Best Wheels For Drop-Center Drivetrain.

[Billfred]

4901 used 4" HiGrips this year--replaced the centers Thursday at Palmetto (drove it a bit in the parking lot to practice), and we'll replace the centers again at Championship after wearing them bald again after playing hard D in the Orlando finals. (We had 26 matches on them across Palmetto and Orlando.)

We entertained switching to Colsons in St. Louis, but with other upgrades and the limited amount of practice time for them, we decided the time spent fiddling with spacers and other bits wasn't worth it. Maybe next year.

[Chris is me]

Honestly, with the number of COTS options it's hard to go wrong here.

KoP wheels are fine. Cheap, easy to use. Not the grippiest but good enough to get you going, and better than past options.

Colsons are a very good grip and very low maintenance wheel. You will not need to replace your competition robot's wheels within a regular season. They aren't too expensive even with the hubs. Main drawback is weight.

Treaded traction wheels (either VexPro Traction or AM Performance) combined with roughtop tread are the best commonly available off the shelf traction solution. The gains in traction come with the cost of regular maintenance as these wheels require tread changes fairly often. Expect to change tread at least a few times a season.

Ultimately, I think Colsons are close enough to optimal that they're the best option for a lot of teams and drivetrains, but really any of the above can work. I have heard good things about VersaWheels but I do not have first hand experience.