Quote:
Originally Posted by llamadon
Nice work!
We will be test driving our WCP gearboxes for the first time tomorrow, seeing your video makes me even more excited 
Questions: Did you guys shorten the output shaft on the gearboxes?
What is the durometer of the Colson wheels you attached? Are they different from the grey kind? |
I have been following your WCD efforts, your version looks fantastic, I really like your 1/16 in polycarbonate solution to covering the gearboxes, we may have to borrow that idea, as our covering is just tape currently. If I may make a recommendation, I would invest in snap rings to retain your wheels as opposed to lock collars, which are a good short term solution, but will come loose and fall off in the long run. Plus snap rings are cheap.
We did shorten our output shafts to fit a VexPro live axle colson hub exactly. The drive base went through a thorough CAD process, and we used those measurements to determine the amount to remove. We used a metal specific chop saw, and a bit of sanding to size ours, which worked beautifully. It was done while the gearbox was disassembled, so you may have some issues doing it now, however, your spacer fix should work just fine for testing.
The wheels used are actually the same durometer as a classic grey Colson, at 65A, + or - 5A. We went with them for a few reasons.
1. Initial thoughts on the matter were that a wider wheel would increase traction, by increasing the surface area of the contact patch. After more research, and the recent CD thread about Traction vs Friction and this very topic, It is no longer so cut and dry, and rather depends on your interpretation of the classical physics models of friction and how they transfer to the real world. It looks like it will end up increasing Traction, due to the increased amount of things to grab into the carpet and push against it, most applicable in a Nitrile type of wheel, and less so in a colson. We do intend to capitalize on the effect by cutting a tread pattern into the wheels, as we have had great success in the past with that technique.
2. We wanted to try as many new things as possible, and 2 inch wide wheels were an easy addition to that list.
3. Honestly, Black looked pretty cool