Help!!..wheels?

[gorrilla]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Nitrile roughtop wears extremely well, and is a good compromise for this situation. I still prefer natural rubber or SBR tread, and just changing wheels often. It seems to be worth the traction advantage.

also the weight distribution over the wheels, could be a factor on the quickness of wear,

last years robot was two wheel drive with almost all the weight on the front two, we had great traction, but we couldent turn well, and the tread wore down to nothing after the FL. Regional!

[daltore]

Our team has been looking at Colsons. Last year we had 4-inch IFI wheels with wedge-top for low-weight and low center of gravity, but we also wanted to go fast, so our wheels ended up rotating at about a thousand RPM, and we had to replace a set of treads (that's 6 treads for us) at lunch on practice day, and we've had to replace them again since then. The Colsons are a great solution, at about $5 a wheel, they're MUCH cheaper than almost any other good robot wheel, and they offer a pretty good amount of traction if you get the Performa rubber type, and they also last a LONG time. Two other companies that offer similar wheels are NPC, which are made for battle bots, but are much more expensive and don't have quite the life of Colsons, and Banebots, but their treads wear off like a Firestone tire. These wheels are used in the battle bots world more than almost any other wheel, and most of the people I've talked to love them. If you make a custom hub in the middle out of delrin or aluminum, you can put a key between it and the wheel, and then key it so it fits on a 1/2" or 5/8" shaft, to which you can connect a sprocket. Simple, fewer moving parts (bearings) than the IFI wheels, about the same weight, and very rugged.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by daltore

Simple, fewer moving parts (bearings) than the IFI wheels, about the same weight, and very rugged.

That shaft still has to sit in bearings, so I wouldn't say it is fewer moving parts or inherently more reliable.

[=Martin=Taylor=]

We press-fit the colsons on the AM hubs and put three 10-32's through the hub plate to secure them.

Works great and takes like only a couple minutes to assemble.

Originally Posted by Hachiban VIII

... but it doesn't stay new for long

I agree with you here, for wedgetop. Blue Nitrile Roughtop is among the most durable tread materials I've used. Over the 2007 and 2008 season, using the robot for both competition and demos, we NEVER changed our tread on each bot. Never had a problem with roughtop wearing. Wedgetop, on the other hand....

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

Nitrile roughtop wears extremely well, and is a good compromise for this situation. I still prefer natural rubber or SBR tread, and just changing wheels often. It seems to be worth the traction advantage.

Nitrile rocks. Never had a bad experience with it. Just lay it against an AM wheel that's been stripped of the polyurethane, drill some holes and slap a few pop rivets in. It's janky, but it WORKS.

Originally Posted by gorrilla

also the weight distribution over the wheels, could be a factor on the quickness of wear,

last years robot was two wheel drive with almost all the weight on the front two, we had great traction, but we couldent turn well, and the tread wore down to nothing after the FL. Regional!

Yeah, weight distribution is key. I've mostly used roughtop on our 6 wheels, and had no problems there. The closest we got to wearing tread out was on our 2005 Crab Drive, for Triple Play, and that wasn't bad enough for the bot to be at a disadvantage.

Seriously, if you do your attaching right, you can't go wrong with Blue Nitrile (assuming FIRST keeps the carpet....).

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Seriously, if you do your attaching right, you can't go wrong with Blue Nitrile (assuming FIRST keeps the carpet....).

If FIRST doesn't stay with it, go with red linatax.

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

If FIRST doesn't stay with it, go with red linatax.

Red Linatex technically has a higher coefficient of friction than Blue Nitrile Rughtop, on FRC carpet. So if a team has the money, go for Linatex every year. It wears insanely well, and is grippy like no other. Only problem is the cost... It's MUCH cheaper to go with Blue Nitrile, at least from the suppliers I've found...

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

Red Linatex technically has a higher coefficient of friction than Blue Nitrile Rughtop, on FRC carpet. So if a team has the money, go for Linatex every year. It wears insanely well, and is grippy like no other. Only problem is the cost... It's MUCH cheaper to go with Blue Nitrile, at least from the suppliers I've found...

Craig, I was going for the icy floor! Lol.

Originally Posted by rc_cola1323

Craig, I was going for the icy floor! Lol.

That would be fun.... Though I'd be a fan of carpet with either a fence or a BIG ramp in the middle... Stack attack style, y'know?


On the topic of wheels, keeping cost under consideration from the beginning is key. If you don't design for your end requirements, not too much point in what you're doing. Billfred brought up some GREAT suggestions. He's cool, so his posts deserve reading extra carefully.

[GUI]

We've used IFI wheels in the past with decent results but the tread is a pain to replace. This year we are looking at the AndyMark Plaction wheels, basically kit wheels with a system for easily using conveyor tread material, and cheap too!

[lenny8]

When i went to AndyMark this off-season Andy said that he was new traction for his traction wheels ( to complement his new wheels ) so just talk to andy about alsohe said that his new treads should last 2 regional or even 3 .