KOP transmissions: Your turn.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by 114ManualLabor

Talking about transmissions you could buy wasn't really the point, or I might have titled the thread "Best store-bought alternatives to the KOP transmissions."

Right... but why would you spend your time to design/fabricate something when you could purchase a equal/superior offering that costs significantly less than it would take for you to make the same thing, if you price out materials, machine, and design time.

This is particularly true since the KOP transmissions are primarily used by teams who a) don't have the resources to make their own custom drive system, or b) use it because they want something that will run in a day or two out of the box.

In both instances, a custom designed transmission that the plans are available is not desirable. Team A cannot make one, because they do not have the resources to do so. Team B will not make one, because it will divert their efforts from their subsystems.

In either case, my answer remains the same. For a single speed kitbot drive, I highly, highly doubt you could possibly find a more economical solution than the AM single speed. Consider that in the Bay Area, a machine shop will charge you between $100-120 an hour to make parts for you. It would take at least 10-15 hours to machine two transmissions. Possibly more. That's $1500. Materials are probably another $100 or so. The kicker is that if you for some reason did want to make one yourself, just download the CAD files from Andymark and machine the parts yourself.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Cory

This is particularly true since the KOP transmissions are primarily used by teams who a) don't have the resources to make their own custom drive system, or b) use it because they want something that will run in a day or two out of the box.

Or how about c) decide that the KOP tranny is the best one for their application? At least one of the 2005 champions decided that the kit trannies would provide what they wanted (strong, cheap, good gear ratio, easy maintenance) and went for it. Then in 2007, they decided to use an AndyMark 2-speed for the same reason--they knew it would provide what they wanted.