[Justin Ridley]

Treads can be a sticky subject and they're not easily tackled, especially by rookies, but here are a few suggestion. Doubled sided timing belt is a very powerful way to build a quick set of treads. Pre made gears and cogs for these types of belts are readily available. I'd personally suggest looking at a company called Breco-Flex. They make a profiled belt which will more or less guarantee that they won't track themselves off. This will most likely be your main problem. When you turn, especially at high speeds the belts will create a tremendous side load on themselves. This can easily walk them off your drive gear or walk them over your side belt guards. This will take some time to perfect.
Secondly......and by far the most common made mistake in my opinion is to try and have the belt make contact along it's entire surface. Trying to skid stear a belt along a 36" length will most definately cause failure. Your best bet is to put an idler pully somewhere near the balance point of your drivetrain that is slighter lower than the others. If effect your machine will end up rocking onto one side of the treads while moving, and when turning will balance on the single idler creating much less friction and making turning easier.
Take a look at the gallery on this forum for pictures of bots with treads.......Truck Town Terror's robot from 1999 is a great example of how to do the job well, as is team #1's machine from that same year. Good luck.

team 221
MI Roboworks