Cargo Plane Docking problems...

[Stewcumber]

I'm trying to create a little home away from home at the south pole. I fly my cargo plane down south, with my little rover base docked. But this happens...

Props to both the plan and capsule for shrugging off the explosion and fall but it is still not an ideal exit strategy... Any ideas?

In the top left it says Rover Wheels are overstressed. I've tried a few combinations like turning off SAS, controlling from the plane / capsule, and making sure brakes are on / off but with no joy. 

Edited November 13, 2016 by Stewcumber

[Palaceviking]

15 minutes ago, Stewcumber said:

I'm trying to create a little home away from home at the south pole. I fly my cargo plane down south, with my little rover base docked. But this happens...

Props to both the plan and capsule for shrugging off the explosion and fall but it is still not an ideal exit strategy... Any ideas?

In the top right it says Rover Wheels are overstressed. I've tried a few combinations like turning off SAS, controlling from the plane / capsule, and making sure brakes are on / off but with no joy. 

You've got a good ol' clipping launcher there!

It's because when you undock it loads the separate physics but finds parts inside/clipping through other parts and responds accordingly.

If you've got kas/kis i would probably try separating it piecemeal or something like that.

You could see where the clipping is and 'wiggle' the plane so that at the moment of separation it's not too bad?

Or try undocking while rolling along, you gotta try everything with these kinda things. 

Edited November 13, 2016 by Palaceviking

[Geschosskopf]

On 11/13/2016 at 9:27 AM, Stewcumber said:

But this happens..

As @Palaceviking says, you've got a clipping issue.  It's possible to work around this, but usually at the expense of being able to re-dock the rover.  All in all, the clipping issue makes using the rear cargo ramp problematic.

If you're committed to using the rear cargo ramp, then you have to slide the docking port up the front bulkhead of the cargo bay enough that the rover's wheels are slightly above the cargo bay floor.  Thus, when you undock the rover, it will fall a short distance to the floor.  Also remember that because the rover is hanging from 1 end on a flexible joint, it will sag somewhat when physics loads.  So either you have to raise the docking port a bit more, or run struts from the rover to the cargo bay walls to hold it up.  These struts will break when you undock the rover so no problem there.  The problem is, you won't be able to dock the rover back into the cargo bay.  Either the docking port will be too high to reach, or you won't be able to reattach the necessary struts unless you use KAS/KIS.

It would be nice if you could put a docking port on the cargo bay floor.  However, this doesn't seem to work for a variety of reasons.  Thus, the only stock alternative that avoids the clipping issue is to use a "bomb bay" cargo bay instead of the tail ramp, and drop the rover out the bottom.  Then the rover will never clip the cargo bay.  But of course, in stock, you'll never be able to reattach it, and you have other design issues such as sufficient airplane ground clearance for the rover to drive out from under it, but that makes the rover have to drop further, which can damage it.

All in all, if you want to use the rear cargo ramp and get the rover back in the plane,  you pretty much have to use KAS/KIS.  Then you can redock the rover with a winch and have Kerbals attach struts to hold it in place.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Geschosskopf

[Stewcumber]

Thanks guys, I'll go for the bomb bay design, the base can stay at the South Pole even if my kerbal comes home in the plane!

[fourfa]

A lot of valid points above. I often use a docking port a little too high to reach (so the rover wheels are clear of the cargo bay floor), and a whole extra set of retractable landing gear to elevate the rover to the port. 

Actually top-mounted docking ports work even better with this scheme, but look a little odd just floating there if you open the cargo bay to see what's going on. 

And in 1.2, we have autostrut for the strut problem. Can be a bit of a cheat sometimes, but in this case it's really just like having a loadmaster with cargo straps and tie down points. 

[ForScience6686]

This is why I went with kas/kis.   the winches make it much easier to load back into the plane via  ramp or bomb bay.   I only struggled a bit in aligning the winches so they would lock in place,  but all was  gold after. 

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, fourfa said:

And in 1.2, we have autostrut for the strut problem. Can be a bit of a cheat sometimes, but in this case it's really just like having a loadmaster with cargo straps and tie down points. 

Do we?  It seems to me this entire functionality is disabled in 1.2.1.  It's still there on the right-click menu but nothing happens when you click the button.

[OHara]

The auto-strut settings do make a difference for me in 1.2.1, and act consistently with their descriptions, when I test them with a cantilevered fuel tank.

People can make things re-usably dock in that cargo ramp
forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/148649-12-compact-mk3-single-stage-to-anywhere-with-mining-rover-update-0211/

I tried to simplify that craft today, using a single docking port and elevons to raise the rover off its wheels to alight heights of docking ports.  You might consider using internal docking ports to be a frustrating waste of time, but you might enjoy that time.

[RexKramer]

I've had good results using the Claw to secure vehicles in cargo bays.  I put a claw on the rover, drive up the ramp, and clamp on to the front of the cargo bay.  This has worked well even for fairly heavy rovers, like miner/refiner units.  One downside is that I haven't figured out how to build ships with an active Claw attachment, so I have to launch the rover separately, then drive it onto the aircraft.  Works fine, but would be a problem loading onto a verticall launched rocket.

That would probably also work if the Claw was mounted to the aircraft instead of the rover, haven't tried that yet.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

I had this problem before, but I was lucky enough to catch it while performing tests at the KSC. It's not enough to have the rover wheels not clipping into the floor.They must be visibly held several centimeters above it,and even then you might get a little bit of bounciness. I'm afraid you'll have to flyback to the KSC and bring a new setup.