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Originally Posted by Mecanum Wheel
Hey Doug! Just for future reference, it's spelled mecanum. It's an easy mistake to make. How did the custom bearing holes work out? Did you have to switch to chain due to the difference center to center?
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My apologies, I did know the right spelling and I'll carefully blame my computer for "auto-correcting" to the wrong way.
Either way, we like them and have used them for the last 7 or 8 years, and don't subscribe to the pushing match theory, as our Mecanum drive is more maneuverable - we don't get in to many pushing matches.
The custom bearing holes in the chassis worked fine for us. We moved the nano's to the corner spots of the chassis. Two of the nano's were mounted in stock hole locations, and the other shortened end of the side railes we had to drill the nano's hole pattern there. We recessed for the bearings, and removed the two screws so that center bearing was just pressed up against the side rail. We did not use any chains or belts, all direct drive.
Although I would say we were primarily cantilevered, we did also cut bearing holes in the outer rails of the chassis and used long drive shafts and had some extra support on the outside of the Mecanum as well.
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Originally Posted by evand4567
...and the lack of a tapped encoder mount, which, because of the poor machining, we were unable to easily remove and tap to add the encoder. It was a mess and very difficult to assemble, although it does, in theory, work. I would not recommend doing it. I'd recommend finding some other gearboxes or make your own.
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Agree that having to tap the gearboxes is a weakness of the gearbox, but minor in my opinion. We VHB taped the encoders on last year (and didn't use them anyway) - which I would not recommend. If we decide to use encoders this year we will tap the boxes. I did take one apart last year, and it was simple and readily re-assembled. And, we duct taped the open sides to prevent debris from entering.
We had a rock-solid drive train all year with the (slightly modified) AM14U, Toughbox Nano's, and Mecanum wheels, had it up and running in a few days, and absolutely no flaws through the entire season. I would recommend it without hesitation. Although I'm sure some teams could easily have custom gearboxes, for teams with limited resources (as the original poster implied), I'm guessing that is a stretch and I base my recommendation on that.