looking to upgrade from lawnmower wheels ...

Well, as is quite often the case I found some suitable wheels at McMaster-Carr web site.

But most of these have bearing inside where the axle goes, and I'd like to connect the motor straight to the wheel somehow - so the motor axle turns the wheel. Anyone have experience "locking the bearings" ? Is that even a viable option ?

I guess the other option is to attach a pulley to the wheel and drive it with a belt.

Thanks for any help!

this place was recommended to me. check them out

A little beefy for my application, but still a cool site to browse through! I had no idea GoKart wheels were so small! Does "live axle" mean one connected to a drive wheel ?

Thanks again ! JCD

Cool. This link goes in my notes, for sure. Seems like a great place to shop at for outdoor robot parts!

These guys have a good collection of tires and wheels. They also have motors, gearboxes and chain/sprockets:

I have been dealing with them for a while and had good results.

Bob

Excellent! I like their presentation of caster wheels better than McMaster-Carr --- easier to browse ! Thanks!

This company that used to go by the name "Northern Handyman", I've been to one of their retail stores around Atlanta, they have lots of different kinds of wheels and tires:

There's this old standby for cheap imported, er, uh, "value" items:

but if you expect to design a kit to sell as a business, you need a supplier that's going to still have the same product available a year or more down the road, so you don't have to redesign your bot for new wheels while you have 10 orders from people wanting kits. For that, one of the big industrial supply houses is surely a better bet.

You already mentioned Mcmaster Carr (and I thought they had everything). For others, Google or Yahoo for industrial supply.

If you really get big, you can order directly from the Chinese manufacturers/distributors of these things.

I just saw this new post - thanks ! Where in Atlanta are they located ? I'm in the Smyrna area ... Thanks again ! JCD

I was thinking of the one in Duluth, but there's one on your side of town in Marietta:

While I'm doing the surfing for you, Harbor Freight has a retail store in Kennesaw:

Fair enough ! :-) I will do the surfing for you sometime.

I just visited that one a couple of weekends ago. Definitely a cool store to window shop in.