[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

This invoked a trip down memory lane regarding the "old school" days of FRC shifting gearboxes. Aside of the DeWalt planetaries, only a handful of teams had shifting spur gearboxes in their drivetrains. The 116 crash shifter, the 33 4-speed crash shifter, the 222 ball shifter, the 45 dog shifter, the 716 dog shifter, etc. All of that barely more than a decade old. Newer FRC participants don't really how much of a game changer having spur gearboxes in the kit of parts was, let alone having COTS shifting options.

The funny thing is that most/all of the older AM designs are mass-produced versions of 45's gearboxes... I hear before AM while there were KOP gearboxes they generally were junk in comparison. Hence why for many teams it was worth the little bit of machining to modify a dewalt or a lot of machining to DIY gearboxes.

Now days, it's more of an art than a necessity... although the summer/fall CAD threads show that people still think about it even if they don't always execute.