[Kevin Sevcik]

This would be our first experience with treads, as well. Pretty much the exact smae problem you describe, really. We ended up trying to live with never turning during most of the season.

If you're really, really hurting for a quick fix that miiiiiight work, I'll tell you what I recall us doing with our treads. I don't remember the specifics, as I didn't see them constructed, but here goes:

We made our own bootleg self centering belts. I'm sure this was a very painstaking process. All I remember is that we eventuallyran on our old belts, except with a ridge on the back. this might not be an option for you, though. we were running on the belts inside out, ie. the teeth were running on the ground, and the smooth side was running on our idler pulleys.

I think some of the engineers took a spare belt and cut it into a thin strip. Then they laid it on inside of our track belt, smooth side to smooth side, and somehow attached the two together. I'm thinking something like the rivets that hold jeans together, between every tooth, or every other tooth. Maybe a pop rivet and a small washer on the other side? Then, of course, we machined matching grooves in the pulleys.

*shakes head* Now that I think about it, that sounds incredibly crazy and darn near impossible. Maybe we just did the sane thing and bought some new belts in the off-season. My memory is a little fuzzy.

PS. I'm starting to loathe last minute drivetrain testing. We just recently tested our bot on carpet, and the transmission is eating gears up. I'm thinking it's not dealing well with shock loads caused by breakers tripping and then cycling on and turning on the motors at full blast. So we're looking at custom gear sources with very fast turnaround, and some programming changes and driver training to make things nicer on the trannies.