Off-Road Car Design Help

[moronwrocket]

Back in 0.90.0 you could turn docking mode on to lock rotation and still drive, and the reaction wheels would keep you rock steady.

Yeah, I noticed that I couldn't drive in translation mode any more in 1.0x. Do you know the logic behind why that was disabled?

[BlueCanary]

Yeah, I noticed that I couldn't drive in translation mode any more in 1.0x. Do you know the logic behind why that was disabled?

Not sure why it was disabled but I find a good workaround is to assign the driving key commands to the arrow keys, which lets you use reaction wheels/rcs at the same time as driving and doesn't require you remembering to put it in docking mode.

[Signo]

Don't suppose you'd share the craft file? I dig the idea of using the cargo bay as a body, but I don't see how you attached all the parts?

It is not such a classified design, it is just that I don't feel it is ready to go public

However I made a few closeups in the SPH with some infos about the design you can find below. If there is anything more specific you are curious about just send me a PM.

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[sal_vager]

Maybe this will interest anyone looking to build an unflippable rover.

[Anglave]

Thanks Signo, that shows a lot more about how things are attached. And thanks sal_vager, that video is awesome and immediately gives me inspiration!

[selfish_meme]

There is also the jet engine pointing down, it puts the cg below the surface which helps prevent flipping.

[Vagani]

Just wondering if you needed anymore advice, the others seem to have covered a lot

[cantab]

That's really impressive, do you know what about it makes it so fast? I have problems getting much above 21m/s with a purpose designed 0.6-tonne, low drag race car.

I believe your problem is actually being too light. In my experience rover wheels will take you to a certain maximum speed that depends in part on your grip. So even on Kerbin I've found downward-thrusting rockets increase top speed, and one of my rovers drove somewhat faster on Eve than on Kerbin despite it being in the old soup aero.

[BlueCanary]

Just wondering if you needed anymore advice, the others seem to have covered a lot

I've kind of sorted the original problems, but I'm still looking for more efficient ways to fix them and generally improve rovers, and I guess this thread could be helpful to other people if people keep adding more and more advice, so more advice would always be good.

- - - Updated - - -

I believe your problem is actually being too light. In my experience rover wheels will take you to a certain maximum speed that depends in part on your grip. So even on Kerbin I've found downward-thrusting rockets increase top speed, and one of my rovers drove somewhat faster on Eve than on Kerbin despite it being in the old soup aero.

This matches what I've found recently too, although a light rover might accelerate faster the heavy one gets a better top speed. My 4.4 tonne pickup truck gets 22.4m/s and my 3.6 tonne dune buggy-type thing gets 21.7m/s, and I have a quadbike with reaction wheels that goes 3m/s faster when you use the reaction wheels to push it down. It would be interesting to see where the limit to this is, to get the fastest possible rover in ksp.

Of course, I guess this will all change in 1.1 with the new wheels, which sound awesome.

[Starwhip]

Maybe this will interest anyone looking to build an unflippable rover.

Oh my lord.

Definitely using that for my next rover!

[BlueCanary]

Updated the OP to explain why I've left this as unanswered and stuff.