Chain Tensioner
 

We were debating whether a floating tensioner (leaning to toward one manufactured by McMaster-Carr Model #5973K2) would work on a chain with a slight angle...we called the customer service and they didnt know so we wondered if anyone ever used on a chain path not parallel to the ground...if so how efective

Love, Peace, and Robot Grease
Team 2582 PantherBots

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

Buy the floating tensioner from Andymark. It is much cheaper and will probably work better.

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

how well do they work on an angled chain path?

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

I've seen those work on two sprockets of very different size when they chain is intentionally looser, so that tensioner pulls the chain very close together, a distance apart that is less than the pitch diameter of the sprocket I imagine.

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

i think they should work the same because the tensioner angles the chain anyway besides if its taught the chain will have the same tension everywhere

just like a pulley

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

I would use something similiar to what we used last year. It worked very well and cost about $6-$10 per tensioner. It was a skateboard wheel with a bolt going through it pulled back by two stiff springs. Just fingue out a way to mount it at the angle you want. (trust me. I do this for racing motor cycles quite a bit)

Srpings are from Ace
Long bolts we had
Got a $10 kiddie skateboard from Walmart and too the wheels off.

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

You can cut/file/turn a slight groove in the skateboard wheel to provided a little lateral support if things get sloppy.

Chains work on a slight angle - watch a motocross race where they whip around a tight turn. :D

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

We have used these for several years and they work AWESOME!!!!

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

These what? Skateboard wheel tensioners or AndyMark tensioners or the McMaster-Carr part? Do be terse.

And are they awesome, or do they work awesomely?

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

We're using this tensioner from AndyMark:

http://www.andymark.biz/am-0286.html

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

Wonderful! Things don't have to be really high-tech to work well, eh? The point of a conventional chain tensioner is not really to "tension" a chain, so much as to prevent slack from derailing it. A rigid tensioner on a bi-directional drive system does help eliminate lash...

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

who needs chain tensioners?
we are leavin them out again this year, less weight.
mike d

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

Amen.

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

They will work on a slight angle, but I would try to keep them as strait as possible. It works better. These work very well.

Re: Chain Tensioner
 

wow thats cutting it close...the drive train/ tension was our biggest problem last year and hence our biggest concern this year