[cbale2000]

3-CIM Ball Shifters:

• Worked flawlessly, no issues at all during competition
• Shifts great, even when stopped or under load
• Changing out the shift spread was a bit of a pain since the small "C-clips" on the shifter shaft had to be removed before being able to take the old spread out (glad we did this between events and not during one).
• Face-mounting the gearbox with the 3rd stage required us to make some custom hollow hex spacers to allow us to attach the gearbox at the top in addition to bottom (we ended up just cutting some AM Churro to the right length but it would have been nice if something had been included).

VexPro Gears:

• We used Vexpro gears extensively this year in our drive system, and we never had to do maintenance on it all season.
• After 3 events and cleaning off a big of dirt, they still look brand new.

VersaPlanetary Gearboxes (with 1/2in Hex Output):

• Small, light, worked great.
• Adapting them to work with CIMs/MiniCIMs is a bit of a pain, I hope VEX comes up with a good solution because these gearboxes really do work great with those motors.
• I was disappointed when THIS happened during a motor replacement.

4" Traction Wheels (1.5" wide config):

• Great weight savings, especially compared to AM performance wheels we've used in the past.
• The adjustable width is a great feature
• It's difficult to find pop rivets that are long enough and have large enough heads to attach the tread.
• The 1.5" wide VexPro traction tread came a little over-sized and had to be cut down to be useable on the wheels.
• The VersaKey/Hub system worked great! It even allowed the wheels to drive when all the screws had come out of the gears powering them (we forgot to loctite).

BAG Motors:

• Pretty powerful for such a small package
• DO NOT let them stall, even for a moment, they WILL burn out (they do make an interesting "Burnt Marshmallow" smell though). We replaced about 3 of them on our shooters "Choo Choo" before swapping out to the more powerful RS775 motor.
• Cooling fans are a must for these if under heavy use, they can get "burn your hand" hot if you're not careful.

This was our first year using VexPro products and I will say overall I am very impressed by the quality of their products. Will definitely be coming back next year.