Stopping fuel crossfeed in planes

[Specula]

Hi forum goers!

I've been on a bit of an SSTO bend recently, and there's been one part of the game that I normally adore for making rockets but utterly infuriates me with spaceplanes: Fuel crossfeed.

In most of my SSTO designs, the rockets and rocket fuel occupies the central area while the jet engines and jet fuel sit further out. Unfortunately, the jet engines always drain the central rocket fuel tanks as priority rather than the jet fuel tanks they're directly attached to. Is there any reliable, stable and non weight intensive way of making engines drain only from fuel tanks they're directly attached to?

[Xannari Ferrows]

You can always click those squares on the tanks to stop fuel flow. If that takes a bit too long if you have a ton of tanks, you can also attach fuel pipes from the external tanks into the center.

[FleshJeb]

TAC Fuel Balancer. It's my third-favorite mod. I'll never fly a plane without it.

[Specula]

TAC Fuel Balancer. It's my third-favorite mod. I'll never fly a plane without it.

Sorry, don't care for mods myself.

You can always click those squares on the tanks to stop fuel flow. If that takes a bit too long if you have a ton of tanks, you can also attach fuel pipes from the external tanks into the center.

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of just clicking on and off every tank as I need them mid flight, especially not in atmospheric transmission. Also, I find that fuel lines don't actually do anything in my planes sadly. =\

[Xannari Ferrows]

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of just clicking on and off every tank as I need them mid flight, especially not in atmospheric transmission. Also, I find that fuel lines don't actually do anything in my planes sadly. =\

Wow, seriously? I don't think there are any other solutions if you want to stay completely vanilla, even if it means just adding a sprinkle.

[Specula]

Wow, seriously? I don't think there are any other solutions if you want to stay completely vanilla, even if it means just adding a sprinkle.

Yeah, it's weird... I make sure the fuel lines all feed into the centre... And then launch to see the fuel drains from all tanks evenly instead of just the centre line tanks. It's mind mindbogglingly stupid.

[nekogod]

Fuel lines are ignored on planes. The only way to achieve this is with mods. I myself prefer a mostly stock install but some of the lighter mods only add to the game.

[Red Iron Crown]

Fuel lines aren't wholly ignored, they're just ignored by the three airbreathing engines (including the Rapier's closed cycle mode). I think the idea behind this was to make planes easier to balance without mods like TAC Fuel Balancer.

One method that hasn't been mentioned to make the side pods drain first is to mount them to radial decouplers that you never stage. The airbreathing engines will think that the side pods are drop tanks and use that fuel first, leaving your center stack alone (though they will draw fuel from there when the side pods run out).

[Gaarst]

Sorry, don't care for mods myself.

Well you should, like, really. You don't need to get mods that add thousands of parts or completely change the gameplay: if you want to stay really close to vanilla, you could still use mods like KER/MJ or stock bug fix modules that just add info or fixes bugs (duh) . Anyway, do what you want, stay vanilla if you wish.

Sadly, I don't have the luxury of just clicking on and off every tank as I need them mid flight, especially not in atmospheric transmission. Also, I find that fuel lines don't actually do anything in my planes sadly. =\

EDIT: Forget about the following:

This has to be confirmed, but I think you can toggle fuel tanks use in action groups. That would help you stop fuel flow from the tanks without clicking on every single one of them.

Edited August 11, 2015 by Gaarst
Corrected my post according to Pecan's

[Pecan]

...This has to be confirmed, but I think you can toggle fuel tanks use in action groups...

Sadly not :-(

... Unless, of course, you add a mod ... ^^

[Branjoman]

Just try putting the fuel lines from your external to central tanks again - they do make a difference...when you're in rocket mode. They mean that your rocket engines can access fuel from the tanks for your jets, compensating for the fact that the jets drain liquid fuel out of the tanks for your rockets.

[DCWarHound]

There is a detachable hard point (forgot its name) that you can put between tanks to disable fuel crossfeed between them.

Also,some mods are essential so i would suggest giving a few a go like Kerbal Engineer Redux.