Is a 5:2 gear ratio for drivetrain better or 3:1?

My team is doing a robot rebuild, and we cannot decide between gear ratios 5:2 and 3:1, does anyone have thoughts on this?

How heavy do you think your robot will be? If it is <7 lbs (3.17 kg) then I think 3:1 will work well. We have a 11 lb robot that runs 2m 5:2, and it works pretty well for us.

We think the robot will be less then 3 kg, but we are not entirely sure. If possible, can I see a picture of your robot to see how heavy an 11 ib rbot is?

5:2 is better than 3:1. Even with less weight, 5:2 will outclass 3:1 in terms of acceleration, and that’s using a four motor drivetrain. For 2 motor drivetrains, I recommend using a 2:1 drive.

We use 2:1 cuz we hav a heavy bot but if urs is light I definitely would use a 36:12 (3:1) in gears or a 24:8 (3:1) in sprohcket.

1417R RachmaniBOTS Robot Reveal - VEX IQ Robotics Competition Discussion / VIQRC Rapid Relay (2024-2025 Game) - VEX Forum

1 Like

@10635B is 3:1 slower at top speed with a 3 kg bot?

3:1 is inherently faster than 5:2, but for a heavier robot 5:2 is better since it has more torque. If the drivetrain has too little torque, it will be actually be slower.

Our bot is six pounds we currently have a 3:1 but do you believe a 2.5:1 would actually be faster?

I don’t know, we are doing a robot rebuild, and the current 3:1 is really fast especially compared to our old bots 3:2. That being said, we do not have the catapult and outake attached when testing. We tried to make the testing more realistic by putting a mac on top of the bot, and making it drive around.