How do I put my rover on my cargo spaceplane?

[JLE]

Yesterday I downloaded a Cago plane from "Kerbalx" web, 

and I wanted to place a Rover inside the cargo bay of the spaceplane but there was no posible way to do it...

How do you do that?

 

[AlamoVampire]

@JLE Honestly it depends how you want to. You can use docking ports if it can take a clamp jr or a stack decoupler. Both work, but this assumes you either have the rover as a subassembly or can quickly/easily rebuilt from scratch.

[Plusck]

Common solutions are:

- docking ports: probably the best bet, you just need to find a way to line them up.

- stack separators: you just have to be careful about the explosive force when separating (tweakable in the SPH/VAB). However I think that this provides a stronger link.

In 1.0.5 and earlier, it was quite easy to attach multiple docking ports (i.e. one on top or underneath, another at the front). So if you attached the top or bottom one directly in the SPH/VAB (without even needing a corresponding port on the rover), then lined up the front one, the latter would snap to as soon as you loaded/launched the vehicle. From what I've read recently, though, this may cause problems in 1.1 (giving major problems in the event of slight misalignment).

Myself, I'd probably just go for a docking port on the front or rear of the rover, attached to the cargo bay bulkhead, with a couple of struts.

The problem is always if you want to load your rover back up to take it home. Light landing legs and/or RCS may be necessary to be able to reattach it, gravity permitting.

edit:

17 minutes ago, AlamoVampire said:

@JLE Honestly it depends how you want to. You can use docking ports if it can take a clamp jr or a stack decoupler. Both work, but this assumes you either have the rover as a subassembly or can quickly/easily rebuilt from scratch.

Yeah, didn't think about the question of attaching a pre-built item.

Simplest way to do it is to build your rover, add a docking port on the front or back, then (and this is the important bit) use the root tool to make the docking port the root. Then save and open up the cargo craft, choose "open" again and use the "merge" option to load in the rover. The rover should appear as an unattached assembly next to the cargo plane, with the possibility of attaching on the docking port (and only on the docking port... merge only allows attachment with the root part).

You can also use shift when selecting an unattached assembly, which will hive off that part, but again only the node that you severed in doing that will be attachable.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Plusck

[Hupf]

Another possibility in some cases might be to Launch the two vessels separately and drive the rover into the cargo bay (you will have to move the first vessel out of the way slightly or launch the rover from the Launch Pad).

It is more difficult to properly secure it for flight this way (correctly aligned docking ports or KAS), but you don't have to mess around in the SPH.