[Matt Reiland]

Originally Posted by Jim Giacchi

When you guys ripped your tread, how tight were the belts?

We used an alligator clip in 2001 which in my opinion is significantly weaker then a solid belt and those did not break, Im really at a loss for why your belts would snap like that?

Our tracks were actually quite tight, as requested by Brecoflex to make them ride in the pulleys correctly. When we first switched to the solid core tracks they didn't ride in the pulleys well, this matched up to what Mike Norton on 61 also saw and Brecoflex told us to tension a bit more. We ended up machining the center groove to be slightly wider and they ran fine. As for why they broke, who knows but last year our robot was output serious power with the shifter and in low it could spin the tracks against an immovable object.

On a side note, it is hard to tell but our center idler wheels are down a fraction of an inch to help turn.