traction vs turning HEPL

[andy]

Ok well here's my problem, We were given four 11.5 in diamater pnumatic wheels that are roughly 4.75 in wide they are being driven by one Chippawa per side through the gearbox FIRST supplied through a 9 tooth sprocket to a 60 tooth sprocket on the wheel giving us about 11 MPH or roughly 15 feet/sec.

do you think that we will be able to turn? If we inflate the tires really high we will probably be able to turn if we deflate them we will own the hill. Should I start to build a bracket for the drill motors that would be tied to teh chippawas through the gearbox? thanks for all of you help and comments,
-Andy

[sanddrag]

If your motors are geared so high that you go 15 fps, you will not be able to turn with any tires. You need another reduction. You probably won't be able to control it either.

[Frank(Aflak)]

but fast is so fun!

but with pneumatic tires I hope you like tripping breakers and going in a straight line. get it to under 10 fps and maybe, maybe you will be able to turn, but it will still suck juice like crazy. And trip breakers. with a one speed, if you expect to own the hill at all, you have to gear it to 3-6 fps . . . we are gearing ours to 3.5 fps using a four motor drive, so you can get an idea of what kind of power you need to put out to truly own the hill . . . unless you build something like that insane swamp thing. I have nightmares about that. Although I suppose one could jump over it, turn around and push it all over the place if one wasn't too attached to one's robot.