Quote:
Originally Posted by Andy Baker
We've been thinking about this too. Finding a commercially-available 4" pneumatic tire might be the big hurdle to cross. 8" tires (200x50mm) are easily available, but 4" are non-existent.
What about the pneumatic tire do you guys like?
Obviously, there is the "baked in" compliance, as Dr. Joe mentioned. The other feature is a high coefficient of friction.
Do you need this compliance to be variable, as with pneumatic tires (you just change the air pressure, of course)? Or, would you guys accept a compliant wheel that would not have variable compliance?
Andy
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To be honest, I'm unsure what we need in the specifics you're asking. We love the freedom 4" wheels provide in gearing, and how they are inherently much lighter than larger wheels. We also will never, ever, ever consider running low traction wheels.
The reason we want pneumatics is in case it's 2010 all over again, our robot (and 254's) both crashed down HARD when passing the bump, and we both loosely talked about implementing suspensions but never did. Both robots clearly survived all season. The second I saw 1114's robot I was in love with their use of them as a simple suspension. I'm not a fan of the 6" changing the gearing so much, nor the heavier weight, but the 6" wheels they used would be our current go to option in the future.
The huge issue is weight, it's hard to stomach 1-2 lbs per wheel when you're used to wheels that are .22 lbs each.
In summary, we've love 4" ones. That makes them feasible for swerve as well.....