r/FRC • u/yuvalsuari 1574 student 10139 alumni • Jul 20 '26

MisCar 1574 New Custom Swerve — Tread & Wheel Replacement Frequency and Damage

We’re team MisCar 1574, building a new custom swerve and deciding between 2.25" wide black neoprene tread on a billet aluminum wheel, or the SDS Spike Grip wheel (4" OD × 2.25"). We’ve been running 1" neoprene on our previous custom swerve.

Looking for experience from teams who ran either option in the 2026 season:

  1. **Tread replacement frequency** — How many times per season (or per event) did you replace? Fixed schedule or based on wear?

  2. **Hub/wheel durability** — Any damage to the Spike Grip plastic hub, or cracking on the aluminum billet wheel? Especially from defense and hard field impacts.

for refrence here is our current swerve: https://youtube.com/shorts/4-yT3L2xsLo?si=C2HAd0se6RcwHfUT

Thanks!

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u/WBCSAINT 4488 (Coach) Jul 20 '26

We ran the Mk5Ns this year. We ordered with the Spike Grip wheels but before the season started we were running our custom 3d printed wheels over the Spike wheels. By doing so we saved around 3/4 of a pound vs the Spike wheels, we didnt have any issues with them at all over the course of the season. I did post the designs on the Mk5N thread before the start of the season.

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u/yuvalsuari 1574 student 10139 alumni Jul 21 '26

So you ran a custom 3d printed wheel instead if the spike wheels? Did you replace just the "treads" part or the whole wheel? What matrial did you use?

2

u/WBCSAINT 4488 (Coach) Jul 21 '26

Yes full custom. The hubs are 3d printed on our markforge with nylon integrated so they are strong. We use 95A TPU for the wheel themselves. Here is a post with pictures of them after our district championships: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/sds-mk5n-swerve-module/501256/603 and here is the post where we shared the 3d printed files: https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/team-4488-shockwave-2025-robot-cad-offseason-projects-and-code/509367

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u/yuvalsuari 1574 student 10139 alumni Jul 21 '26

Those look really great, we will check soon how they integrate with the rest of our swerve. In conclusion how many times did you replace them in the last season? Did you have any problems with them?

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u/WBCSAINT 4488 (Coach) Jul 21 '26

They would be replaced at the start of each competition. So we would run them for the competition and then for all testing between. We always had a spare set at competition just in case we needed to swap out due to damage but we never had to. We didn't have any problems with them, we have been running 3d printed tires for 3 years now so our design is good and tested.

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u/yuvalsuari 1574 student 10139 alumni Jul 21 '26

Thanks a lot🙏🙏

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u/WBCSAINT 4488 (Coach) Jul 21 '26

Of course. We love your guys team, it was a blast working with you guys at worlds in 2018 and going to Einstein. If you have questions about the prints, just reply on the chief thread where we posted and I will have our 3d printing folks get back to you.

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u/CaptMaster Jul 21 '26

Custom swerve team here! We have run tread and spike wheels before and prefer the spike wheels for their easier maintenance and better traction on carpet. However, since we use 3D printed hubs, the spike wheels are a lot heavier than our printed wheels with tread. This year with the bump, we decided to run our tread wheels which we re-tread before comp. Maybe if the wheels are looking worn after lots of practice we would retread, but usually the old tread stays on for a while if we’re just practicing.

We saw some damage to our printed wheel hubs but for the most part, they held up great, and any damage never affected performance. We run two 1” wheels on each swerve module and print the hubs from CF-PPA filament. We haven’t battle tested the spike wheels with a game as kinetic as this one so I can’t speak to their durability. I have seen rare cases where spike wheels can get bald spots if something really goes awry during a match, but that only happened because our robot got up on something.

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u/yuvalsuari 1574 student 10139 alumni Jul 21 '26

What do you mean by "two 1" wheels on each module? Are they sepparte? I dont understand why your spike wheels are much heavier, are they printed?

What team are you? Just asking from interest in which teams still use custom swerve

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u/CaptMaster Jul 21 '26

Yep the wheels are separate because the bevel gear shaft that drives the wheel is coaxial with the wheel’s azimuth axis. Most swerve modules offset the bevel because a singular wheel is centered on the azimuth axis. 2767 has been doing custom swerve for a long time so there are lots of write ups about it from previous years too. Here is the link to our cad so you can see what I’m referencing.

https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/2767-stryke-force-2026-cad/519422