Reborn: Student team equips former BUV for hydro excavation

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.

New life, new use

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, from Warsaw, Indiana, Matthew Martin, from Eureka, Illinois, Augustine Vargas, from Hammond, Indiana, Tim Kasper, from Mooresville, Indiana, and Sean Seacatt, from 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.

Finding solutions

Wentworth said the students met with him regularly throughout the project to discuss ideas, needs testing and challenges.

“The students made time for us to test parts of the project along the way and overcame any problems,” he said.

And there were problems to overcome.

The team lost two weeks of build time when the tube bender they were using to fabricate the frame broke due to wear and tear, shearing the internal gears.

“We had to order replacement parts, disassemble the machine and reassemble it with the new heavy-duty parts to continue fabricating the frame,” said Greene. “After pulling some late nights, we got back on schedule.”

The team also needed a system to move the amount of air needed to achieve hydro excavation. They reached out to Vermeer Midwest, a Fort Wayne-based industrial equipment supplier, and the company donated a Roots positive displacement blower with a voided warranty.

The machine would have cost $5,000 brand-new.

“It was completely rusted, and the internal mechanisms were coated in rust and dirt,” said Greene. “We spent the needed time and were able to disassemble the blower, properly clean the equipment and its internal components, apply the needed coatings and reassemble the blower.”

Once maintenance was complete, the blower worked at about 90% of its original design specifications, meeting the needs for the Trine project.

‘Amazing’

In addition to air movement, the team had to work out systems for pressure washing in remote areas, and for storing the mud and water mixture resulting from hydro excavation.

They decided to use a battery-powered water pump to power pressure washing. They also, with the help of Industrial Contracting and Engineering in Angola, designed and fabricated a steel tank that could withstand the vacuum pressure needed.

“The tank can safely store 80 gallons of mud and water slurry, while withstanding 7 psi of vacuum pressure, allowing the team to excavate the soil and store it on board the vehicle,” said Greene. “With the integrated and sealed dumping hatch on the back of the tank, the soil can be transported to a different area and relocated/dumped when finished.”

Wentworth said the entire project has been “amazing.” 

“We have a project that will be used around campus for years to come,” he said. “I can’t thank the team enough.”