pic: West coast drive design

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Hawiian Cadder

1/16 tubing is maybe a little thin, depending on the challenge and how heavy the robot is. The only teams i have seen using 1/16 tube also had 8 wheels, i don't know if the fact that 8 wheel drives tend to rock less violently had anything to do with it.


I am assuming that those are 4 inch wheels? If so how many stages are in your gearbox and what are the speeds.

looks pretty good. how much does it weigh?

1/8 wall tubing isn't that much stronger than 1/16, and at a massive weight penalty.

We predominately use 1/16" wall, and haven't suffered any frame failures the past few seasons on any of our robots (including practice and prototypes), and a lot get really beat up.

I know you're just trying to help, but it can mislead new people when you make such bold blanket statements with such confidence.

Bending is the primary failure mode for frames in FRC, and the bending is directly related to the area moment of inertia. If you do some research on on how this is calculated, you'll see the shape and cross section of the tubing is what grants strength, not the thickness.