I would like to see some longer linear slides - maybe 17.5"?. A longer slide would allow higher lift mechanisms without having to cut/align the 12" slides to make a long slide.
However, this is completely tentative on what VEX is planning to release… 
(something JVN mentioned about “If you like linear slides, you’re going to love this!”)
i would love this. the way we have to extend slides now is super annoying and they bend at the joint a lot
Longer slides would be awesome, because they’re a sort of base for a lot of possible designs!
I think Vex sells (some assembly required;)) 17.5" slides already.
Take a look here
https://vexforum.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=member&imageuser=757
and here
[https://vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=171217&postcount=4
Blake](https://vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=171217&postcount=4)
and here
[https://vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=171217&postcount=4
Blake](https://vexforum.com/showpost.php?p=171217&postcount=4)
Last year we actually did start building a 17.5" linear slide based on your pictures, and although we decided against using it (we couldn’t get a fast enough hang with the weight of our robot, and the robot was’t exactly the best for hanging, anyway) we did give you credit in our Engineering Notebook. 
~Jordan
you can always go with what titian (1103) did for his lift which worked really well.
True, but I think that even his lift could have gone higher with 17.5" linear slides… (not 100% sure, though…)
I never really got a good look of titans robot, how did he do it?
Sure he could have. With a double-extending linear lift system using 17.5" slides you’d be able to get around 10" more reach. He was able to get ~42" of reach (if I’m remembering correctly), but with 17.5" slides you could get ~52".
~Jordan
I’m assuming there is all this talk of 17.5" slides because of the 30" goals in gateway, correct? Do you guys think the longer slides (if implemented correctly) would be the best way to extend some sort of grasping mechanism to the 30" height?
If VEX made 17.5" slides, the game designers would have just made the tall goals 40" high. No matter who else wins, the game designers always win, if you get my meaning.
why don’t you just make a triple extending lift?
That would require another motor for the third set and it wouldnt be as sturdy.
but why would it have to be STURDY, if it is strong?
-in case any questions come up as to the diffrence of sturdy to strong, sturdy is where it is not flimsy, while strong is where it will not fall apart, and is held to gether tightly.
Well I think the main disadvantage of having three sets of slides is that you need to use more motors to reach a given height.
Having a third set of slides is also more weight…
I think slides have to be sturdy in order to work well.
Not necessarily…
Titan’s lift used HS chain, so it could (in theory) be continued out to more than 2 lift sections. However, the downside is that more sections add more weight, which makes the slides less “slide-y” 
Andrew
thats a good point. I wasn’t really referring to a titan lift when I said that. anyway I don’t think you would need to add more lift sections to titan’s lift to reach the high goals this year.
It would depend on your mechanism for holding the scoring objects while you lifted them.
It shouldn’t.
If the bottom of your intake starts on the floor, then the double linear slides extending by 30" (each one by 15") will give you enough height to reach the top of the goals with the bottom of the intake. You could even go higher, as the 3" overlap when they are fully extended like I just described could be reduced to as little as 2" (I’d leave them at 2.5") while still leaving some kind of support/anti-wobbliness.
As long as you don’t do something weird with your lift, it should reach the high goals with plenty of room left over.
As for new 17.5" linear slides, they would only help if you wanted to mount slides diagonally, because you can only extend one slide in one direction by 18" minus the amount of overlap you leave for the slides. Longer slides would not help with most competition robots (the ones with horizontal or vertical slides) because of the 18" size restriction.
I’m assuming you mount the slides in the most efficient way. If you mount them inefficiently, the solution would be to fix how you mount them, not get longer slides.
How could he use a chain to power the lift?