I have been working on this design over the off season trying to make a west coast as simple as possible and requiring as little machining as possible. any tips?
It seems that the GrabCAD page is not public.
sorry, still learning how to share things properly, but if you download the ZIP file (first reply) and then the Master Assy (Second reply) you should be able to see
There are cool things called partner spaces in grabCAD where you can put a public copy of a model. It doesn’t update on its own, and can be accessed with a link. Sorry for the link instead of the image, I somehow still can’t post images.
Can you post a screenshot?
The main problem I see with driving multiple wheels on one belt is that you want the belt to mesh with more than just a few teeth of each pulley. And, that means a long, expensive belt.
The second problem is that if the belt breaks, you’ve lost the ability to drive at all. In contrast, if your gearbox drives multiple belts, then breaking one belt still allows partial drive.
And a bunch of idler pulleys to guide the belt–more holes to be drilled, precisely. Machining possibly just got worse, depending on your exact setup. Tensioning gets easier, though–slot one of the idler mounts.
The second problem is that if the belt breaks, you’ve lost the ability to drive at all. In contrast, if your gearbox drives multiple belts, then breaking one belt still allows partial drive.
Depends on setup, specifically if there’s a direct-drive in there. But losing the drive on multiple wheels is never a good thing.