Transporting heavy rover by aircraft?

[11of10]

Ok guys, I've made a big rover. I even made an aircraft large enough to haul the beast (Tweakscale helps a lot!) I even managed to load it into the craft, and even dock it.

But as soon as it docks, it goes right through the floor of the cargo bay.

Any ways to prevent this?

Only one I found was to park it beneath the upside down cargo bay and reel it in with KAS winch, but that seemed quite unstable to me for flight.

I tried using quantum struts, but seems I'm doing something wrong with them.

Here are the pictures, if anyone wants to see them

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Edited June 19, 2015 by 11of10

[Geschosskopf]

Well, if you want to fly the rover around in an atmosphere, the usual expedient is to just bolt on some wings and engines attached via radial decouplers, with the big rover serving as the fuselage. Upon reaching the destination, fire the decouplers to shed the wings and off you go.

[Orbital Vagabond]

But as soon as it docks, it goes right through the floor of the cargo bay.

Any ways to prevent this?

Try placing the docking ports on the top of the cargo bay so the rover "hangs" from the top of the aircraft.

The rover is [probably] falling through the plane because you're relying on the plane's floor to hold it up. This won't work because the when the rover docks to the plane, they become one vessel, and vessels can't collide with themselves. hence, the wheels on the docked rover can't collide with the cargobay of the aircraft because the rover and aircraft are one vessel.

But You don't provide pics of the problem occuring, so that's all speculation

[11of10]

No, that's right on the spot Vagabond. I was just hoping there was a way to do it, since I'd like to be able to deliver it, then pick it up again and haul it back for recovery.

Which is why I can't just attach wings on decouplers, since I'll need them again later.

I guess I'll have to find a way to dock it with a ceiling port in the field.

[xtoro]

Quantum Struts should do the trick. You just have to make sure that they're pointing where they will reattach once the 2 ships dock. When you're in the VAB, you can see the lines where the struts will connect to whatever it's aimed towards.

Like on my ship here:

When I dock the 2 ships together, the struts reattach from the transfer ship to the plane.

[BlueCanary]

Maybe put retracted landing gear on, and then drive under the ceiling port and extend them so it lifts up onto the port. A klaw might be easier than a port for this.

Alternatively, use KAS winches and struts.

[11of10]

I tried with KAS winch (one, for docking) and struts, but it still went right through the floor when I engaged docking. Struts didn't hold it. More struts?

[Grumman]

Only one I found was to park it beneath the upside down cargo bay and reel it in with KAS winch, but that seemed quite unstable to me for flight.

The one time I've done this so far, I used winches to pull the rover up into contact with a docking collar - the docking collar and not the winches were used to hold it in position during flight.

[BlueCanary]

I find building a cargo bay out of wings with a rear loading ramp works best for things like this (and is great for airdrops too), and that the klaw makes surface docking a lot easier. KAS would be even better, but the ram usage is just too much for me. (My computer is a poor overworked potato, mechjeb is too much for it)

[MaverickSawyer]

I tried with KAS winch (one, for docking) and struts, but it still went right through the floor when I engaged docking. Struts didn't hold it. More struts?

I tend to hoist my stuff from the ceiling if I'm going to do docked winches and ports. Hoist it off the cargo bay floor first, then dock it, then strut it into place.

[11of10]

Actually, now I'm thinking of either making an open cargo craft (without any cargo bay... bad idea, this thing needs to land on Eve, and then get back up), or do the winch / dock senior thing (tried it, didn't work).

Quantum struts, I tried, but didn't work for me for some reason.

I tried also to build a cargo bay out of wing plates, but that didn't really work out in the end (too much parts, game went to a crawl. Tried welding it together, but that failed as well... *sigh*)

Well, I'll try some of these ideas tomorrow again, refine them a little at least, and see how it goes.

I'll post new pictures here when I get something going.

Thanks all! I'll leave it unanswered tho for the time being, maybe someone else gets some other idea.

PS, the rover is really big and wide :/

[kerbiloid]

Also you can use Hangars mod to make your complicated rovers and satellites "hide" from parts list and then "re-appear" when needed.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88933-1-0-2-Hangar-v2-3-2-BETA1

This is also nice for FPS and structural stability.

[11of10]

Damned thing can't get into even the Mk3 Hangar. I can only shove it into oversized ground hangar. Well, that's going to take some creative building to solve.

Thanks everyone for your ideas!

[Signo]

I have a very similar rover but I usually deliver it outside Kerbin so it just needs a very basic engine setup to be autonomous.