Vex mecanums

[novamx3]

So, we've sheered bolts on our drivetrain in the past (last year) our solution was to use vex wheels with versa hubs... Well today I hear the 6" vex mecanums are prone to breaking the plastic tab that holds the rollers on. When this failure occurs does anyone have an idea of a more robust wheel we can replace it with?
Ideally one that will not result in us sheering bolts again!
Thanks in advance and happy last week of build season!

[BEN35678]

Originally Posted by novamx3

So, we've sheered bolts on our drivetrain in the past (last year) our solution was to use vex wheels with versa hubs... Well today I hear the 6" vex mecanums are prone to breaking the plastic tab that holds the rollers on. When this failure occurs does anyone have an idea of a more robust wheel we can replace it with?
Ideally one that will not result in us sheering bolts again!
Thanks in advance and happy last week of build season!

You can use the andy mark 6 inch mecanums.

[eddie12390]

As far as the VEX Mecanums breaking, we went through two regionals without experiencing a single issue with them while playing primarily defense with them. That being said, we did break them during a post-season robot display as we were letting kids drive our robot on an uneven surface and we ended up breaking 4? rollers off of two separate wheels in a few hour time-span.

[FrankJ]

We found the 6" VEX mechanums where good for about a regional & 1/2 before they started breaking the rollers. The same on our practice bot. It appeared to me to be a fatigue thing. Fortunately replacement rollers are available. We treated it as a maintenance item.

The mechanums are naturally torque limited so I would be really surprised to see bolts breaking. With Versa system, the torque is not transmitted by the bolts so you should not see properly torqued bolts breaking.

[ice.berg]

Originally Posted by eddie12390

As far as the VEX Mecanums breaking, we went through two regionals without experiencing a single issue with them while playing primarily defense with them. That being said, we did break them during a post-season robot display as we were letting kids drive our robot on an uneven surface and we ended up breaking

We had this exact same experience, we went through 2 regionals, champs. and then State champs without breaking a single roller in the 2013 season. Overall we were very pleased with the results of the wheels. Only after the season when we started driving it on cement, asphalt, wood decking etc. we started to break rollers off. We knew going into it choosing the VEX wheels that they were going to be more fragile, but with the flat field last year we had no problems with breaking them during their intended usage. If you are looking for something more durable I would look at the Andymark wheels, while considerably more expensive they are definitely more durable.

Now with the hubs on the VEX mec. wheels, our team has always ground down the nubs that are used for the versa hub system. (we just do this with a 90 deg. air grinder with some 3M abrasive pads) Then we used AM aluminum hex hubs to attach them to our drivetrain. We chose to do this because at the time vex was only making the plastic vex hubs and we wanted to use aluminum ones because of the durability.

Overall we were very pleased with the VEX mec. wheels, and even though none of the rollers did break off during the season we always had 2 spares and 2 sets of replacement rollers that can be purchased through VEX as well.

Best of luck!

[Aren_Hill]

Originally Posted by ice.berg

We had this exact same experience, we went through 2 regionals, champs. and then State champs without breaking a single roller in the 2013 season. Overall we were very pleased with the results of the wheels. Only after the season when we started driving it on cement, asphalt, wood decking etc. we started to break rollers off. We knew going into it choosing the VEX wheels that they were going to be more fragile, but with the flat field last year we had no problems with breaking them during their intended usage. If you are looking for something more durable I would look at the Andymark wheels, while considerably more expensive they are definitely more durable.

Now with the hubs on the VEX mec. wheels, our team has always ground down the nubs that are used for the versa hub system. (we just do this with a 90 deg. air grinder with some 3M abrasive pads) Then we used AM aluminum hex hubs to attach them to our drivetrain. We chose to do this because at the time vex was only making the plastic vex hubs and we wanted to use aluminum ones because of the durability.

Overall we were very pleased with the VEX mec. wheels, and even though none of the rollers did break off during the season we always had 2 spares and 2 sets of replacement rollers that can be purchased through VEX as well.

Best of luck!

For reference, the only Plastic VersaHubs are the sprocket mount ones, all live axle Versahubs (HEX and round bore) are 7075 Aluminum and always have been.

-Aren

[ice.berg]

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

For reference, the only Plastic VersaHubs are the sprocket mount ones, all live axle Versahubs (HEX and round bore) are 7075 Aluminum and always have been.

-Aren

Thanks Aren!

Will definitely look at them again then, probably just assumed that since the sprocket mount ones were plastic that the hex hubs were as well. I know our team really enjoys all our vex products so we will check them out when ordering more.