Hand Load or Auto Load?

[bernard]

Missouri did auto load, and I think that might be why everyone did so bad. Pretty much everyone's tower underperformed: Pembroke got 200 points less than what I expected, Wydown got 1/2 as much (800 points less, although that might have multiple causes) and Ladue got less than 800, when they got ~1100 at regionals. Most of the towers had scores of less than 1500, which is pretty bad even for a fairly uncompetitive state.

I don't think it was because of the fact it was auto load, but because all the sand fell to the front of the bucket, where it couldn't really be effectively stabilized. Would that affect the tower, or was it just a coincidence. Any thoughts?

Pouring sand in a bucket hanging freely from a chain acts as a point load, so sand can be loaded anywhere in the bucket. If the chain is rigid to the point that the bucket tilting causes torque in the loading block, then it will apply load unevenly.

[Alex-RCHS]

Would you guys recommend autoloading fast or slow? Or maybe slow at the beginning, then faster?

[Unome]

Or maybe slow at the beginning, then faster?

I would recommend exactly this (and likely most others would agree).

[Balsa Man]

Or maybe slow at the beginning, then faster?

I would recommend exactly this (and likely most others would agree).

Yup, correct. There's been some previous discussion of this, but we've gotten so many threads, so many pages to dig through to find info. Time under load becomes a real factor when you're getting near the limits of your tower. Once its settled in with a kg or two load on it, you want to get the rest on as quickly as possible.

[Random Human]

Would you guys recommend autoloading fast or slow? Or maybe slow at the beginning, then faster?

Check out the forum "Loading/Testing"
You will find some good stuff

[scioly2345]

Would you guys recommend autoloading fast or slow? Or maybe slow at the beginning, then faster?

I am from Div B, NY state. I'm gonna be honest, I'm shocked that most states have kids use a cup and sand, rather a lever. Especially at states. In 2017, my team ran towers at the blue dragon invitational in NY. we brought the thing (I think it's called a hopper) which u just pull a lever and the sand come out into the bucket. See, we didn't run towers at states, but personally, I think I perform better when using the hopper and not the sand and cup. At state competitions I think the competition should run a lot more smoothly, which could be more easily done with a hopper.