How I learned to stop worrying to build a rover without reaction wheel.

[oliezekat]

Since KSP 0.90 to present day, I learned two things to improve rover efficiency :

• Well balanced rover without SAS will not flip.
• Light rover with low CoM can climb very hard slopes of 30-45°.
• High speed doesn't means a rover is more efficient.

Nb: I always played in Career Hard mode only.

I use "RCS Build Aid" mod to fine tune my rovers designs as this :

• Equal distance between each wheels to the CoM.
• Reduce CoM high to ground as much I can.
• Reduce weight as much I can.

That's mean Stayputnik become our best friend to build small, light, and cheaper rover with early technologies.

Today under KSP 1.6.1, I built the prototype bellow which weights 280 kg only !

Previously under KSP 1.2 I built this baby bellow with only 3 wheels which weights 225 kg ! I used only two Linear RCS and few monoprop to land it. I obtained more than 50 science points while its mission accross 3 biomes (30 km reached, 2 hrs in game).

But 3 wheels was a bad idea because we must enable engine on front wheels only while climb hard slopes. One powered wheel was not enough and I made a deadly mistake while I enabled rear wheels

Like Oppy, my baby finished its mission like static science station ^^

 

[magnemoe]

Very nice but the rover looks like an bomb with wheels  

How do you land without reaction wheels? Yes you can use engine but is that precise enough to land? 

[oliezekat]

39 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

How do you land without reaction wheels? Yes you can use engine but is that precise enough to land? 

Landing stage included "Small Inline Reaction Wheel" which had SAS feature under KSP 1.2.

With 2 Stratus-V, both Linear RCS were used as main engine from LKO to the Mun ground (dV of 1500-2000 m/s, enough to send 400kg).

I plan to use small SAS for my landing stage under KSP 1.6.1.

At last when I built a rover with an Okto I never enabled reaction wheel at ground. If my rover has flipped, I prefered to terminate the mission (like an event for role-play).

[magnemoe]

2 minutes ago, oliezekat said:

Landing stage included "Small Inline Reaction Wheel" which had SAS feature under KSP 1.2.

With 2 Stratus-V, both Linear RCS were used as main engine from LKO to the Mun ground (dV of 1500-2000 m/s, enough to send 400kg).

I plan to use small SAS for my landing stage under KSP 1.6.1.

At last when I built a rover with an Okto I never enabled reaction wheel at ground. If my rover has flipped, I prefered to terminate the mission (like an event for role-play).

Yes don't use them on ground, well only to rotate craft upright else its off  
yes its a bit unrealistic but KSP also has some bugs with rovers. I prefer the collapsible wheels from making history now on many rovers as its no chance rover jump on load if folded.