@Deicer You can counter some weight with rubber bands, but eventually you would be using so many rubberbands that the arm will not stay in size at the beginning of the match. Using too many rubberbands can also cause other problems with VEX parts such as; flexing/twisting the c-channels of the arm, causing gears to slip, and bending the aluminum.
Meaning the bands are lifting up the weight of the lift, therefore you don’t need more.
Flexing is solved with improved structure and if that doesn’t work you are applying so much force that the structural integrity of the aluminum is insufficient, which I guarantee you is more than enough to band this lift.
@Jared_Stark What program did you use to create that animation? I like your design but it seems like the prototyping possibilities with whatever software you used would be a great tool.
That’s @Codec’s Blender animation
What you need to do is get your rubber bands that are pulling your lift up to form an equilateral triangle. This will cause the rubber bands to apply a constant pull throughout the entire upwards lift. The next thing you need to do is make sure that you have a strong enough external gear ratio for the motors to be able to lift the DR4B.
Side note, what team are you on and which tournament are you going to? My team will be at a tournament on the 7th as well 
(St. Cloud, Granite City tournament)
You could also use linear banding. Triangular banding gives more tension where the tension couldnt be achieved with linear banding. Also something about more constant tension
this is not my video. this is a design that we are going off of.
Bozeman, MT
(20 characters)
Good luck at your tournament!
if doing triangle banding make sure the bands are on pulleys or spacers or rollers to decrease friction.
@ShowMePity Look at the video on this post. that’s why we need aluminum slides.