Our team is looking to build a drive system using #25 chain to drive the wheels. We have some experience using #35 chain in drive systems but in an effort to keep the drive base as light as possible and since there is no defense this year, we figured #25 chain would be adequate.
Having never used #25 chain for drive systems, I'm trying to figure out a few things for the design:
- How do you calculate spacing between sprockets to minimize the need tensioners? Is there also a way to take idlers into account?
- We would like to run 3 wheels from a single chain to minimize the width of the drive base, is there a minimum chain contact area on the sprocket that is needed to avoid slipping?
- We've used a chain break tool to splice #25 chain and avoid master links in the past on various mechanisms, is it still ok to do that with a drive system?
- Is there anything we should watch out for that is different when using #25 chain on drive systems compared to using #35 chain (or in general for that matter)?
When our arm "spontaneously combusted in the middle of the field", your team was the first to offer assistance to help fix it. - KTorak [more] 
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