Improved Track Drive Wheel for RC Tank

thingiverse

This is a remix of part "track_drive_wheel_54_V1" from the RC Tank released by Staind. The stock drive wheel has cavities featuring rounded bottoms that allow track pins to fit snugly inside. Under strain, however, such as when climbing steep hills, the rounded shape forces track pins away from the drive wheel rather than propelling the track forward as intended. This results in a loud clicking noise as the track jumps back into the cavity after being forced outward. In some cases, my tank's tracks got stuck. To resolve this issue, I modified the cavities of the drive wheel to improve their shape. The pins now glide smoothly along, and my tank moves quietly with much less noise. While I have not tested this drive wheel with a high-speed setup, I am currently using a slow, high-torque configuration with geared motors for crawling purposes.