6WD chain path

[Cody Carey]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

The difference is whether the motors are connected before or after being geared down.

As long as they are both geared the same after the reduction, the motor in question should have the exact same difficulty turning the "dead" motor, except for any friction added by the drive train, right?

(Nowhere near right, proof of concept)
Before reduction:

The live motor outputs 10 units of force, and the "dead" one outputs 5 units of resistance against that force, so 10-5= 5 units of force being translated to the drivetrain, or Half of what was put into it.

After:

The live motor outputs 100 units of force, and the "dead" one outputs 50 units of resistance against that force, so 100-50= 50 units of force being translated to the drivetrain, or Half of what was put into it.


True?


Edit: This is assuming that no worm gears or anti-backdrive pins are in place.

[Bill_Hancoc]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

I think most people have so far misunderstood this question, but please correct me if I've done so.

I would put each transmission between a set of wheels. The chain would run from an outside wheel to the transmission, then onward to the center wheel. This would result in two chains driving the center wheels such that, if one transmission were to become inoperational, all three wheels on each side would continue to be driven.

If you're considering shifting the Dewalt transmissions through multiple gears, consider what measures you'll need to put in place to ensure that each of the two gearboxes on a side shift in synchronization. If they don't shift simultaneously, you will be attempting to drive the center wheel at two different speeds and you may throw a chain or stall the system or any number of other really bad things.

Edit: Cody's second example is close to what I'm suggesting. My understanding of the Dewalt transmissions is that they still require a 'final ratio' to make them viable, so directly connecting its output to a wheel seems like an implausible arrangement.

Correct, as far as shift syncro. we plan on putting the two motors lose together and using a single shift arm to shift both of them...mixed in with a little air powered magic i think i will work.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Cody's second example seems redundant for the centers. I haven't decided if that is a good idea or not.

Couple questions. Will the centers be lower? Will you be shifting the trannies?

Our main goal is to be able o shift the trans's, we do no plan on lowering the middle wheel since we would use less grippy wheels on the outer ones.

To all the people that say to use the KOP Gbox we have used it in the past and had poor results with it and overall didnt like it because if its high wieght and a few other problems we had with it.

We have used the dewalts before(last year) and had good results from them, other than i few problems we caused ourselves.

[Gary Dillard]

How about something like Cody's layout number 1 (direct driving the center wheel, chains fore and aft) except instead of using one motor you gear 2 motors together like this

The setup shown has 4 "wheels" per side, with the fore and aft wheel driven by the belt; you could do the same thing with 3 wheels and chain, using the center gear to drive the wheel rather than the 2 outboard gears.

[Cody Carey]

Try opening it in Videolan Player, its a free download form HERE and can play anything. Thats how I had to play it.