Sources for tracks?

Try toothed belts from machine tools, if you're happy with a continuous rubbery one.

David,

Try this site:

And people call us geeks...geesh. There are a few sources listed there. Here's one that I found, I'm sure they sell the parts as well.

For the price, I'd buy one of these, hack it, and mount my own body on it:

Here's another good site:

Toys R Us. They have a line of Chinese imported tanks for about $20. The motors and mechanics aren't very durable, but you can hack 'em for the nice rubber treads (about 1-1/2" wide) and drive sprockets.

My current Nuts & Volts Robotics Resources column is on hacking toys for making robot bases, and mentions sources like these.

-- Gordon Robots for Less at Budget Robotics:

Robot Builder's Sourcebook & Robot Builder's Bonanza

Just my two cents. I bought a $20 toy at Toys R Us, thinking that I would use the base for my new robot. These things are very noisy and sloppy. I quickly threw in the towel and started building my own base from parts from (Gordon will be happy to hear) budgetrobotics.com and adding good quality DC gearmotors (very cheap on surplus market). This was not the tank base, but a dump truck with a front steering axel. I'm guessing the tank base from Toys R Us is just as bad.

BRW