Hey everyone. I just started playing KSP a few weeks ago and I'm not very good yet. In fact, I'm pretty awful I'm just starting to explore beyond Kerbin & its moons but I'm finding my rockets just aren't up to snuff. I've ready plenty of posts on the forums about making sure I have the right dV by using MJ, etc, and indeed I do use that. But that's not my problem. I'm terrible at actually constructing the rockets. Right now, I've been looking into using the LV-N Nerv as my second stage for interplanetary transfer. As I understand it, the LV-N is best used when provided with a lot of fuel so that its initially high cost in weight is offset compared to lighter but slightly less efficient engines. My problem, however, is that I can't seem to create a design that will actually put a rocket with LV-N(s) to orbit! If I use a single LV-N below 2 or 3 LF tanks in the 2nd stage my rocket is too skinny in the middle and has some stability problems, but I can make it to space ok most times. However, I've been relying some on my 2nd stage to fully reach Kerbin escape velocity because I guess my first stage is not that great either (6 orange tanks mounted radially around another orange atop mainsails) and the LV-N simply isn't powerful enough to finish the job. So my other idea was to use a Mk1 Stack Tri-Coupler just below my third stage, 3 LF tanks x 2 (or 3) down, followed by 3 LV-Ns and finally a TVR-300L Stack Tri-Adapter to couple the 3 LV-Ns to my first stage (and orange tank). But this rocket is even worse than the last because it wobbles at the start and falls apart shortly after liftoff. It's very unstable at the connection points between the tri-coupler/tri-adapter. It seems the tri-coupler/tri-adapter does not bind itself well to what it's attached to on the other side (not sure how to explain that better). Can anyone link some pictures of rockets they've designed that have successfully used a LV-N in their second stage or provide some advice on how I can best use them structurally? Thanks!
