Drivetrain Sprocket

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

It is honestly not that hard to keep 25 chain aligned and tensioned if you plan ahead and don't build sloppy drivetrains. The challenges are often overstated.

I have to respectfully disagree - in my experience, it is indeed quite difficult to use #25 chain reliably if you're limited to chop saw/drill press-type construction. It is really quite sensitive to alignment. I know I'm not the only one who has come to this conclusion, as well.

If your team is very good at machining, go for it, but I think telling teams that "the challenges are often overstated" is likely to cause people a lot of undue frustration.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Cothron Theiss

If you did that, couldn't you go with dead axles on the outer wheels? Otherwise, I'd be concerned about putting the wheel so far out from the bearing supports.

It's not significantly different loading in terms of bending for a live or dead axle here - the support is the same distance away in either case. There are good reasons to make the axles dead if you're going with the sprockets out method, though. It does increase the cantilever but not necessarily to the point of failure. I've heard of teams with plenty of success doing this sort of thing.

Not my first choice though.

[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

It's not significantly different loading in terms of bending for a live or dead axle here - the support is the same distance away in either case. There are good reasons to make the axles dead if you're going with the sprockets out method, though. It does increase the cantilever but not necessarily to the point of failure. I've heard of teams with plenty of success doing this sort of thing.

Not my first choice though.

Hmm, you could probably do something like 2451's 2013 drivetrain but put the sprocket on the wheel side of the tube. that'd actually make an extremely solid set up.

EDIT - But I'll echo your sentiment and say not my first choice.

[Deke]

If you want to look at the math of the kind of loads chains or belts take and design the system appropriately, you can take a look here:

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/papers/3292

I stepped through the math to help with understand the loading. It all depends on the drivetrain setup. #25 chain may work for one style of drive and not another. Belts may work, or you may need #35 chain, just take a look at the math.