Hey! I saw this and figured I would share what my team did this year. Previously, we had always built a slightly modified kitbot or a simple mecanum chassis (all out of U channel) but this year, as a senior and the first person on my team to ever really learn CAD, we decided to build a custom chassis.
One of the major factors in deciding to do it was incorporating 3 Cim Ball Shifters along with traction wheels for a fast, agile, and strong drivetrain as we wanted to stand out from the other teams in that regard. Seeing the obvious strengths of the AM14U, I decided to base the chassis on it by using the same dead axles, cross braces, churro tubes and parallel plate set-up and just reCAD and manufacture the outer sets of plates. I designed it as an 8WD system using Vex wheels and pulleys with dead axles and set the hole alignment perfectly using WCP center to center calculator and getting the plates made by on a water jet by one of our sponsors.
We had a ton of success with the drivetrain this year and it was our first time using the shifters and building our own chassis so I would recommend it to other teams out there. We did not lose a pushing match the entire weekend at Smoky Mountain and were faster than most of the robots there with both of our gears. It also required absolutely no maintenance the entire weekend! I designed it to be used in the future as well and if anyone wants the CAD or some help- I would move more than welcome to provide it/help!!!
Most if not all of the work can be done with a mill and bandsaw using careful measuring and drilling but much easier if a sponsor makes the plates. And most of the bending if metal (just two bends in the whole drivetrain) are not necessary.
Here is a link to our video and some/a picture of our robot!! Hope this helped!!
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...highlight=1466