Snow Machine Tracks

[russell]

Background: Ok, my team (from Alaska) is trying to design a robot for a non FIRST activity. It will need to cover outdoor terrain, travel quite a long way (half mile at least), and travel in all weather (if there is any snow it will be well packed). There wont be that much in the way of restrictiosn as far as power sources (gensets should be ok), weight, etc. Just keep in mind we have to have a motor controller that can handle enough power for the motors. Our team will have a set of 18v Dewalts, and no real machine shop type tools other than a grinder, a wood bandsaw that we messed around with to make it cut metal, and a little drill press.

So this one sort of mentor type guy and his son came up with the idea that we should use tracks. Maybe snowblower tracks. Then they got an even "better" idea: lets take a snow machine track and split it and use that. The idea jus seems plain bad to me, but I cant really find the words to express my dislike for it. Anyone got thoughts? I just cant see how we could possibly get enough power to drive such a thing, and how we would ever be able to build a track drive system from scratch using a sawzall and hand drill. Anyone who has ever tried to make a sprocket using a sawzall and a welder (not that its not a fun way to waste a few hours) will probably know what im talking about.

Am I way off the mark on this, or is this really not a good idea?