Andy Mark Traction Wheels?

[Deepthought2491]

Alright, our team is hoping for a robot with as much grip as possible. As a rookie team, we don't have any huge mechanical add-ons to our robot, so our goal is to make the best, most useful basic chassis we can. We're hoping to use really grippy wheels, and we found the Andy Mark traction Wheels, which look good, but I have a couple questions.
1) Has anybody used these? If so, read on.
2) Will they fit with the sprockets that come in the kit of parts, or would we have to buy new sprockets and/or hubs?
3) Are they any good in competition? Are there any noticable issues with using them?
4) Are they worth the $50 per wheel, or is the amount of performance gained (if any) not worth the money?

Thank you very much in advance,
Team Deep Thought

[Jonathan Norris]

traction wheels are a great upgrade from the normal kit wheels. My team has been using traction wheels since we had to screw tread on to old kit skyway wheels. Our favorit traction wheels are defiently the IFI traction wheels, we have not used the AM ones before because i believe they are a bit heavier then the the sheet metal styled IFI wheels. All of these wheels are designed to work with the same sprocket hole patterns.

[Billfred]

Neither my past nor present teams have used the AM Traction Wheels, but I can provide a bit of insight.

Pretty much every wheel sold with the intention of going on an FRC robot will have the same 1.875" bolt circle you see in the kit wheels. I believe that between AndyMark and IFI, the only oddball is the AndyMark Trick Wheel (which you probably should be skipping over if you're looking for omniwheels anyway, as AndyMark has since released other models with many improvements).

Last season, the Capitals took a different route and chose to skin the kit wheels and add on the tread that is used on the AM Traction (and AM Performance, and IFI) wheels. We took the wheels to the bandsaw and cut away the gray tread; you can see the result here. From there, we riveted on incline conveyor belting (search mcmaster.com) cut to fit the wheels. Finished diameter was about 5.5", and for far less than buying other wheels. While I don't generally enjoy taking business from AndyMark--they're good people who make good product--the cost savings are hard for us to pass, especially with the improvements to the 2008 kit wheels. (For reference, the 2007 wheels held up fine for us; after Palmetto, BE, and a few demos, we're just now almost to the point of needing to replace some tread.)

[Otaku]

Our team hasn't used AM Tractions.

We did use IFI Tractions. They were rubbish.

So we solved this problem with a CNC mill, some aluminium and blue nitrile roughtop. I think one team pushed us last year.

[MrForbes]

IFI tractions were rubbish in 2006, but they redesigned them for 2007 and the new design is great....no more screws falling out.

And not all teams have access to CNC equipment.

Spending $50 each for traction wheels may be a good idea if you have the $50 per wheel available to spend....or maybe not such a good idea if you're really pressed for money, and need to use it for other things. We can't make that decision for you.

[JesseK]

Neat idea to use the kit wheels + the nitrile tread!

[ZakuAce]

We used IFI traction wheels last year and they worked fine. They were just hard to put together.

[Kyle Love]

With access to a mill, place the wheel in the lathe, lathe down the rubber tread to the thickness of the tread. Then you can rivet on the tread to the remaining kit wheel.

Go with the IFI traction wheels. We used 6 of them last year and had more traction and power than in any previous year. It was a bit too much traction though; we ended up flipping over the tread on the two front wheels so it was able to turn.

[Deepthought2491]

thank you all of you guys!
we did some research, and found that the IFI traction wheels were our best bet, so we ordered two of them (only for drive wheels). We have the funds to spend on wheels, as our goal is to get the best possible rolling frame we can, and do all the technical do-dads afterwards, if they're even needed.

Again, thank you guys very much!

[JesseK]

Word of advice: Take your time and make sure you have the EXACT size for tools to screw stuff in. Some of our screws started stripping too easily due to a bad assembly tool & process. We've used IFI tractions for 2 years + this year -- they work great.