pic: FRC 4532 Drive Base Frame

[IraJason]

I have to say, congrats to you as a rookie team for being able to design your own drive base. It's also good to see how enthusiastic about it. It's definitely an achievement!

However, I do need to echo some of the sentiments posted here. You really need to test this drive configuration on carpet, and never assume it's going to work perfectly. On my team's rookie year, we did not have carpet to test our drivetrain on that was identical to the field's. We got to competition, and we found, after several matches of frustration, that our drivetrain was not outputting enough torque to move on the carpet, and we were tripping our breaker. Our second year robot had a 4 wheel drivetrain, and while I don't remember it being impossible to steer, I do remember it having a bit of trouble trying to turn under high speed.

So just as others have suggested, really try to test this in real world conditions, and don't assume anything. Believe me, 20 minutes of testing now can save you a day of frustration and frantic work during competition.