4329's Drive Train

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by Chadfrom308

I cant see the pictures because my school blocks them But, I did see that your chassis weighed 20 lbs with hardware. That is very light! Now I cant see it, so help me out here. Did you guys bend your 6061 aluminum? We had a couple things bent out (like a battery box, and a claw for 2011) and our battery box was really weak at the bends. In fact, one match, we got a hard hit and the box cracked and we had to replace it.


Our chassis is water jetted 5052 aluminum. We got this idea from team 67's 2012 tech notes (Which I recommend everyone reads). We bought the stock 5052 sheet and gave it to Chrysler for water jetting since they only have 6061 stock.

Anyways, our frame is 10lbs without any wheels or gearboxes. We are getting it powder coated and we will put them on. Our prototype shooter weighs more than the whole chassis!

Edit: I saw the chassis! It looks really nice! You sure use a lot of rivets! By the way, changing http:// to https:// in almost any link that is blocked will let you go to that site

Our sponsor did bend the 6061 T6 for us. We went with a larger bend radius hopefully to avoid cracking or fractures. This is our first year trying a sheet metal drive and our first year doing all-gear so I'm sure we'll learn a few things that we should or shouldn't have done for next year.

One other feature that I'm loving (so far) is that we don't have a flange on the bottom of the outside plate. This allows for very easy removal & insertion of our wheel assemblies. Our tube shafts are low enough in the frame that they act as support ribs. We're still considering adding additional standoff supports if needed once we start driving this with full weight.