[DougHogg]

Originally posted by Matt Leese
Be careful using just tie wraps to hold the gear shifter in place. In the past (meaning with a different motor and gear box), tie wraps have broken off the shifter causing the gear box to shift out of gear. When the gear box is out of gear, there is no power to the drive wheels. This has a tendency to happen at the worst possible times.

Matt

Thanks for the forewarning, Matt.

Last year we had a ball roller (for picking up soccer balls) covered with conveyor belt material that was stitched together with tie wraps. Normal tie wraps sometimes broke due to the high rpm's of the baller roller and impact of the tie wraps with the soccer balls. However, we found some "premium" tie wraps at Home Depot that had metal locking teeth instead of the usual plastic ones. We never had one of those give way, so teams using tie wraps on their drill motors might want to look for some "premium" tie wraps. (Look inside the hole that the end of the tie wrap is being pulled through, and you will see a little piece of metal that is preventing the end from coming back out.)