The GreenHorns Ri3D team integrated a slide drive onto the AM14U2 chassis. The only added components that we used were 2 pieces of 1" 8020 Aluminum Extrusion to span the chassis, hardware to connect the 8020 to the chassis, hardware to connect a toughbox mini to the 8020, etc. The 8020 could easily be replaced by a different material like angle aluminum or 1" aluminum square tubing.
A few recommendations: The geometry worked much better for us by having a 6" slide wheel and 4" drive wheels. Don't do a 6 wheel drop center (the way the AM14U2 chassis is setup). Only use 4 wheels at each corner (the rocking from the drop center creates a bunch of problems for the strafe wheel).
We ran the wheel via pulley and it was mounted below the gearbox.
Here is a
video of some of our members discussing the slide drive. I apologize for the quality, we were running on 4 hours of sleep over a 3 day period! This year we have dedicated "sideline reporters" so our video quality will be better.
Another thing to Consider: Having some sort of suspension on the strafe wheel is huge. We didn't do it because we only had 3 days, but given more time I highly recommend it. I know of some teams that have used a tennis ball as suspension, and others that mount the wheel on a pneumatic cylinder. Obviously this increases the complexity.
Sorry for the massive picture!!!
