9"
(Source: http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=7702)
There’s no box in this year’s kit that size, but there is one that’s 36" x 6" x 6" which is the same volume, but why would they change the size of the box?
(Source: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=70919)
Could this mean that the IFI kitbot will no longer be provided? Maybe FIRST have found another supplier to make the kitbot? Maybe Andymark has designed a kitbot, and kept it a secret from everyone for all this time…
Or maybe not, just a guess.
Better yet, how do you fit a 38" maximum robot dimension into a 36" box?
I personally would be quite surprised if we see the IFI Kitbot again this year, sue to the deteriorating relationship between IFI and FIRST. More then likely they designed a kitbot themselves or got AM to make a new one.
The kitbot side-rails from last year were 36" long out of the box. After you added the endcaps it grew to about 37", a healthy one inch under the limit.
This proves to me that the robot dimensions must be 38" x (some lesser number (probably 28"))."
Now, what would make you think that? Nothing says that FIRST wont change the dimension and say, “You can use this but you have to cut it yourself”
Remember, the only rules that are set in stone are those regarding safety. But I’ll go back to quietly waiting for kickoff now.
Thats possible, but unlikely. Dimensions have been 28"x38" since at least 2003. I can’t see them moving away from this, as it makes for robots that fit nicely through a standard doorway.
From Madison on the First Email Blast forum:
Thanks Madison.
Bill’s blog says something a tad different.
4 small items (less than 5 lb total)
why would we need 4 game pieces?