What do you use for wheels?

[Kevin Casper]

Last year we a pair of 13" tires. Very good traction. Year before that we used two 5 or 6 inch wide snowmobile tracks. The only problem with that is they weren't as long as we would have prefered. However, we could pull any other robot in the arena, even if it distroyed the carpet as long as we went straight forward or backwards. Got disqualified a few times. Any robot could drag us if they got ahold of the sides. Everyone at St. Lious started refering to us as the team with the cool tracks.

[Aignam]

9 inch Skyways, modified. For the last two years, anyways. There's a picture floating around CD of our wheels. Too busy to find it, at the moment.

[Mark Hamilton]

We made some wheels out of aluminum and glued rubber conveyor belt material ontu it. It's my personal opinion ( and the opinion of several people who visited our pit) that they were among the best out there. I probably have pictures somewhere if you are really curious. We had so much traction that in our high speed gear we couldn't turn well. We made a skip pad on a pneumatic piston that lifted the front two wheels off the ground whenever the driver turned. It's my possible opinion that teams are approaching the maximum amount of usable torque you can reasonable expect from a drive train, and that the limiting factor on power is now almost exclusively weight and wheels. You can't make it heavier, except by using tricks like spams lift up on the goals idea, so your wheels are a critical part. If you can't get glue that will hold, try using something like plastic rivets or high strength fishing wire to reinforce it. Also remember when deciding on a tread examine the feild surface and don't forget you get pushed sideways, not just forwards and backwards.

[PMGRACER]

Another mentor on our team gave me a link to the RobotCombat web site. They have some really nice 6" wheels as well as tons of other stuff. If you have a chance check it out! www.robotcombat.com

[Jay TenBrink]

2001 We used Skyway wheels with belting held on with screws, glue, and tie wraps for grip. It kept coming off and wearing out.

2002 Fabricated plywood wheels with glued on belting - also wore fast, but didn't fall off.

2003 Knobby pneumatic tires, 8.5" dia. Off the shelf, light, and inexpensive. Very good traction, almost to the point of hindering skid steering. We reinforced the plastic hubs with Al and fitted ball bearings on the axles. We ran with a moderate pressure to get some "squat" and to cushion the robot. We ran approx. 100 matches this year on the same set of tires. The tread is worn off now (ran it a mile on pavement in a parade) but we never had a tire related problem. I Highly recommend them.

[Case]

We used the provided skyway wheels last year, we lathed them down to a flat surface and they worked beautifully. However they did have a tenddancy to shred on the ramp. This year I assuem we'll use whatever wheels are provided (monatary constraints) or possible switch to a tread design if we're able to assemble a gearbox.

[Ashley Weed]

In 2002 and 2003 we used the LARGE Skyway wheels. I was very fond of them in 2002 and thought they were very helpful. In 2003 however, we went even bigger with the Skyways, and cut our own pattern in them... I didn't think they held up good enough on the ramp for the trouble we went through making them. Prior to 2002, we always used the standard wheelchair wheels.