Front wheel steering VS. 4WD

[Ianworld]

yup one more for 4wd here. The only year the steering made sense was for Stack Attack because it just made sense for going around the wall and up the ramp into the pile of boxes. You're just going to be weaving between too many robots and tetras in this game to make it worth while. On the other hand, it will be a blast to drive.

[wmcjhi]

Yet another vote for 4wd...You won't have room for even a tight turning radius and defense will be important this year, so you'll need the 4WD's power.

[Brandon Holley]

Ditto on the 4WD, its been said. Car steering on a crowded field is simply just too difficult to control. 4 wheels does have its cons, but if you do go car steering, im sure you will quickly discover that it is very difficult to maneuver. In my past years I've seen teams with that kind of drive struggling.

...(this post not meant to slander the steering drive name)...

[Jeffel]

i'd have to stick with our drivetrain and go with 4 wheel drive. We use it every year now and it just works the best. It also has the most control especially when driving at your top speed
Plus... i dont get your argument against 4WD about the breaking chains?

[elknise]

4WD, i could see you getting stuck with front wheel steering. Also, try driving a remote control car in a scaled down field fron about 20 to 50 feet away, hard isn't it.

[Denman]

the only problem with 4 wheel drive is your more likely to get stuck against a wall or something straight...

Steering is hard to program / control i would say. You need to find a good method of controlling with the joysticks for that. ..

[abeD]

If you have the weight you could play with a 4wd and 2 wheel steering system. People have used this in the past with some success. Change the non-steered wheels to omni-wheels and you can now strafe (aka Wildstang 2004 w/o the pnematics to go up and down). If you want simplicity 4wd tank is the way to go.

http://www.wildstang.org/gallery/vie...&id= P2201799

[elknise]

Originally Posted by Denman

the only problem with 4 wheel drive is your more likely to get stuck against a wall or something straight...

I didn't know you can get stuck, wouldn't your robot just spin out of it?

[Jeff K.]

Or howabout 6WD...Even more maneuverable than 4WD, i think i spelld that wrong. Oh well. Because the turning radius would be around which ever side has the more weight because the middle wheel is slightly lowered. This may add some more weight though, but you could just have two gearboxes, one for each side, and then have the gearbox placed in the middle of the robot and attach the middle wheel to that and use two sprockets, one for the front and the other for the back. That's a basic 6WD drivetrain. If you're using the gearboxes from the KOP, you are going to have to machine wheel hubs because the wheels they provide do not fit onto the shaft. Also you may have to purchase new sprockets to fit onto the shaft coming out of the gearbox because I don't believe that the two sprockets including the wheel can all fit on the gearbox. I dunno, that's just what I gotta say. Good luck on your robot.

[Projectchon]

4wd is better, but it depens on how you drive it, a 4WD's turnning Axie is near the center, but if you are doing F2WD your turning axie will be near the front, that means your turning axies is near the middle between your armand your robot (like a forklift).

[Jeff K.]

Originally Posted by Denman

the only problem with 4 wheel drive is your more likely to get stuck against a wall or something straight...

How can you get stuck against the wall? The only way you could if you intentionally tried to get wedged under something like the arena wall, but that would totally take out the arena wall too...That would be insane.

But o well, I might be wrong.