[wasayanwer97]

Originally Posted by Chowmaster4695

Just wondering, was there a reason your team chose to use plates and standoffs, as opposed to a more traditional approach using tubing? It seems like using plates and standoffs is more difficult to manufacture, potentially heavier, and significantly weaker. Just my .02$. Chow out.

I've been getting asked that all season.

As weird as it sounds, our machining resources for plate are far easier and more accessible than anything we could do for tubing. For us, this was far easier to manufacture and turned out lighter than tube would have been.

As for the last point, you're right. It is significantly weaker on the axis the drive train would take hits on. That's why when the front portion broke, the replacement was 2x1 tubing.

We're still extremely happy with the drive train, a game with defense as high as this one's was just definitely not the year to run it.