Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

We used rivet washers under the head of the rivet and also against the plastic rim on the backside of the rivet to spread the load and keep the rivet head from pulling through the tread or the expanded side from pulling through the plastic rim. Two rivets at each end of the tread, NOT on the centerline.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

I highly recommend at least 3 rivets. One on each end of the belting and add one on the opposite side of the wheel.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Our coach is thinking about riveting it in many different places. Two on each end of the tread, and then a zig-zag pattern to the other end. I am unfamiliar with the practice of riveting... can I assume we need to drill holes the same size of the rivet... and gun it in?

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Correct, (and I hope 1501 will also back this up :p) when you rivet, you need to drill the hole out the same size as the rivet. Not too small or too large, if it's too small you will not be able to get the rivet in. If the hole is too large, the rivet will not be 100% efficient as the rivet could wobble in the hole. Now, with adding the rivets in a zig-zag pattern, that might be a little over kill. But it never hurts to add security for such an important component.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Since the wheels are molded, I wonder how difficult it would be to have ridges formed on the inside of the lip? (or if it would even solve the problem... adding rivets seems like an easy enough solution) Also out of curiosity, what size wheels did people who didn't rivet experience slip with?

359 had a different kind of failure with one of their 8" plaction wheels, as pictured below.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

That happened to team 171 during one of the final matches at the WI regional. I was on the pit crew so as soon as I saw the rubber flapping off the wheel I grabbed the drill, 1/8" bit, and the rivets, did all four wheels just to be safe in about 2 minutes!

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Holy Torque! What on earth did you do to that wheel?

And thank you a bunch Mr. Cormier!

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

In SD, we never broke a single one.
In AZ, as shown in pic above, we broke 5 plaction wheels similar to the one shown.
We just ordered 8 more for our next 2 tournaments.:)

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

It could be what's underneath the field carpet that disrupts the wheels. I know at FLR, the staff at RIT puts down a layer of masonite for everything except for the field. It is the normal rubber-type field house floor.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

As a warning to ALL the teams using plaction wheels: absolutely DO not trust sprockets on those wheels to anything less than 6 through-bolts. Do NOT thread those fasteners into the plastic - use the locknuts. Finally, and perhaps most important, do NOT use the fasteners you get from Home Depot to hold those sprockets on. Those are low grade (usually 2) garbage and will stretch under the strain.

We learned about the bolts this year. Last year we used 3 home depot grade in each wheel with no issue. This year, we were short on fasteners on the practice bot so we tried 3 per and quickly sheared them. We moved up the 6 per wheel, but those kept loosening up. On our comp bot, the 6 bolts were JUST starting to break at the end of West Michigan - we had to call a time out to replace some and tension all the rest. (We have 8 wheel drive traction and have spent some time pushing :D ).

It's worth the money to pick up some grade 8's and do it right the first time.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Probably right about the flooring, however, similar to both tournaments we did, we hardly traveled over the bump.
Biggest discrepancy we saw was the soft layer that they put over the bump and partially onto the floor. It was so thick in AZ that our front two wheels were a 1/2" off the floor in the starting position. This also caused problems for teams with ball magnets (uneven flooring as they cross it with while trying to herd/possess a ball).
IMO, a perfect alliance never goes over the bump even once! **unless to hang**

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

We have never had any problems with the 6' versions breaking (yet).

Just treads coming off all the time;
At the rukus before ship they all (6 treads!) came off.

At the Floirda Regional the center-wheel-treads came off 3 times, two of our Sf' matches were played mising the tread on our right-center wheel (luckily we had 9 other wheels in contact with the carpet)

Each time they would come off, I would re-riviet them back on; 2 in each end, then one in between each spoke. I finally got tired of this after doing each of our 6 plaction wheels twice. So I got some 7-minute epoxy and glued them on....no more treads came off, except for the right center during the Sf'......

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Our team had similar issues. Unfortunately, we didn't get to test the wheels until the Midwest regional, so when the treads came off, we got penalties. :(

Our temporary solution for the day was to ziptie through the holes we drilled in the tread. Seeing that this wouldn't hold for very long, we looked around for a better way to keep the tread on. We hit upon the bolts that held in our 5" traction wheels which only were used when we went over the bump.

The next day, we came in with several round-head bolts and nylocks to fit them; we never had another problem with those treads.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

You just drilled holes and bolted them on? What a simple way to look at it! I wounder though how long those nylocks would last on those wheels... you know the nylock wears down after awhile... and a wheel isnt exactly the best place to put a part like that if you want it to last.

Re: AndyMark Plaction Wheels
 

Back when I was on 1126 SparX in 2005, we used custom lexan wheels. What we did to put the tread on was double sided tape, taped a hole through the tread into the wheel, and used 10-24 pan head screws.