Quote:
Originally Posted by sdcantrell56
I just saw that you are from Duluth High School. I am a mentor at North Gwinnett. It's good to see you on here.
As has already been said, "west coast" has taken on many meanings, but it seems to have become synonymous with wheels cantilevered outside of the frame. Teams have designed many different variations of it with sliding tensioners, live and dead axles, directly driven center wheels, and many other variations.
The main performance benefits are slightly increased stability due to a larger track width, and much quicker wheel/tread changes.
The downside is that the wheels are unprotected, and many versions such as the awesome 254/968 iteration are very machining intensive.
If you guys need any help with drivetrains just send me a pm or something and I'd be glad to share with you the designs I've been working on and our previous drivetrain.
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I would say that being machining intensive is not a downside of a West Coast Drive. Sure, a super efficient and lightweight design can be made with all custom parts, but you can also do a decent west coast without. Last year on 973, we just machined the siderails, two bearing blocks per side (just a block the size of the inner portion of the extrusion), the wheel shafts and the wheels. With COTs gearboxes and wheels, minimal machining is required. If your team can't get enough machining resources to get that made, your team is just not trying at all.