pic: Cheap 6WD

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by s_forbes

Actually, having the transmissions in the back has some neat advantages. Since the center wheel is dropped, the rear wheels don't carry as much load.

I don't see your reasoning. The way I'm looking at it, the rear wheels carry more load than if the center wheel were not lowered (up to half the robot's weight or even more, depending on the center of gravity). They just do it intermittently -- which seems likely to cause greater shock loads on the axle when the robot rocks backward.