Gravity Wheel Design by BrotherJoeM

[TinselKoala]

Well, you wanted some suggestions as to how to get it to work... so I told you how to do it.   

No, it won't work without a drive motor, no matter how well it's built or how good the materials are. Of course, if you can find some negative-coefficient-of-friction bearings to use, all bets are off.

Your statement "I did have it working off and on for short stints" clearly uses some other definition of "working" than I'm used to, because a "working" gravity wheel keeps on working, it doesn't do "short stints" unless... it's not working.   

Here's a short video you may find interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMIsABzDkw0

Don't let me discourage you from _testing_ your ideas though. Just make sure you are really testing, not assuming.