[Thad House]

Originally Posted by MrRiedemanJACC

For those of you with WCD I have several questions:
1) How do you locate the wheel in the axial direction? Both inwards and outwards?
2) If you are using the 3 CIM ball Shifter,
a) Do you use the 3rd stage from Vex?
b) Do you only use the support from the bearings in the gearbox or do you add additional support?
3) Is there a set wheel width that you use? (narrower to be able to move the gearbox outward further? ie 1" traction vs a 2" traction?)
4) How much drop do you use for the center wheel?

Thanks! I'm sure as we look into it, I'll have more detailed questions!!

1. If you custom machine wheels, you usually keep a nub on the wheel to push up against the bearing. If you don't machine your own wheels, you can just use spacers of some type. This year we 3D printed our own. As for the outside, most teams use either e-clips, snap rings or a bolt and washer with the axle threaded on the end.
2. We used the WCP gearboxes, so I don't have much of an answer here, other then you usually would need the 3rd stage to actually have enough reduction for a functioning robot.
3. The wider of a wheel you go, the more grip you can get from that wheel. Since we don't machine our own wheels, we use whatever we can get. This year, that was VersaWheels. The general rule is to have the wheels as far to the edge of the perimeter that is allowed.
4. This year we used 0.1". The old standard used to be 1/8", but with the smaller wheelbases that we are currently seeing, that number has to drop, and we have found 0.1" to work the best.