pic: Offseason Drive Train Progress

[JesseK]

Thanks for the heads up about the sprockets Austin. They're 16T since their PD creates to a nice round circumference, and I was wondering if 22T is preferred over 16T. Nice round circumferences make nice round distances between axles, so the chains will not need tensioners. If we need to take out slack, we'll use half-links. We ran tensionerless after DC this year (1 regional, 1 champs, 1 offseason event) without a single issue. On the same note, are the AM 7075 Aluminum sprockets strong enough for the drive train? What's in the CAD is steel, with the full hub. They're a nice round 1/2" wide in total, which simplifies the spacers as well; yet if the AM's have strong enough teeth, then I see no reason to stick with the steel.

Cross members will be added when we do manipulators during the build season. We're also going to manufacture 1/8" plates that serve the dual purpose of pneumatic gauge/tank mounts as well as cross-support for the side rails. Until then, I expect to add a 60-lb anvil above the offseason frame that's moveable via 80/20 so our new drivers can see the effects of c.g.

We like this approach because it allows us to continue to move forward even if someone mucks up a hole by 1/8". While precautions will still be taken, we're still doing all of the drilling/cutting manually and errors will inevitibly happen. Using 2x1 wheel blocks allows a live axle while also allowing us to adjust the wheel block placement on the frame in order to account for these errors. This will be the third time we've done 6WD drop-center; in 2007, we had to redo the frame 3 times because of misaligned holes; in 2011 the wheel brackets were way out of alignment and we didn't figure that out until the 2nd regional. So this design is more tailored to allowing us some wiggle room.