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My advice for building carts:
1: If your going to power it, make sure that the gear ratios are very low, you need a lot of torque to move something that heavy and even more to turn it.
2: Make sure it's not to wide! Most 'bots just squeeze through doors as it is, if your cart is more then a few inches wider your going to have problems. Same applys for height, the 'bot might be as tall as 5 feet, consider that and the hight of door ways.
3. Be able to disasemble it. This is a bigger deal then you might think. The cart is useless if it's stuck at home because no one had a truck to throw it in. Figure on getting it in station wagon.
4: this runs against #2, but you need some ground clearence. Getting over extension cords and up ramps is a real hassle otherwise, and may not be possible period. If your cart can't get you from your pit and back quickly, whats the point?
5. Keep twirling lights and blasting sound systems to a minium please! The pits are confusing already, all that extra distraction is pointless and only gives people headaches.
6. Tools! have some place on the cart to put commenly used tools, batterys, zipties etc. for quick on deck fixes. This will save you a lot of time and hair.
7. Have some way to secure your 'bot! even if it's just some kind of chuck for the wheels... I've seen a lot of 'bots (ours included) roll right off thier cart when going over a small ramp. Easy to do.
8. Be sure you have good access to the whole 'bot. Doesn't have to be 360 degree, but you should be able to reach the drive train, electronics etc. easily and quickly. If you want, put some kind of lift or jack on the cart to lift the 'bot up a few feet. This is easier then it sounds and will be very usefull.
9. If its powered, have some plan for when power dies. It happens. Things like being able to quickly lift the drive wheels up or disconnect the motors will let you push it even with out power.
10. If you want to keep your 'bot control board on the cart, make sure it is securely latched on. We nocked ours off more the once before getting big beefy latchs. Luckily, we didn't kill anything that we couldn't fix.
Above all, make the thing functional. Focus on getting it to the point were you can quickly load it, make tight turns and run over things with confidence. After that making it pretty is always cool. But no rotating lights. Just no.
-Andy A.
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