Tricks for using the cargo ramp

[KerikBalm]

I finally got around to trying to make use of the cargo ramp to try and make a plane that can land and deploy a rover, that can then drive back up the ramp and redock.

Well, the reattaching part was easy, but getting the craft to undock and drive out... very difficult.

For some reason, the wheels on the back of the craft keep clipping through the floor as soon as the docking connection (or claw grapple, I tried that too) is made. Upon release, it bounces around and stuff breaks and normally explodes too.

A variant of my cargo plane:

 

Landed at island airfield, with an ISRU rover (I really want a bigger cargobay... that wheelbase is so narrow, and I would have liked ot use 2.5m parts). Note I launched the rover as a seperate craft, and drove it up the ramp, prior to takeoff.

The wheels clipping through:

And they don't during timewarp:

Clipping through in flight:

 

So far the only solution I've found is to have a small landing gear on the bottom of the rover, I assigned it to an action group, and I extend it after I've landed. As it extends and lifts the rover up, I disconnect the rover and then retract the landing gear.

If I don't do it fast enough, then the extending wheel clips through the floor, along with the rover wheels, and then the thing jump around and breaks stuff/makes stuff go boom when it disconnects.

 

Does anyone have a better way of preventing stuff from clipping through the floor of the cargobay when you want to disconnect your payload?

 

 

 

[Evanitis]

I only built such craft once, but in a much smaller scale, as I didn't want to include an ISRU. I used the cargobay upside down, and the rover was attached to the top. It was really steady - though raising it to re-attach was another engineering challenge in stock. I'm not sure how would that work with a rover sized as yours, but my guess is that it would be still better than only attaching one side.

[KerikBalm]

Yea, but I want it to be a general purpose cargo plane that handles multiple different rovers, where the only consideration for the rovers is their ability to fit in a mk3 bay, and the height of their forward docking port (or using the claw... which seems to no longer summon the kraken).

I've got a mind to send something like that cargoplane ot laythe (for looks, I'd like to keep the big wings, but their heat tolerance willl probably force me to use something else)... and while I have made amphibious rovers... going by sea takes a looong time and probably more fuel than I can pack in. I've also designed some multipurpose planes with built in ISRU etc... but I'd really like 1 plane, and multiple compatible rovers.

So.... no complicated lifting aparatus... they just drive on and off. Because the have to drive... and I want to make maximum use of the cargobay... no docking port on the bottom.

Maybe I should just get KAS, so I can strut them up/strap them in place before moving them.... except the clipping starts as soon as the connection is made... so that probably wouldn't even work (unless I went suborbital, and did it at 0 g where the weight doesn't cause it to clip through the floor)

Edited February 21, 2016 by KerikBalm

[Evanitis]

2 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

So.... no complicated lifting aparatus...

Ahh wait... it just hit me - my current favourite KSP genius Mr Alpaca used the cargoramp itself to put back the upside-attached rover. Well, it was a submarine-plane-thing, but that's irrelevant for the principle.

[KerikBalm]

looks like part clipping is involved... or that its an aesthetic enclosure, but the cargo isn't actually aerodynamically unshielded... both are things I don't want in my designs...

So far the extra landing gear to pop the thing up long enough to decouple seems to be the best option :/

[Hodo]

Here is the thing with cargobays and ramps in KSP.  If you attach anything with a claw, docking port or decoupler and it is not supported by struts it will flex at the connection point and fall through the bottom of the bay, because it loses its clipping detection for some reason.  The fix for this is to attach at the centerline of the vehicle or cargo going in the bay.  I like to put an inline docking port in the middle of my rovers that faces down, and a docking port on the floor of the cargo bay of the aircraft, so when I drive over it I just extend the inline docking port and it attaches, it wont flex and wont fall through the bottom of the craft.