pic: Team 256 presents our offseason robot: Stockade

[T^2]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

the issue with the hanger is actually the hooks being off center. If the hooks had a tweak in them so that when hanging the bar is inline with the cylinder, that'd be much better.

EDIT: Like this

[snip]

The significance is now the cylinder is loaded purely in tension (aside from the force of you ramming into the pyramid) when you hang. Otherwise you'd have a constant bending moment trying to bend your cylinder shaft.

It also looks like you're using two 1-1/16" bore cylinders. Unless you're storing energy in springs when they raise (or you're very light) this isn't enough force. Even then it's marginal.

This isn't the only time the cylinders are loaded, though. If your driver doesn't approach very carefully (and therefore slowly), you'll probably ram into the side of the pyramid with the hooks, and bend the pistons. We did just that at the Sacramento Regional. We fixed this issue by Champs by attaching the hooks to long, thin steel rods, which were silver-soldered into a fitting that screwed onto the piston. This allowed our driver to drive at the pyramid as quickly as he wanted, and only the rods would flex. (They were thin enough to still be out of their plastic range at that point.)