[BumblingBuilder]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

I am excited to see the GT2 pulleys and tube axle components - they'll open up many new possibilities, thank you!

I have heard that GT2 belts are built stronger than HTD belts (especially in Gates Carbon), but can you confirm? Are 9mm wide GT2 belts capable of carrying drivetrain loads, when we've only been able to use 15mm HTD belts safely before? If so, could this be a path for West Coast chasses with fixed axles / no tensioners?

We had 9mm GT2 (possibly GT3. I don't remember) belts on our 2016 robot. They worked, but they were not ideal. The belts would skip on hard accelerations and when we crossed defenses. And during the season, we had a few belts snap. However, there was only one instance I would think it could have been the belt's fault. The other instances had their own, independent problems. And I would also blame the toughness of 2016's field. In a more traditional game field format I would be inclined to think that one instance would not have happened.

During the offseason we swapped the belts out for 1" GT3 belts. At the one offseason competition those belts got used, we had no skipping and no snapping.

So if a 2016-like game presents itself, I would not recommend 9mm GT2 belts. But in other situations I wouldn't think such problems would be so prominent.
And to avoid the skipping, I would think some tensioning system would suffice. We did not implement a tensioning system whatsoever with the belts.