Rover wheels pop!

[peewee69]

Hi fellow kerbanaughts!

I'm trying to land a rover on the Mun, but landing at around 5 m/s is apparently enough to pop my wheels!

Am I doing something wrong? I am using a nerv engine to decelerate my horizontal speed, then flipping upright to suicide burn close to the surface before flipping back horizontal to use RCS thrusters to control my final landing speed.

Here is a screenshot of my lander;

Edited April 7, 2016 by peewee69

[NecroBones]

Moved to Gameplay Questions.

 

[Warzouz]

In 1.0.5, detroying wheels depends of speed AND wreight. Your lander seems to be around 6 or 7 tons, this may be heavy for those wheels. Try to land around 1 m/s.

EDIT : I forgot that your engineers car repair tires (but maybe it needs a specific experience level)

Edited April 7, 2016 by Warzouz

[Snark]

Engineers have to be at least level 3 to repair wheels.  You can't get to that level without leaving Kerbin's SoI.  Visit Mun, visit Minmus, go to "peek" outside the SoI before heading home, there you go.

As @Warzouz points out, mass matters.  The mass of that heavy rover coming down at 5 m/s could easily pop those tires.   My suggestion:  Just land vertically and come down on your engine.  Once you've landed tailfirst and your velocity is at zero, then tip over and gently settle on your tires.

Note that those particular wheels you've got there are very fragile.  The "ruggedized" wheels you get at the 550 tech level are much tougher and more pop-resistant.  If you're playing in sandbox-- or if you're in career and can research that tech node-- I highly recommend those wheels, they're better in every way.

 

[Pecan]

Ohhh yeah!  First landings on any planet/moon are enough to pop my wheels too.  Oh, you mean, so, not a euphemism then ...

Easiest fix, if landing on the engine as Snark suggests doesn't work, is to put some legs on there too.  Just adjust their height so when you retract them the lander settles onto the wheels.

[peewee69]

Thanks all!

I did it exactly as Snark suggests: landed on engine and tilted over onto the tires, it worked a treat!

This was Jack Kerman's first successful landing and launching back into orbit. I am playing career mode and this little baby will be able to nip down to the Mun and return science to the orbiting Mun Station Kalfa and is fully reusable! I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!

[Foxster]

I tend to find that science rovers aren't really that useful, the distances between biomes you need to cover are too boringly large but YMMV. 

I like to make a little hopper craft that I bounce around a few biomes before return to Kerbin along with its juicy science goodness. 

Edited April 9, 2016 by Foxster