[ttldomination]

So, choosing a wheel is a very vague and open field, and like anything in FRC, you need to weigh the pros and cons that apply for your robot and your team.

You've mentioned quite a few variables, and I'll attempt to touch on each of them below. I could go into more detail, but I want this post to be semi-digestable in one read.

For wheel tread, the major players are wedgetop, roughtop, colson, and VEX Tire.

Wedgetop and roughtop are really just conveyor belting material that has crazy friction with carpet. This makes this a good material with a fully carpeted field, but throw in a slick surface or two (bridge and key in 2012), and you'll find yourself sliding around a bit.

Colson and VEX Tire are your basic rubbery tire material. They have relatively less friction than roughtop/wedgetop, but this tends to give some transient benefits that some teams really dig. Therefore, some teams default to colsons/vex tire when they have a choice.

For wheel size, you really want to cater to the needs of your machine. Now, the popularity of smaller wheels stems from the fact that smaller wheels generally yield a lighter DT and lower ground clearance. However, at the end of the day, you really need to choose what works best for your robot.

For wheel brand, you need to thing about factors such as; price, flexibility, quality, strength, availability, ease of machining, etc. The major players in this field are really the AndyMark performance wheels, AndyMark plaction wheels, VEXPro VersaWheels, VEXPro traction wheels, and colson wheels. With all of this choice, you need to do a fair amount of research to see which one has the blend of the aforementioned qualities that best suits your team/robot.

Personally, VEX has won me (and my team) with their prices, their flexibility, and the amount of engineering they've put into their wheels. The VEXPro traction wheels have the flexibility to use roughtop, wedgetop, or tire, with 1/2" keyed, 1/2" hex, or 1/2" bearing bore, with a variety of configurations to whatever wheel modules you need. Furthermore, their VersaPattern makes it super easy to make sure sprockets, bearings, and the wheel are concentric. My team was extremely happy with the wheels last year, and we'll be using then again this year (barring any Lunacy-esque rules).

- Sunny G.