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IAT Student Competition Seeks to Create Perfect BUV Design

Every year the Institute for Affordable Transportation (IAT) hosts a Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) competition amongst Midwestern colleges and universities. We started the competition back in 2000, when the IAT was founded, as a way to perfect the BUV design. We were crowdsourcing before there was even a word for “crowdsourcing.”

The way the competition works is that student teams design and build different BUVs to compete in a series of tests and events to determine the best design for the year. Many of the student builders are engineering students completing their capstone projects at the end of their college careers. This is a way for them to apply everything they’ve learned into improving on an already improved design. Because the BUV is used in a variety of locales without any infrastructure, the test vehicles must navigate a variety of different terrains, including an obstacle course, mud pit, mogul field, and an endurance track.

The race track the competitors race on is 2.1 miles (mi) and each design has to carry three 55 gallon water jugs across the course. Every third lap the water jugs must be emptied in a nearby pond and loaded up with water again so a pumping mechanism is also involved in the competition.

Our most recent competition winner for 2014 was the University of Cincinnati Bearcats club team with Alfred State College (a.k.a. State University of New York) in second and Purdue University’s Cameroon Pup team finishing in third.

We would like to thank all of the teams who participated in the event and would like to invite all schools interested to come to the 15th Annual BUV Competition April 17-18, 2015 in Batavia, Ohio. Click here for more information.

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Horsepower vs. Torque for the BUV

When talking about engines and power, we’re often asked about the difference between horsepower and torque. What do they do, and what do they have to offer in terms of an engine?

The best way to describe think about it is that torque is what throws you back in the seat when you step on the accelerator, and horsepower is what keeps you pinned there.

Loaded down BUV

You may not go very fast loaded down this much, but you’ll be able to move it.

For the Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) that travels over unfinished roads it needs more torque to push the vehicle through the rough roads in Africa, where most vehicles are located, with brute force. Torque is the power that gets you up steep hills, over large rocks, and through big holes in the road. Horsepower keeps you moving down the road, but torque is what powers you over the obstacles.

The BUV has both the torque and the horsepower to make it over the rough roads in Africa and makes it an affordable and efficient vehicle. We’ve found the right combination of the two to make this a useful means of transportation over any terrain.

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