[BHS_STopping]

On a smaller wheel, the tread will wear down faster than a larger wheel. If we compare a 4" and 8" wheel, we can see that if both wheels travel the same distance, a point on the 4" wheel experiences twice as much "wear" as a patch of tread on the 8" wheel. In the same vein, a wider wheel experiences less wear since the load is spread out more over the tread.

From team experience, we used 4" wheels in 08 to some success, but we did have to change the tread more often than I remember using 6" or 8" wheels. This might also be because 08 called for lots of movement around a track as well. The small wheels were great for lowering the CG of our robot, and that's one tangible benefit you'll see from using smaller wheels. Small wheels also weigh less (obviously) than others and are (I believe) less expensive.

Personally, I like the 6" IFI wheels that we used in 07. They were pretty easy to deal with and gave us pretty good results.