Carpet Traction: Treads or Surface Area

[sanddrag]

What do you think is better for traction on carpet, more surface area on tires or more tread. I've also seen quite a few teams using some spikey rubber stuff epoxied on or screwed into their tires. What is this and where do you get it?

[Caleb Osborne]

They probably made it themselves. I saw lots of teams make there own tread tracks. So the tire that you saw might have been made by the team.

[evulish]

Hmm...well my team (84) used large tires. To get better traction, we taped 3 hack-saw blades together and made 90 degree slots in the tires. This added much traction to our bot. We seemed to be able to push most bots.

[sanddrag]

They didn't make what I saw. A few teams had it. It is like this red or orange rubber spikey matting? stuff that they put on top of the tires. I don't know how to describe it too much better than that.

[Matt Reiland]

I know the stuff you speak of but I don't know the name, on timing belts its called a supergrip surface, I have seen it in orange and black, will keep looking

[Aaron Lussier]

Was it like the Stuff that team 60 had on there wheels? If it was we made wheels with the same stuff.

[Paul Copioli]

The name of that belt is BrecoFlex. That is the company name and the trade name. Team 60 used one of the many offerings that brecoflex has. They have timing belts with custom, high friction backings. They are on the web, but are not cheap.

-Paul

[Matt Reiland]

They will send you a catolog just send them an e-mail at www.brecoflex.com

[Dave Torick]

We used a similar material to what Breco-Flex offers. I found, through the Breco-Flex rep, a local supplier in town. The material I was actually looking for is conveyor belt material. The stuff we used was designed to transport cardboard boxes up 40 degree inclines. Hope this helps.

[ahecht]

Originally posted by sanddrag
They didn't make what I saw. A few teams had it. It is like this red or orange rubber spikey matting? stuff that they put on top of the tires. I don't know how to describe it too much better than that.

We had orange spikey rubber stuff epoxied on our wheels, which was incline conveyor belting. You can get it from any conveyor belt store (check the BTB yellowpages).

[Gary Dillard]

I don't think Kingman used Brekoflex - they used the wedge-top conveyor belt from McMaster Carr. It doesn't have anything close to the Brekoflex friction factor.

[Matt Reiland]

Here is the pictures of the two, Team 60s is a diamond pattern rubber which was pretty effective but I think the Brecoflex is even better

[Matt Reiland]

Here is the BrecoFlex SuperGrip Material off the wonderful 2001 wildstang wheels/ sub assembly

Which by the way every team should think about doing (we did for 2002 and it worked out fantastic!)

[Gary Dillard]

Yeah, the Kingman tread is the same as Wild Stang used in 2002 - it's wedge top conveyor belt available from McMaster-Carr. It only measured about 140-150# on the traction test. BTW - the Wild Stang "tank" that they engaged (file cards inside metal cleats) only bumped them up to about 160# traction, which was surprising. Sure left some impressive marks on our wedge though

[sanddrag]

That's for all your help. That is really great stuff. Do you all use the Neoprene, Urethane, or Gum Rubber versions. The rough conveyor belting looks good too along with the spikey.