Sheet Metal vs KitBot

[DinerKid]

Originally Posted by Jared341

Two things that you can do to help alleviate (but never entirely eliminate) stretch:

1. Use #35 chain. Stretches much, much more slowly than #25.

2. Use high quality chain. You get what you pay for - we have found that different manufacturers' chain tends to stretch at very different rates.

Thanks for the advice. We used #25 this year mainly because we figured we could make our lengths more precise because each link is smaller, we also used half links which we had back luck with and ended up scrapping. I will look into where we buy our chain from. Do you have any recommendations as far as good chain suppliers?

To add a bit to this topic we have always (in my years on the team) used the kit-bot chassis with some modifications (some minor some major). We have done 6 wheel rocker, mecanum and 8 wheel rocker and even Ackerman drive with the kit-bot chassis. We do not have access to a sheet metal shop but we have found that the kit-bot frame is a great foundation and with some more support it is incredibly sturdy.

~DK