pic: 4WD Concept

[JohnFogarty]

Originally Posted by magnets

You don't even need bearing blocks-- The robonauts didn't use any this year, they just pressed their bearings straight into the frame rail.

As time goes on, our drives get more and more interesting. We started with cantilevered wheels, then aluminum sprockets and shafts, and now, we're starting to ditch the bearing blocks.

In my research of the 118 press-bearing system they still had some method of tensioning the chain if needed. I'm not a huge mechanical guy. My background is mainly in electrical and programming, but I've started learning this stuff to help my team design better. How would one make sure the chain is tensioned properly without the use of tensioner blocks...I would assume some pretty accurate calculations have to be made.