Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

Hi CD,

At our first regional this year, we discovered that every few matches our plaction tread on 4" wheels was seperating from it's backing or worse tearing out in chunks, instead of wearing evenly.

Anyone know of a more durable replacement? Our 6 Cim drive appears to be a little too much for it.

Re: Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

What kind of tread are you using exactly? Natural (gum) rubber seems to chunk more often than a synthetic replacement - so if you're currently using gum rubber, I'd suggest upgrading to blue nitrile or possibly black SBR: http://www.mcmaster.com/#incline-conveyor-belts/=r17kv1

Re: Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

Not sure if your using the same wheels, but I saw a couple 4" plaction tread wheels have their tread come completely off at Kettering.

Re: Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

Saw a lot of the reddish plaction tread in small chunks on the field at HH week one. Seemed liked older stuff though. Didn't see any other kinds of tread coming apart.

Re: Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

We had the same trouble last year with rubber conveyor belt treads on 4" AM performance wheels driven by 3 CIMs per side. That tread de-laminated frequently when we played defense -- i.e., when we pushed robots.

This year we have switched to blue nitrile as recommended above. No issues during our Week 1 event. However, this year we have spent more time scoring, so less time playing defense, so far. :)

See our wheels in this picture.

Re: Plaction tread tears off in chunks
 

If you'd like something that has similar benefits to tread without having to deal with attaching the tread, we've really liked the Colsons that we are using this year. The main downside is that they require an interference fit hub (Meaning that you have to put the hub and the wheel into a vice and smash the hub in to a wheel)