COE Parade:

(This was originally posted on 3/15/05. Additions and revisions will be made in bold letters.)
Revised 3/28/05.

The College of Engineering is entering a cumulative float into the Picnic Day Parade. The float will consist of a farm tractor pulling a "train" of eight heavy-duty suspension-less warehouse carts. Pic1 Pic2 SCHEMATIC

All of the carts are 48" side-to-side, but the lengths (front-to-back) vary a little. Five of them are 54" long, one is 56" long, and two are 63". All elements of each float must be contained within the edges of the trailer and reach no more than 6'-0" above the bottom of the plywood base that is described later. ELEMENTS OF THE FLOAT CAN NOT HANG OVER THE EDGES OF THE PLYWOOD.

The longer carts will be at the front of the train, right behind the pulling tractor. Cart order will be alphabetical: Applied Science (63" cart), Biological Systems (63" cart), Biomedical ( 56" cart), etc. Please refer to the COE Departments web page for the rest of the order. One reason to place the longer carts in front is that they will likely get somewhat obscured by the potentially much wider, pulling tractor.

Each cart will be fitted with two 2x6 pieces of lumber bolted flat on top of the trailer flush with OR A LITTLE BEYOND the sides, with the work to be done by Engineering Joint Council with assistance from BioAgEng's Victor Duraj. Lumber HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY COE. EJC MAY be enlisted to help with some cart maintenance and a little painting.

The outside edges of the 2x6's will be used for attaching the skirts that will be made by COE staff. COE will design and produce the skirts with department names, to create some consistency to the trailers.

Floats should be built on a piece of plywood that will subsequently be attached to the 2x6's with deck screws. Floats need to be rigidly constructed, because the suspensionless trailers will bounce along fairly roughly. You might consider using some 2x4 lumber oriented flatly under the plywood if your items are heavy enough to bend the plywood. IF YOU USE ADDITIONAL LUMBER UNDER THE PLYWOOD, KEEP IT 6" AWAY FROM THE SIDES, AS SUGGESTED BY THE SCHEMATIC.

People will not be allowed to walk alongside the trailers, in order to maintain clear visibility of every department's float. However, we MAY have a group walking following the last trailer and possibly passing out the COE schedule of events. If you would like to walk in the parade, please fill out the waiver (attached) and return it to Korie Robinson by April 7. EVERYONE participating in the 2005 Picnic Day Parade must sign a waiver, NO EXCEPTIONS!

There will be a qualified person attending to the wagon train, and some contingencies will be developed for situations such as a broken trailer or crumbling float. DUCT TAPE AND BALING WIRE.

THE CARTS HAVE BEEN TAKEN BACK OUT TO ANTIQUE MECHANICS AT THE AIRPORT. THEY WILL BE BROUGHT BACK BEFORE PICNIC PAD FOR MOUNTING OF FLOATS. (THE FOLLOWING IS OBSOLETE: Departments can take their carts from Bainer Courtyard immediately if they wish, or they can simply build the float on plywood and mount it on the cart in the few days right before Picnic Day. The carts are too heavy to lift even by four people. To roll them around really requires at least two people. The carts that are not taken by March 22 will be stored at Antique Mechanics (UCD Airport) or possibly closer to Central Campus depending on a few factors. If your department is not able to locate a float building area, please contact Korie Robinson for assistance.)

Departments should make their own arrangements for use of tools and facilities for construction. There should be handsaws, cordless drivers, hammers, chicken wire cutters, etc., in any engineering department, I hope. Using steel with welding or bolting processes is fine also. Use of the Student/Faculty Engineering Shop may be possible by persons having undergone safety training, which needs to be confirmed with that shop's management.

Using a generator to power some elements of the float is fine, but the installation must be designed so as to be highly secure and not to create a fire hazard, which may be hard to do on such a small float. Please consult with Victor Duraj or Darryl Mack if you intend to use a generator.

The train will be pulled over to the Parade staging area at 7am Saturday morning. The finished floats will be assembled into the final train on Thursday or Friday before Picnic Day. The location is yet to be finalized, but it will likely be around Bainer Hall.

Rain contingencies are being considered but not finalized. We might use an alternate location for final assembly if the weather is unfavorable. You might consider designing your float in a way that allows the use of a tarp.

The train will be parked at the Engineering alumni barbeque after the parade.

There will be some sort of travelling trophy award, given to the winning float entry by a judging means yet to be finalized.

If you were not able to attend the float building meeting and would like a copy of the float building handouts or borrow catalogs for ideas, please see Korie Robinson.

Here are a few but not all the Parade documents to be aware of:: Waiver 1; Waiver 2
Please go to http://picnicday.ucdavis.edu/2005/events/parade/ for a complete version of the General Policy and related information.

For questions or concerns, please contact Korie Robinson at krobinson@ucdavis.edu or 752-1653
Engineering Dean's Office, 1042 Kemper Hall.

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The trailers are provided by the Antique Mechanics (BioAgEng) www.tractors.ucdavis.edu.
They were originally donated by the Hunt-Wesson, Davis tomato cannery that is now closed.
The contact person for Antique Mechanics is Victor Duraj vduraj@ucdavis.edu. cell: 530-848-6446