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[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Viper37

I witnessed this, and it was particularly nasty. Im not claiming to know the workings of their robot, however simply put, if they shortened the width of the chasis by about 2 inches, they would have room to put stock across the axles as a sort of guard.

But after seeing how succesful that chassis was, it is only a small detail.

One of the big advantages to having exposed wheels (such as also in the design central to this thread) is the ability to quickly replace your wheels. This is especially true on live axles (as also in this frame design). Reportedly 968 could switch an individual wheel in around 1 minute (or less) with their exposed, cantilevered, live axle design last year. Whether some sort of guard or bumper mount that is quickly and easily removable (or doesn't inhibit replacing wheels) can be added is a challenge left up to the individual team.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

One of the big advantages to having exposed wheels (such as also in the design central to this thread) is the ability to quickly replace your wheels. This is especially true on live axles (as also in this frame design). Reportedly 968 could switch an individual wheel in around 1 minute (or less) with their exposed, cantilevered, live axle design last year. Whether some sort of guard or bumper mount that is quickly and easily removable (or doesn't inhibit replacing wheels) can be added is a challenge left up to the individual team.

How often do teams typically change wheels throughout a season? I've never had occasion to replace a wheel, but my teams often don't use the popular traction materials that wear down with time.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

How often do teams typically change wheels throughout a season? I've never had occasion to replace a wheel, but my teams often don't use the popular traction materials that wear down with time.

Approximately 2-3 times per competition for us.

We generally leave the tread on the bot that we tested with before ship, change it on Thursday night, change it on Friday night, and before the finals.

[lukevanoort]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

How often do teams typically change wheels throughout a season? I've never had occasion to replace a wheel, but my teams often don't use the popular traction materials that wear down with time.

We used SBR Roughtop on a 3/4" wide wheel and it held up fine throughout VCU on a primarily defensive 'bot, very little wear although it did leave black lines on the carpet when we got into tough pushing matches. (Or reversed direction quickly) However, I understand the Wedgetop 968 used wears a little quicker, and their wheel width might be smaller, and I know their wheels were smaller diameter, so the wear couldn't be spread out as much.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

How often do teams typically change wheels throughout a season? I've never had occasion to replace a wheel, but my teams often don't use the popular traction materials that wear down with time.

With a system like 968's they could replace them whenever they wanted. Before the 2nd match of the Finals on Einstein, they apparently replaced one so they could drive slightly better.

[Travis Covington]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

With a system like 968's they could replace them whenever they wanted. Before the 2nd match of the Finals on Einstein, they apparently replaced one so they could drive slightly better.

Just to clarify, we could easily replace all 6 wheels in under a minute and I do believe we did so before that last match. By new wheels, I mean wheels with new tread. As Cory mentioned, both teams had two sets of wheels so that at any given time we could be replacing tread while the robot was still on the field.

The new tread helped us drive straighter which was very helpful during autonomous mode. We had a gyro to keep us going straight and encoders to tell us when to stop, but new tread always seemed to add consistency and lessen the error/drift.

In regards to the OP, I agree with most everyone that you should add some sort of protection for the wheels. It is something we will be doing this year for sure, one way or another.

[Viper37]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

One of the big advantages to having exposed wheels (such as also in the design central to this thread) is the ability to quickly replace your wheels. This is especially true on live axles (as also in this frame design). Reportedly 968 could switch an individual wheel in around 1 minute (or less) with their exposed, cantilevered, live axle design last year. Whether some sort of guard or bumper mount that is quickly and easily removable (or doesn't inhibit replacing wheels) can be added is a challenge left up to the individual team.

I can think of a way off the top of my head to make a guard with 2 nuts holding it on.


Remove one, and swing it out of the way.