Tank tread bumpers?

[Ichlieberoboter]

My team and I were thinking about doing tank treads this year so we could get over some of the defenses. We wanted to do something like this. We were wondering, though, about how we would position our bumpers for it to be legal and how exactly that would work. We had a couple ideas like replacing the pvc with rubber and maybe forcing a bike tire around some of our hard wheels as a track, but we are still very unsure of how we would accomplish this.

[MikLast]

For FRC, PVC seems a little sketchy for a wheel housing. That could just be me and there may be some team that has done it before though, so take what i said with a grain of salt.

[AndyBare]

Not drawn to scale or anything. Back bumper would obviously need to be higher off of the ground. Maybe slope the bumpers, maybe don't slope the bumpers. Just make sure that your bumpers fall within the bumper zone 4"-12". Let me know if the pictures spark something. If you need more idea designs, or with possible bracket ideas, I'll do my best to help you out as well. Just let me know.

[Ichlieberoboter]

Originally Posted by AndyBare

Not drawn to scale or anything. Back bumper would obviously need to be higher off of the ground. Maybe slope the bumpers, maybe don't slope the bumpers. Just make sure that your bumpers fall within the bumper zone 4"-12". Let me know if the pictures spark something. If you need more idea designs, or with possible bracket ideas, I'll do my best to help you out as well. Just let me know.

Thanks!! We will talk about it at our meeting today and see if we could make something like this work. I really like this concept for one but I am not a primary builder so I will show this to them and see if they agree.

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

your bumpers must be place on a rigid surface at least on the first 8" of each corner... i guess your frame would have to go around those threads

[AndyBare]

Originally Posted by MaGiC_PiKaChU

your bumpers must be place on a rigid surface at least on the first 8" of each corner... i guess your frame would have to go around those threads

Not necessarily, you're mixing two rules together.. As long as you have a rigid surface in the same plane as the treads, and your bumpers covered at least 8 inches of each corner, you'd be in compliance. An example would be if the bumper was fastened to 2 L brackets attached to some 80-20.

R19 ROBOTS are required to use BUMPERS to protect all outside corners of the FRAME PERIMETER. For adequate protection, at least 8 in. of BUMPER must be placed on each side of each outside corner...
and
R21 section G. must attach to the FRAME PERIMETER of the ROBOT with a rigid fastening system to form a tight, robust connection to the main structure/frame

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

Originally Posted by AndyBare

Not necessarily, you're mixing two rules together.. As long as you have a rigid surface in the same plane as the treads, and your bumpers covered at least 8 inches of each corner, you'd be in compliance. An example would be if the bumper was fastened to 2 L brackets attached to some 80-20.

R19 ROBOTS are required to use BUMPERS to protect all outside corners of the FRAME PERIMETER. For adequate protection, at least 8 in. of BUMPER must be placed on each side of each outside corner...
and
R21 section G. must attach to the FRAME PERIMETER of the ROBOT with a rigid fastening system to form a tight, robust connection to the main structure/frame

that's right but your drawings above put the bumpers over the threads. The plywood backing have to start beyond the threads

[AndyBare]

Originally Posted by MaGiC_PiKaChU

that's right but your drawings above put the bumpers over the threads. The plywood backing have to start beyond the threads

I specifically said "Not drawn to scale or anything."

[DonRotolo]

Treads, not threads

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

Originally Posted by DonRotolo

Treads, not threads

happens when english is not your native language