Knex Sprocket Track Treads

This is a track tread design that is able to utilize gears properly, as opposed to the common design of clipping rods together in an continuous ribbon.

I needed to build this because the project I'm working on requires customized 12v motors. The ones seen in the video are modified with 24v motors running at just under 3 times the original speed with double the torque. Instructable on that here.

But the issue was that the simplistic design of the original tracks just allowed the drive wheel to spin inside the suspension.

So, without further delay, below are the instructions.

• 6x large chain links
• 6x 1 link clips
• 6x 2 link connectors
• 1x 3 link connector
• 2x 4 link connectors
• 6x large grey spacers
• 6x small blue spacers
• 6x rod caps
• 2x tiny rods
• 3x yellow rods

Assemble the chain links with the 2 and 3 link connectors

Attach them to a yellow rod with the spaces between and on the ends.

Attach the 4 link connectors to the ends, So they appear to run parallel to the chain links.

Prepare the tread.

Connect the tread to the chain links via the 4 link connectors.

Optional, but attach a cap to a yellow rod and run it through the 4 and 1 link clips with grey spacers between. Cap the ends all together and you're done.

So I used quite a lot of fancy parts on this, it wasn't the original version. The first one I created used 3 link connectors instead of 4 allowing only 3 chain links per tread, but that didn't allow the track to bend in both directions. I needed it to because of the suspension the project is using, but this design is easily customized to suit your requirements. A word of warning though, it is significantly more expensive than the basic ribbon version.

As you can see the treads were designed to suit the Horstmann Suspension as shown.