When I build a rover, I tend to carry it horizontally instead of vertically. I then build my lander "above", wider, and deeper than the rover, so that when the lander touches down, the rover is wheels-down and dangling just above the surface: Lander / | \ / Rover \ / \Maybe try redesigning your rover to be carried that way? If you don't want a full lander, you could also go with a kind of skycrane route, and have a "landing thruster pack" that brings the rover down to a landing on its wheels, then gets detached and flown away. Bear in mind the "wider" part; if your thrusters fire into the rover, they won't generate any actual thrust as their exhaust bounces off the rover. Turning on the "Center of Mass" and "Center of Thrust" indicators in the VAB (the three green buttons in the lower-left corner) can help to make sure you've got the rocket balanced correctly when you add the rover.