[kevincrispie]

These wheels are based in part on the design 971 used last year, so our team has a fair amount of experience dealing with wheel like these.

Originally, when we cut the tread, there were large bumps where we stuck the tread in the slot. The result was a noisy robot more than weird driving, but it would really depend on your drivetrain. Another factor is that we had our wheels be less than 4 inches, so there might be less of an issue with the 4 inch ones.

Make sure you shove the tread in as far as it can go. Cutting small slits in the tread rubber where the tab ends and the tread begins can also help make the bump less of an issue. A 1 cm long cut on a band saw should do the trick. We got our tread making down last year so that there was little, if any difference between the slotted wheels and normal wheels.

Overall, I would highly recommend this method. Tread changing for us has never been easier.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

~Kevin