Thread: Can you mount the tires directly on the gear box?
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Unread 12-01-2007, 14:01
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AKA: Jason Brett
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Re: Can you mount the tires directly on the gear box?
The 12:1 banebots gearbox is quite capable of supporting a wheel, although it would be an extremely good idea to make (or buy... banebots has one for sale) a bearing block to support the outboard end of the gearbox shaft.

Supporting the wheel with bearings on both sides prevents you having a cantilevered load on the gearbox which can put a lot of torque (twisting force) on the bearings in the gearbox.

Something important to consider when looking at a direct mount of the wheel to the gearbox is whether it gives you a combination of speed and pushing power that matches your game strategy. With direct drive the larger the diameter of your wheel, the faster you will move (to a point), and the smaller the diameter of the wheel the more pushing force you will have (again, to a point). Most of the common FIRST wheels are in the 4" to 8" diameter range and should work reasonably well, although if you have the larger wheels you may wish to consider purchasing the conversion kit to take your gearbox to 16:1, giving you more torque (pushing) but at less speed.

Keep in mind when building and testing your robot that the playing surface is going to be carpet. This does not matter so much when it comes to going forwards and backwards, but when you are turning your wheels may need to skid to the side... there are several options discussed on several other threads that you may want to search for surrounding this topic.

Jason