pic: Concept 8wd Drivetrain

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JVN

I bet you can connect 10 more pairs of wheels, 20 pairs even. The question is, why would you?

Without justification (benefit for the albeit minor cost) my team would not do it. If you find that justification, great. I'm just surprised that people would argue "we can, therefore we should". The fact that it is easy doesn't mean that it is smart.

-John

This may be something you need to ask 703...
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/27823

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/26312

And I can attest to how SCARY that drive train was. RUSH had their arm sheared off at the base when the decided we needed to get out of their way in 2007. Granted, their bot weighed the MAX legal amount that year but no one shoved them and the time they climbed our ramp they ripped our graphics clean off.

And John, if the students on the team decided they wanted to do an 8 wheel drive just because it would be fun to do and they would learn something would you do it? I realize FIRST is about inspiring but is it not also about teaching? My personal opinion is that if the students say they want to do something after a mentor has explained to them the problems then it is not our job to over ride their decision, instead we should support them. Yes it may fail but then we have a good lesson and can show them how to learn from mistakes. If it works, we learned something. "Because we can" may not be a good reason but, "Because we want to" is.