pic: ABS-122, shifter-in-tube chassis

[Cash4587]

Having un-powered wheels in your drive train is generally not a good idea. They create friction and make it really, really hard to turn. Replacing them with a caster or some low friction nylon for example, is also not a great idea because this year our back wheels help us get over defenses, and when you put something in place of a wheel that doesn't roll, and hit defenses as hard as we do, it won't turn out so well. Removing wheels and just replacing them would not be as good as just designing a drive train with 4 wheels only. In cases like this year, we needed 6 wheels to not get stuck on defenses so that's what we went with.

When it comes to drive trains we go with something we are confident with. 6wd and 8wd are types we've worked with before and have given great repeatable results. Adding furniture sliders or caster wheels to our drivetrain is probably something we will never consider doing on our drivetrain.