The Trash Can Heroes at Work

One of the advantages the Trash Can Heroes team got from the start, although they had no way of knowing that at the time, was that one of the engines they grabbed from the junkyard was ideal for the air sweeper team. Although the team didn't end up using the engine, because they had it on their side of the yard the Sewer Rats couldn't use it, either.

The design the Trash Can Heroes team came up with, given the materials at hand, was extraordinarily creative in that it called for their truck to be operated backwards. So, they had a significant challenge to come up with a way to do that. To make it easier to drive, the team decided cut a hole in the back of the driver's side of the chassis, then welded an extension onto the steering wheel so it would poke out through the back of the cab. As a result, during the competition one team member would have to be in the truck cab operating the throttle, brake and gearshift while another sat back in the truck bed doing the steering.

What they found to make the broom's 'bristles' out of was wire rope, which one of the team members cut into sections of the right length. Then, they welded the strips of bristle onto the broom 'core.' The wire sections were alternated with strips of rubber in order to make a squeegee-type sweeping system they hoped would pick up the smaller material that might be part of the testing process. For a propulsion motor, the team came up with what appeared to be a large lawnmower engine.

Their design didn't include a conveyor belt, as is used in a conventional broom sweeper, but rather was a direct-throw machine where the debris would be flung directly into the dustpan hopper. As the pan to hold the debris, the team cut a barrel in half lengthwise and hung it where the broom would throw the material into the open side.

At this point it was well into mid-afternoon, and it didn't seem possible either team could come up with a working machine in the allotted timeframe. By now, the heat was getting truly oppressive, even for those of us who were standing around in shorts. For the team members, outfitted in their fireproof coveralls and working frantically, it had to be stifling.

Still, it was obvious both teams were there to win, and there was never a letup in the pace of the work. It appeared as though they'd get operating sweepers or fall from heat exhaustion in the trying!

Wonder what the view was like from behind the cameras? Here's what we saw while the taping was going on.

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