Reborn: Student Team Equips Former BUV For Hydro Excavation
May 5, 2025 at 6:05 p.m.
ANGOLA – It retired a winner, and now a vehicle developed by Trine University engineering students is enjoying new life in campus service.
For more than a decade, Trine student teams participated in the national Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) competition. In that competition, students designed a simple, low-cost vehicle that could hypothetically be used in a developing African country to perform daily tasks over rough terrain.
Trine's first win came in 2019. The competition went on hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the university won again in 2022.
Trine teams updated the vehicle in 2023 and 2024, but the competition was not held due to lack of participation from other schools. Eventually, it was permanently canceled.
With the vehicle unable to fulfill its original function, Nick Wentworth, assistant director of campus operations at Trine, and Joe Thompson, laboratory manager, collaborated on new uses.
They decided the vehicle would be best repurposed as a hydro excavation vehicle. Such vehicles use pressurized water and a vacuum system to safely and efficiently excavate soil without damaging underground utilities.
In the case of Trine University, such a vehicle is useful for performing maintenance on the irrigation system at Zollner Golf Course. It allows Campus Operations to access the water lines without workers having to dig, saving labor and avoiding the potential of damaging the lines.
The team of mechanical engineering majors Aaron Greene, Warsaw; Matthew Martin, Eureka, Ill.; Augustine Vargas, Hammond; Tim Kasper, Mooresville; and Sean Seacatt, Miamisburg, Ohio, took on the task of converting the vehicle.
"Because this was a newly thought up project with not a lot of strict guidelines or competition requirements, we loved the idea of being able to run wild with our ideas," said Greene. "We loved the idea of being able to create something new and innovative, and that kind of flexibility really helped us to succeed as the project progressed."
Modifications to the vehicle included a new front end for safer travel, a strong vacuum and pressure washer system to perform hydro excavation, an improved steering system for better maneuverability, a 55-gallon freshwater tank for operation in remote areas and four new lithium-ion batteries for improved runtime.
ANGOLA – It retired a winner, and now a vehicle developed by Trine University engineering students is enjoying new life in campus service.
For more than a decade, Trine student teams participated in the national Basic Utility Vehicle (BUV) competition. In that competition, students designed a simple, low-cost vehicle that could hypothetically be used in a developing African country to perform daily tasks over rough terrain.
Trine's first win came in 2019. The competition went on hiatus in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before the university won again in 2022.
Trine teams updated the vehicle in 2023 and 2024, but the competition was not held due to lack of participation from other schools. Eventually, it was permanently canceled.
With the vehicle unable to fulfill its original function, Nick Wentworth, assistant director of campus operations at Trine, and Joe Thompson, laboratory manager, collaborated on new uses.
They decided the vehicle would be best repurposed as a hydro excavation vehicle. Such vehicles use pressurized water and a vacuum system to safely and efficiently excavate soil without damaging underground utilities.
In the case of Trine University, such a vehicle is useful for performing maintenance on the irrigation system at Zollner Golf Course. It allows Campus Operations to access the water lines without workers having to dig, saving labor and avoiding the potential of damaging the lines.
The team of mechanical engineering majors Aaron Greene, Warsaw; Matthew Martin, Eureka, Ill.; Augustine Vargas, Hammond; Tim Kasper, Mooresville; and Sean Seacatt, Miamisburg, Ohio, took on the task of converting the vehicle.
"Because this was a newly thought up project with not a lot of strict guidelines or competition requirements, we loved the idea of being able to run wild with our ideas," said Greene. "We loved the idea of being able to create something new and innovative, and that kind of flexibility really helped us to succeed as the project progressed."
Modifications to the vehicle included a new front end for safer travel, a strong vacuum and pressure washer system to perform hydro excavation, an improved steering system for better maneuverability, a 55-gallon freshwater tank for operation in remote areas and four new lithium-ion batteries for improved runtime.