Vehicle must have no flotation devices. There are no motors,only pedal power. You can use propellers,fans,or tire's powered by pedals,chains,sprokets. This vehicle must support and carry all members of each team. Vehicle and team members must travel 100 yards in a minimum of 3 feet of mud and water. By the way,any tire's used will not be taller than 20 inches.No limit on tire width. Vehicle has a max weight of 2000 pounds including team members.

-- Charles Santanelli (ssantanelli@yahoo.com), February 21, 2001

Answers

i think i would miss the loud roar of an engine as mud is slung far into the air

-- the test tank babies (finishrad@aol.com), February 21, 2001.

A two thousand pound 1hp swampbuggy (4 teamates X 1/4 Hp) wouldn't get very far in 3 ft of mud. If built light enough and realy geared low it might make it. But a swamp buggy needs HUNDREDS of horsepower to be exciting enough for TV.

-- Stephen A. Binion (Stephenbinion@hotmail.com), February 23, 2001.

Maybe a good challenge would be to build a rig to winch a heavy vehicle (at least as big as a "Jeep" grand wagoneer) out of a mud hole where it is buried up to about a foot up the doors. There could be several solutions to this type challenge involving skids, jacking, floatation, winching to a "dead man" (pole buried in the ground crossways to the pull of the winch like an anchor), build a bigger machine with huge tires or tracks that can get close to it and drag it out and other solutions. Maybe the challenge could be just to get the vehicle out by any means available, with the first team to put it on the bank winning. Getting stuck and then figuring out how to get back out used to be a big part of the fun of having mud machines for us swamp types. It would be messy for the film crew to work there unless they can enlist a group of airboaters, or make the mudhole long and narrow. This is just raw thinking, so dive in with the digs.

-- Waddy Thompson (cthomp3851@aol.com), February 23, 2001.