pic: Four Speed Three CIM Gearbox

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

They combined it all into a single shifting gearbox (reusing a Dewalt drill planetary). They also added 2 FP motors, so distributing it would've been harder.

Originally Posted by ratdude747

Traction. By combining the motors onto one shaft, in addition to allowing for a single dewalt shifter, it also allowed any one wheel to have all the motors power available. Thus, even if a wheel lost traction, the full pushing power would still make it to the ground through the others.

I didn't notice the shifter. With that bit of info, the central gear box makes perfect sense. While separate CIMs which are chained to keep the same speed would have also allowed the power generated at one wheel to be used at another, four (or six) shifters would be more complex (and costly and heavy) than the "gear manifold" and a single shifter.