pic: Concept 8wd Drivetrain

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by AndyB

I think John's point was that you can't tell if having the extra 8 wheels made any difference. If they were just as effective with 6 wheels, why use 8 more.

They would have had VERY similar traction, and in that game, 14 wheels could handle the ramps just as well as a 6wd could. I don't really understand your argument. If they didn't gain any pushing power, but gained weight and complexity, how is that an advantage?

The only advantages I see are played into tread not breaking (not really a big deal if attached properly, nor worth the weight), and CG (wheels aren't the only way to get your CG lowered). I would argue that you have more risk in more wheels than tread breaking risk.

First off, I am NOT an engineer, so I can only offer my observations and my basic understanding of Physics. I apologize for this shortcoming on my part and am working towards fixing it

Now, their decision was to go with wheels instead of treads. They felt that they wanted to use many small wheels linked together with gears instead of chain. Were these decision what you would have done? Maybe not, but they chose them anyway, why? Instead of trying to explain it myself I will link you to two posts:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=35
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...9&postcount=36

I do not feel that 14 wheel drive is necessary, they probably could have done just as well with 8 wheel or even 6 wheel drive. But they are probably a good person to ask WHY one would go with more than 6 wheels.