Hi CD,
With the apparent majority of teams going with 6 inch Omni or mecanum wheels somewhere in the drivebase, and given that they are out of stock at the major suppliers until after the FRC season is over. What is your teams plan for when those wheels wear out?
I should note that I forgot to put the option in where you don’t think your wheels will wear out.
Our 2013 bot had the old-design Vex 6" mecanum wheels. It weighed 119.9 pounds, fell off the pyramid once or twice, and got driven like it was stolen. It survived until just after Champs and then the wheels began to shed rollers. I’d be surprised if the new design doesn’t last a whole season.
Vex also sells replacement roller kits. I haven’t checked to see if they’re in stock.
We will travel about one hundred feet total per match. Not too worried about it.
As we recently found out doing some driver practice, our 8" mecanum wheels from 2010 lasted longer than the robot frame! Hopefully we’ll get the frame fixed before too much longer so we can keep driving it…
The 6" HD mecanum on our robot for Logomotion lasted the entire season including off seasons and demos.
We don’t anticipate trouble this year but if we do we have the wheels from our practice robot for backup and some extra rollers.
For those who are planning on purchasing spares, VEXpro 6" Omni and Mecanum Wheels will be back in stock around February 15th (likely the 16th, the following Monday). See Amanda’s post from this thread:
Unusually high demand during this tight season coupled the ever-increasing delays for any products coming through the Port of LA has lengthened our process. Please be assured that getting these wheels into teams’ hands for competition is one of VEX’s top priorities right now.