Sponsors

This project is not only demanding on the seniors. We have gotten a significant amount of help from many others. Dr. Allen & Matt Hays put in endless dedication to this project...I don't know what we would do without them. We have several underclassmen working with us as well. Our company sponsors are: Polaris, Great Lakes Elevator, Briggs & Stratton, VonLanken Snyder Farms, Air Gas, & Plymouth Tubing, Inc.

Project Sections & Progress

I haven't said too much about how we are dividing this project. All 5 of us are involved in each other's work, to some extent, but the focuses are:
Frame-Nick & Owen
Suspension-Christian
Drive Train-Becca & Josh

All that really has been posted thus far is the frame's progress, but the rest of us are doing plenty as well!
We still need a definite part that we want for the new shocks, but we know that we want to use the old A-arms with the new vehicle.
We have the drive train pretty much nailed down as to what we are ordering. This week we are taking measurements in order to be 100% sure before we purchase a non-refundable transmission. We also decided on wheel-mounted brakes and shafts that telescope in the CV joints to go with our selected transmission.
The frame is still coming together; the guys have continued their long hours on it.

As a side note, the new frame's designer came into town this past weekend to take a look at her work being made reality. Needless to say, she was pretty ecstatic.

Pics from last week...

This project is getting long....we tend to think too much about stuff and then realize that we are over-thinking everything, and that our original conclusions were right. It gets to be really frustrating when you spend your Saturdays thinking and then actually do everything on Monday.
Anyway....progress is being made, just slowly

Welding

We didn't have the tubing available to us exactly when we wanted it, so that set us back a bit at first. We settled with a slightly heavier tubing for the frame, but the weight difference won't be very significant in competition. We have some portions of the frame welded after many hours of tube bending and welding in the past few weeks. We are back on schedule, and things are moving quickly!

Owen loves welding!

Back panel all finished

Another piece in mid-completion

More welding progress pics to come soon!

Parts such as hubs, transmission, other drive train stuff, and shocks are to be ordered in about the next month to avoid any time setbacks once our welding is done. Look forward to it!!

The Team

   Owen Blough is a senior at Olivet, and this is his first year being involved with the Mini Baja project. He is excited about the goals for this year’s team and thinks it will be a great success. In addition to engineering he enjoys playing percussion and road biking.

   Christian Bach is from Wilson, New York, which is a very small town in Western New York. He is currently in his senior year at Olivet Nazarene University and plans on graduating in May 2012. He is looking forward to working on this Baja car project because he has been interested in working with cars for a long time and this seems to be the closest he can get to working with cars right now. 

   Nicholas Pickering is a Senior Mechanical Engineering student at ONU.  He is in his fourth year working on the Baja car.  In the past, he has worked mostly on the drivetrain, but this year he is concentrating on the frame.  In his spare time, he works on a farm, and plays with firearms.  

   Josh Long is a Senior Mechanical Engineering student from Lakewood, California. This will be his first year working on the Baja car. He is mainly focused on designing and building the drivetrain, which includes the transmission, driveshaft, and braking system.

   Becca Garst is a Geological Engineer graduating in December 2012. This will be her second year working on the car, and she plans on working primarily with the drivetrain for senior project. In addition to engineering, Becca also enjoys running in excess quantities.

Project Goals

Our Project Goals for the Next Two Semesters

Frame:

The primary purpose the frame provides for the Baja vehicle is to protect the driver.  Secondary purposes include supporting the engine, transmission, suspension, and other components.  In order to fulfill these requirements, the frame must be strong, rigid, and able to withstand shocks associated with off-road impacts. 

Previous year’s Senior Design team designed a frame for the vehicle to improve its performance. The team also conducted several FEA tests on the frame to determine whether or not the frame would fulfill these purposes.  The job of the team this year is to construct the frame, and then to prove that the FEA analysis is valid.  This will be done by static tests on the fully constructed frame, where a force is applied to the frame, and the resulting deflections are measured.  From these deflections, we can determine strains and stresses, and determine whether the frame is safe to use. 

In addition to this, the team must design and fabricate mounting points for the engine, transmission, suspension components, and other parts.  These mounting points need to be fabricated and attached to the new frame so that the other vehicle systems will easily fit into the frame.    

Improve suspension (coilovers, hopefully!!):

The suspension on the baja vehicle needs to allow the car to travel easily over off road terrain. The suspension used last year worked but it can be made better. The suspension used last year did not have a spring over the shock absorber, making the suspension subpar.

The design we have for the frame does not have any mounting points for the suspension, so there is a need to design the suspension so that we stay on or below the center of gravity. 

Incorporate new transmission with high and low gears in drivetrain:

The drivetrain transmits power from the engine to the wheels.  The drivetrain on last year’s vehicle was stressed to the point of failure, causing a poor performance in the endurance race.  We must design and build the drivetrain to ensure that it is reliable enough to pass through the entire event at a high level of performance.

Decrease turning radius (if time allows)

Meet all safety requirements set by SAE:

71 pages of guidelines to follow, or we can't compete!

Use other features such as steering, brakes, etc. similar to that of the previous vehicle:

They worked well before, so why not?!

Have everything combined so that the car functions well for competition at the end of spring semester:

Competition is in Portland, Oregon on May 16-19, 2012

 2011 Team After Competition

 Rock Crawl 2011