Drive Trains & All that they encompass

[MichaelBick]

1) What wheels do you prefer

We are going colsons for this next year, because they are less work. I recomend this if you do not have a lot of resources(people, sponsors, tools). If you have the resources I really like AM performance wheels or custom aluminum wheels.

1a) What kind of challenge/obstacle prompts a certain wheel choice

Resources and game.

1b) What kind of wheel would you use if you had a low budget (aka can't afford $1,000+ on swerves)

Colsons with WCP hubs.

1c) How do you personally choose what size wheel you prefer?

Game dependent, but the smaller the better.

2) What do you make your drive train out of? (Base train, custom, 80/20, etc)

Custom

3) What gearboxes do you use for your motors, and why?

We will either be going custom shifting gearboxes or AM supershifters for this next year.

3a) Do you use shifters? Why?

Yes. They allow us to play defense(good for alliance picking), get past offense, gear faster, and are useful for getting over obstacles.

4) What kind of wheel setup do you choose? (4 wheels, 6 w/ 2 dropped, etc etc)

6 with 2 dropped in general. Depending on the game we could go 8wd with center 4 dropped.

5) How much time do you normally spend building your drivetrain?

It took us a long time last year because we went the stupid route and did not prototype a WCD(the drive we went with last year) in the offseason. If you do it right it should take your the first 2-3 weeks if you are going custom, 1 week if you are using the KOP.

6) Do you prefer to use belt or chain? Why?

Chain because we have worked with it before, it is forgiving, and it is reliable.

6a) What would prompt using one over another?

You should use chain unless you have lot's of resources and/or have prototyped it over the offseason.

7) Generally, long robot, wide robot, or it depends on the game?

Depends on the game, but we default to long because it is easier to weave between robots.