Driving Colson Wheels

[Madison]

Rather than hijack the discussion about Art's very nice sheet metal chassis here, I thought it might be better to have a new thread about driving Colson wheels.

These wheels are available from a few sources, including McMaster-Carr (pg. 1347) and robotmarketplace.com and are well regarded for their wear characteristics. They come in a variety of sizes.

Can people talk about their coefficient of friction with carpet as compared to roughtop or wedgetop tread?

They appear to come with a polypropylene hub. Are the delrin bushings they're furnished with from McMaster-Carr removable? How about the bearings?

I don't know as much about these wheels as I should and want more options for wheels available to me. I've been considering what it'd take to, say, press this hub from AndyMark into this wheel with its 1 3/16" bore. You could then match drill and bolt on a sprocket.

Discuss!