4WD Turning Difficulties

[ZakuAce]

Originally Posted by writchie

From the drawings of the swivel and other parts it appears that the design intent is to create a rigid attachment without freedom to rotate about the trailer wheels.

The hitch pin is a close fit. The close fit requires that the hole in the swivel have a vertical axis. The same is true for the holes in the c-channel. The 0.385 of gap is, IMHO, intended to allow for the tolerances in the height of the hitch swivel (when level) and the robot c channel (when level). I would not expect the swivel to ride much up and down on the pin. Of course I could be wrong and only testing will reveal how rigid the attachment is in practice.

I was thinking the same thing.

Also, I talked with the mentors today, and one of them brought up a really good point. If this was illegal, in theory, then suspension could be called illegal, since it changes the height of the robot, and could potentially make the hitch higher or lower than 2-13/16 inches from the ground. So I think we're sticking with our current plan. We're only going to have the height of the drive wheels and the wheels it will pivot onto on the front and back a 1/16 of an inch or less difference.