#25 Chain

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

I would argue that if you can make a drive unit rigid enough to not mis-align gears, and precisely enough to enable proper gear meshing, then you can make a drive that can easily handle no-maintenance chain or belts reliably.

And, yes, no-maintenance (aside from lubrication, which gears need too) chain drives exist.

True, though gears are slightly more tolerant to misalignment along the shaft axis than small chains (you just risk damage to the gears if the misalignment is too extreme). Our problems in the past usually stemmed from getting chain that had inconsistent tension (possibly due to using old chain?) and making shaft spacers for the wheels that were the correct size. As for lubrication, for external (not inside of a gearbox) gears we just spray on Teflon dry lubricant during assembly and don't worry about it again for the rest of the season.

Of course I never meant to imply no-maintainace chain systems weren't possible, just harder get right with smaller chain.

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

VexPro only sells #25HD as far as I can tell, by deduction in that they only sell #25 HD master links and state that only HD master links work with their chain. Comparing it side-by-side with other #25 chain sources makes it even more obvious.

Interesting, I didn't know Vex sold #25HD. Guess next time I'll have to put an order in for some and replace all the stuff we have that's like 10 years old that used to come in the KoP.

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

I agree with your diagnosis but you lost me there on the recommended treatment.

Are shafts somehow immune to problems? Live axles bring there own problems. Gear teeth are not infinitely strong. And so on.

Make sure you have a reliable drive train. That is the take away. There are a lot of ways to get there, but you really need to get there.

Dr. Joe J.

I think the point he was trying to make was that typically having a direct drive wheel eliminates total drive failure due to a chain or belt breaking. I also think that for most teams, you're FAR more likely to have a failure in a chain or a belt than you will with a gearbox output shaft (if you do, you've done something terribly wrong).