pic: Prototype Drivetrain v2

[548swimmer]

Originally Posted by LLogan

The bolded part does not entirely make sense for what you want to do. There is absolutely no point in keeping all the wheels exactly level if only the center ones are driven. Your rear wheels will not be driven, so it's quite useless to increase the normal force on them. In fact, it's detrimental because you're decreasing the normal force that is on the center wheels.

I am unsure of why you are so set on a suspension.



The whole point of a suspension is to make sure that the normal force is distributed as evenly as possible. Doing this is only advantageous when each wheel is powered, seeing as your tractive force is based on the sum of the forces of friction and thus the normal forces.

My advice: a suspension is not worth the hassle (and relatively useless) unless you are powering all wheels, or going over a surface that is not flat. To compensate for the sudden stops and starts, perhaps you could try to scale the acceleration and turning to your discretion through programming.

I just found a way to drive the wheels, keep the suspension, and tension the chains all at once . I'm currently rendering it, and will post it once it's done. This is just in case we don't have a flat surface next year. If we do, it'll most likely get nixed.