[Pat Roche]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schuetze

Question about "Home Depot Lumber cart Drive-train"
Is the lowering of the center wheels as significant as is with the lumber carts? They have a definate see-saw effect and are truely always driving on just four wheels. Center set plus either set on the corners.

Or is it just enough to lower the contact patch on the corner wheels so that the frictional forces are reduced such that it can turn and not dance around corners?

A post early on indicated approximately 5 thousandths of an inch lower. Is that consistant with other six wheel 'bots? How much did you lower the center wheels?

Thanks a bunch for the posts and pics

APS

This is determinable (spelling?) based on the robot and your best judgement. Our robot used tracks as previously mentioned and we increased the size of them 4 one hundreths. It really depend on the situation (length and wheel size)

I also see a debate about manueverability of two wheel and six wheel drive. From my point of view tracks are a simple solution...as long as they are used in moderation. We found you can have too much of a good thing. We have found that by having a caster with a track extending 1/2 to 3/4 of our base we have extremely good handling and manuverability and lots of power. This is the first year we've gotten away from the caster and managed fine.

Just some thoughts.


-Pat