Shafts in Drivetrains

[Tottanka]

Iv'e recently been looking into many custom Drivetrains, and noticed that comparing to the classic KitBots, in many of them the wheel shaft is only mounter through one place, and only supported in one 'end' of the shaft, while in the kitbot it is fully supported on both ends.

This is a nice way to save weight and simplify a drive train - but my question is - are there any negative results of the shaft being not supported enough, getting bent by some torque on it, and perhaps resultins in some damage, or some wheel coming off...

So i ask the people who had this kind of Drivetrains - what were your results? Had anything of this sort ever happened to you? How do you prevent that from ever happening?

Thanks.