Dakar inspired racing truck. (now with a video)

[kapteenipirk]

As you can see from the title, i have been doing some more interesting things regarding KSP.

Firstly, i learned how to use OBS so i could make some showcase/test videos of my crafts . Because of this, i finally have the chance to show what my crafts are really capable of .

But they are quite crude tough (the videos), so don't expect too much out of them.

 

Another thing that i did, was a custom suspension unit. It felt like a better idea to just make my own design instead of trying to learn the ins and outs of the  @Vagani style suspension suggested to me by @Majorjim! in my KBM-300 post.

Before i even got started, i desided that let's make things more easy and fun for our self's, and lets use some mods.

I also didn't have much success in my stock suspension tests anyways, so it made even more sense to do it this way.

I made the suspension unit a subassembly to speed things up during future builds, and to make it more easy to use for you guys.

 

And here is how to use it step by step:

1. after attaching it, you might need to do some adjustments. Ground clearance and axle width can be adjusted with the offset, and the "springs" can be adjusted by removing and adding fueltanks depending on the weight of the vehicle.

Basically, the more fuel-tanks you stack, the more "loose" it becomes, and vise versa.

2. now just strut the top fuel tank stack into the rover and you are done.

But there is one thing tough, this unit uses IR and Tweakscale, so get those first if you want to try this out.

 

Other than that, the truck is pretty much a standard build. Stock only, custom interior and stuff like that.

Everything in the truck, except the radiator grill (design was taken from a MAN truck) is very much just a "mix em up" of various racing-trucks, seen on the Dakar rally's throughout the years with an added personal touch.

 

So here is the shoddy video i made.

If you feel that there are things that need to be fixed on the video, please tell me. (today was literally the first time i've touched a video recording software).

 

You can see that the suspension is quite bouncy, that's mainly due to the weight of the vehicle being on the limit of what this thing can support without "collapsing" (it will just become far too bouncy).

But it does survive impacts really well tough.

 

I did think about just adding a couple of MK-1 cockpits to serve as the interior, but for the sake of making it look better, i made a proper interior instead.

 

 

And here are the specks for it:

Top speed: seems to be around 40-50 m/s. (recommended driving speed is 30 m/s and below. crashes and takeoffs will happen at speeds above that).

Mass: 16.1 tons.

Parts: 265.

 

Mods used: Infernal robotics and Tweakscale.

Download link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q72ak22fo91qbzk/Racing truck.zip?dl=0

 

And there it is for you, my first ever video and a nice racing-truck to go with it. I hope you enjoy it .

[Azimech]

Cool machine with a lot of detail!

Is this suspension possible without mods? I've built some custom suspensions too more than a year ago but back then there was no autostrutting. I've removed it from all the designs that I've updated to 1.2.x

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Azimech said:

Cool machine with a lot of detail!

Is this suspension possible without mods? I've built some custom suspensions too more than a year ago but back then there was no autostrutting. I've removed it from all the designs that I've updated to 1.2.x

Yeah for sure the old tricks for suspension are dead now. Stock susp seems to do a decent job on light craft but do you remember our discussions before version 1.0? About how the new amazing wheels and suspension model will be a super accurate simulation and have bump, rebound, toe, camber and all the other cool tweak-abilty of a driving sim.. That went down like a lead balloon..

[Azimech]

5 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Yeah for sure the old tricks for suspension are dead now. Stock susp seems to do a decent job on light craft but do you remember our discussions before version 1.0? About how the new amazing wheels and suspension model will be a super accurate simulation and have bump, rebound, toe, camber and all the other cool tweak-abilty of a driving sim.. That went down like a lead balloon..

I'd say a lead zeppelin but that would give them too much credit.

But ... all I'm missing at the moment is bump & rebound. We can do most of it ourselves.

Ah yeah one more thing missing: anti-roll bars. They're actually possible to build in stock but ... a lot of work!
 

By the way @Majorjim!, have you seen this topic?

 

[kapteenipirk]

15 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Cool machine with a lot of detail!

Is this suspension possible without mods? I've built some custom suspensions too more than a year ago but back then there was no autostrutting. I've removed it from all the designs that I've updated to 1.2.x

Thanks .

Well, the center of the axle has been made to pivot, so in theory you could use the thermo hinge for that (given it can support that kinda weight). As for the springs, the spider/ant engines might work, but im not sure at all.

Hmm, gonna have give it my best shot.

Wadda you say @Majorjim!, could something like that work.

11 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Yeah for sure the old tricks for suspension are dead now. Stock susp seems to do a decent job on light craft but do you remember our discussions before version 1.0? About how the new amazing wheels and suspension model will be a super accurate simulation and have bump, rebound, toe, camber and all the other cool tweak-abilty of a driving sim.. That went down like a lead balloon..

My first reaction to that was "yay, we finally get some more realistic wheels ". And my reaction after the update "great, half of my trucks are dead now because the wheels keep exploding due to wheel stress, and smaller rovers slide all over the place ". Man, what an update that was .

[Majorjim!]

Just now, kapteenipirk said:

Wadda you say @Majorjim!, could something like that work.

Without getting stuck in and trying it myself I cannot say for sure but I don't see why not.  What I will say is this, try it and keep trying it until it works! Thermo hinges can be hard to work with, they require a lot of tweaking to get right. But when made well they can do almost anything! Have a go man, and if you run into difficultly send me the craft file and I will have a look.

Just now, Azimech said:

By the way @Majorjim!, have you seen this topic?

I have not! Looking now though, cheers.

[kapteenipirk]

3 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Without getting stuck in and trying it myself I cannot say for sure but I don't see why not.  What I will say is this, try it and keep trying it until it works! Thermo hinges can be hard to work with, they require a lot of tweaking to get right. But when made well they can do almost anything! Have a go man, and if you run into difficultly send me the craft file and I will have a look.

Right, ill try and see if i can make it work .

[Azimech]

27 minutes ago, kapteenipirk said:

@Majorjim!

My first reaction to that was "yay, we finally get some more realistic wheels ". And my reaction after the update "great, half of my trucks are dead now because the wheels keep exploding due to wheel stress, and smaller rovers slide all over the place ". Man, what an update that was .

Lower the damper settings on those wheels, it helps a lot.

I forgot ... what's the name of the mod in your video, to have this wonderful expansion to the KSC? Suddenly I want it.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, kapteenipirk said:

i can make it work

That's the spirit!

[kapteenipirk]

7 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Lower the damper settings on those wheels, it helps a lot.

I forgot ... what's the name of the mod in your video, to have this wonderful expansion to the KSC? Suddenly I want it.

Thanks for the advice . Guess i might not have to do major rebuilding afterall.

The mod im using is KSC++, you also need the Kerbal Konstruck mod.

12 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

That's the spirit!

Well, as a furry little friend once said, "i can do anything if i put my mind into it ".

[kapteenipirk]

@Majorjim! @Azimech I went back to the workshop and tried out a couple of stock designs, and well, they don't really work.

First i tried the thermohinge ant engine whombo combo.

As a suspension unit, it worked beautifully. But there is one really major flaw tough.

In order to use hinges, you need separators or docking ports, and you-know, once you separate, it becomes it's own craft and you also loose all strut connections (hence the thermometers holding the "springs" in place).

The best i could do with that was get minimal control over the front wheels. The top speed was 10 m/s, the steering broke after couple of minutes, and brakes where pretty much useless.

 

The second design i tried was a bit more simple, just a whole bunch of batteries and ant engines.

The problem with this was the fact that it was solid as titanium. It showed no sings of being even remotely loose or springy.

The reason why i tested those was the fact that i actually had some success with batteries before (they where really loose/springy back then). I originally wanted to create a custom suspension system for my supply truck that i showed in the KBM-300 post.

 

Finally, i wanted to do a test with ant engines only. Basically, if this doesn't work, then nothing will.

And surely enough, the same result as above. Scratch that, i did actually manage to get it to work properly, but in order for that to happen, my rover needed to weigh over 40 tons. And even then, it was very solid.

For comparason, my Man-5 ton replica that i made completely out of structural parts (I-beams, panels, etc) and witch carried quit a lot of fuel weighed only 30 or so tons.

 

Oh, and before i forget to mention, the rover weighed in at 15.1 tons.

[Majorjim!]

9 hours ago, kapteenipirk said:

I went back to the workshop and tried out a couple of stock designs, and well, they don't really work.

Hmm.. Yeah the wheels now auto strut and you cannot disable it.. So making the wheels a separate craft would work but then.. They are a separate craft so no real vehicle control..

 Keep thinking about the problem though mate. Visualise it in your head and your mighty subconscious self will present an answer! Or just try every possible combination of parts!

[Azimech]

1 minute ago, Majorjim! said:

Hmm.. Yeah the wheels now auto strut and you cannot disable it.. So making the wheels a separate craft would work but then.. They are a separate craft so no real vehicle control..

 Keep thinking about the problem though mate. Visualise it in your head and your mighty subconscious self will present an answer! Or just try every possible combination of parts!

The wheel autostrutting works on the heaviest part ... if the heaviest part is a section of the chassis and the body pivots on that, problem solved.

[Majorjim!]

7 minutes ago, Azimech said:

The wheel autostrutting works on the heaviest part ... if the heaviest part is a section of the chassis and the body pivots on that, problem solved.

Yeah sure but on a rover that size what part is that heavy? Would have to be a bunch of clipped Ibeams or RCS tanks. Might work as he is using tweakscale.

Edited December 3, 2016 by Majorjim!

[Azimech]

7 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Yeah sure but on a rover that size what part is that heavy? Would have to be a bunch of clipped Ibeams or RCS tanks. Might work as he is using tweakscale.

I'd use a long I-beam or a 2x2 panel, keep all the other parts lighter than that.

[kapteenipirk]

Hmm, @Majorjim! @Azimech those are some interesting ideas, but i think i got a much simpler way. It might not be perfect, but i think it's about as close as we can get to the original .

And here is a video showing it.

I basically took the thermo-hinge/ant engine idea and added some extra things to it to make it actually work.

I made the wheels more slidy, added some winglets to make the thing turn, and then added some braking thrusters.

So now it works basically just like the original version, except for the fact that the suspension is more stiff (can of-course be adjusted), the front wheels don't turn, and the brakes wont work.

Because of these mods, the truck now weighs 20.7 tons and has 321 parts.

[Majorjim!]

Crikey! It's hard to comment as I really need to open it to see what is going on there but I don't use part mods or tweakscale.

[kapteenipirk]

2 minutes ago, Majorjim! said:

Crikey! It's hard to comment as I really need to open it to see what is going on there but I don't use part mods or tweakscale.

I actually was supposed to include the craft file in that comment, whoops .

So here it is then: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aqxw8hq0ka2nxvf/Ralley truck (Tornado) (stock).craft?dl=0

And don't worry, this time it's fully stock, so no tweakscale or anything like that.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, kapteenipirk said:

I actually was supposed to include the craft file in that comment, whoops .

So here it is then: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aqxw8hq0ka2nxvf/Ralley truck (Tornado) (stock).craft?dl=0

And don't worry, this time it's fully stock, so no tweakscale or anything like that.

In that case, I will definitely have a look!