make wheels strong again

[king of nowhere]

two years ago, I made a rover with a very elaborate roll cage. It was very fun to drive.

Recently I tried to reuse it. Unfortunately, while the roll cage still holds, the wheels became very frail since an update one year ago or something. I keep breaking them.

I tried to add some retractable mechanism that can be activated to protect the wheels when the rover capsizes. but it's not enough; often the wheels break as soon as the rover starts skidding on the ground. I can't make an elcano in those conditions, i'd need too many repair kits, and it's not fun to drive anymore.

Is there any way to make wheels harder?

 

(no, I am not asking how to make a better rover. I can make better rovers and I have made better rovers. Right now I am asking how to have wheels that won't break at every sneeze)

[Vanamonde]

I have had wheels fail to grip, but not break unless they hit something really hard. Which kind of wheels? 

[king of nowhere]

1 hour ago, Vanamonde said:

I have had wheels fail to grip, but not break unless they hit something really hard. Which kind of wheels? 

the tr-2l ruggedized. they are supposedly the sturdiest, besides the xl3 which are really too heavy (and the time i tried them, they still broke too easily).

the rover is in the 30 tons range, cruise speed is around 30 m/s, yes, I realize wanting to move at 100 km/h on a 30-tons truck and not break anything when losing control and rolling on the ground is quite a high target, but in the past the rover did just that; it could also jump inside craters on mun, something that nowadays is equivalent to deleting the vehicle.

the wheels are quite sturdy when they hit the ground frontally - indeed, all my later rovers relied on reaction wheels to hit the ground with the right angle rather than on roll cages - but when they hit the ground laterally, they are extremely frail. if the rover takes an asymmetric bump so that it turns on a side, even if it barely lifts from the ground it always breaks a wheel. sometimes it breaks a wheel just by skidding laterally.

I tried to augment the wheels with plane wheels for extra resistance, but the plane wheels also apparently explode very easily if they are hit in the wrong direction.

[Vanamonde]

Maybe add more wheels to distribute the stresses? 

[king of nowhere]

28 minutes ago, Vanamonde said:

Maybe add more wheels to distribute the stresses? 

nope.

on one hand, the rover in question has rockets and isru capability, can't have too much weight in wheels too or it can't go places.

but more important, I used lighter rovers with less wheels. my leaping mantis rover that I used for the wal elcano had 16 ruggedized wheels for 8 tons of mass, and even it broke wheels easily if i hit the ground at the wrong angle. which is basically any kind of lateral hit. leaping mantis relied on lots of reaction wheels and quick steering on my part to always land upright. dancing porcupine, the old rover, doesn't have enough reaction wheel and relied on its roll cage to protect from every angle. which worked because back in that time, wheels were nearly indestructible.

[king of nowhere]

oh, I think I managed. I used both plane wheels and struts. plane wheels level with the rover wheels on the exterior protect the wheels from lateral hits on the ground - it tolerates impacts in a larger angle than the rover wheels -  and the struts protect the plane wheels from impacts from directions that they cannot take