[cire]

2003... Never use #25 chain for your drivetrain. It may seem like you will never hit that several hundred lb limit, but when you throw in missalignment and shock loading, well lets just say we went through a lot of chain that year.

2004 - Never use 4wd in the 4 corners with high friction wheels... as somone else mentioned it is very bouncy when you try to turn - you DO drive straight very well though! We ended up wraping zip ties arround one set of tires which sort of helped..

2005 - Ropes don't belong on robots. We had at least 4 ropes on our robot holding things in place, although we managed to get it down to just the winch by competition, which worked pretty good.

2006 - Trust your numbers calculations (after you have checked them 5 times).. We made a ball shooter, calculated the theoretical speeds using 6" wheels, which fit well within our limits. Somone decided it would be better with 8" wheels - Our shooter ended up shooting too fast and we couldn't use it at the competition.. Another lesson is to make your design adjustable - There was literaly no way to take apart the shooter without taking apart half the robot.