Post your Rover MEGATHREAD

[Commissar]

it's amphibious, and it does ~50 m/s on land, or in the water, unless kerbal bugs out...

has problems with rolling on jumps

[Tyr Anasazi]

I built a rover that can blow many things up at once. It has a multiple rocket launch system on it. Pretty accurate too. I am thinking of making it able to fly as well - thoughts?

Here is a photo as well as a super-artistic video showing it in action:

https://vimeo.com/116184288

[Yukon0009]

[Repseki]

My first Rover that can actually drive somewhere without flipping over after ten seconds. Originally planned on making something small enough to fit inside a MkII Short Cargo Bay so it could be dropped over Kerbin "survey" sites by plane, but getting the Rovemax M1 wheels crammed in close enough made it very tippy. I don't have the larger Cargo Bay unlocked yet, so not sure if this will fit, but I'll probably keep trying to tweak one small enough to work either way.

It has a Jr Clamp on the back for attachment, a z-400 Battery on the bottom that you can't really see, the 8 sided drone behind the seat, and a few parachutes to hopefully survive the drop.

[Frank_G]

I am currently working in a rover for my grand tour mission. I think, i am almost there.

[richfiles]

Hmm... I made a new rover. I've got Jeb and the gang flying it over to Eve, with the goal of landing it on Gilly.

Since Gilly is so tiny, I decided to take advantage of the low gravity and go BIG!

Also, in the long standing tradition of naming my large vessels after disasters (Titanic, Challenger, Columbia, Fitzgerald, etc)... BEHOLD!!! CORN...

I mean, "Gilly Vanilli" <-- Clearly inspired by an unmitigated disaster***! XD

In all seriousness, after blowing the launch stability decouplers (small decouplers with strut points attached to add rigidity to the suspension during launch), this 32 wheeled monstrosity of a vessel weighsin at 44.8 tons (on Kerbin). I think on Gilly, it would only weigh 480 pounds... Not bad. Due to Gilly's low gravity, I decided to include ALL relevant science instruments, the science lab, and give it VTOL capacity (under Gilly's gravity anyway). It has landing legs that both protect the wheels during landing, and jack it up for wheel repair. It carries a massive xenon tank, RTGs, and some gigantor solar arrays for the trip back to Kerbin. It also has parachutes so it can perform it's own landing once back home...

And I've gotten it going 46 m/s (102 MPH) in the hills behind the KSC. It can get all 32 wheels off the ground jumping the runway embankment or the aforementioned hills! This thing is like a locomotive barreling at you, off the rails, all wheels off the ground, at twice the posted speed limit! XD

I built a double rocker bogie suspension using the standard size docking port. Due to the docking port's exceptional flexibility, compressibility, and docking strength, the bogies prove surprisingly resilient, even at speed, and even when landing hard, such as when the rover catches air off a jump. I have no idea HOW much further I can push it, but my next test will be to fire up the nuclear engine on the rear at 100% and tick the infinite fuel cheat, so I can see just how far I can get from KSC before the speed or terrain destroys the rover. I'm hoping to perform a continental drive, if it proves resilient enough.

I have only destroyed the vehicle from rollover at speed, or by collision. I destroyed the runway once by hitting it too hard from the side, the rubble shredded the suspension, but not the vehicle. I was doing about 25 m/s (56 MPH). Only the front suspension broke on impact. I have found the vehicle is prone to roling if you turn too sharply while at speed. I rolled it when I tried to turn at 102 MPH... real smart...

Even crazier... No deaths! I've tested 5 of these vehicles to destruction... Not one fatality!

You know... I might just start a cross continental drive today!

Mods used:

Tweakscale: To make the enormus xenon tank (same diameter as the science lab!)

Goodspeed: for pumping/balancing fuel beteen tanks, without needing lines.

Kethane: The Kethane detector on the vessel's nose.

Mechjeb: Because real rockets have flight navigation computers, and people who deny MechJeb are very clearly masochists! XD

***Milli Vanilli was a performer (early 1990s, if I recal) that got caught lip syncing his entire playlist... He didn't voice ANY of his music. it was all a "man behind the curtain". Destroyed his career. Also, "his" music sucked anyway! XD

Edited January 14, 2015 by richfiles

[Sampa]

Even crazier... No deaths! I've tested 5 of these vehicles to destruction... Not one fatality!

Careful, you may have just jinxed it.

[richfiles]

Did two more runs. Caught air... MAJOR air... as in I went over a ridge and was 50% of the vehicle's height off the ground. When I hit, I more or less nose dived and it sheared the front suspension bogie. Interestingly, I was able to very clearly see the mechanism that the suspension seems to "save" the vessel by. The long rectangular strut pieces come free of the cone shaped strut, but the docking port remains firmly attached. the rover skids on the pegs that remain, the docking ports bouncing and springing around to allow the vehicle to skid to a safe speed. Landing legs and long rectangular struts are on both sides of the vessel as well, and the nose is long. All these factor into acting as crumple zones/skids that kill all the speed very quickly. The science lab is a weak point, but I may simply add a second inline cockpit and transfer crew out of the lab when in flight or when rolling. Despite the suspension failure happening while landing a ridge peak jump at 48.2 m/s (107.8 MPH), I'd say the vehicle came out pretty unscathed! the Science Jr nose was destroyed, but not the leading fuel tank. The belly RTGs were destroyed, along with the bottom ion engines, but that was the only damage to the core vessel. All 4 bogie pivots remained intact, along with the entire upper suspension structure.

The last failure actually happened at a much lower speed, and was not major... buuuut...

A rainbow of FAIL!!! My engineer can't change a stupid tire! If any other two tires had failed, I might have carried on through that mountain pass, but not BOTH the outside leaders, NOPE! That's begging to dirt plant if I pick up any speed. I was only doing 33 m/s (73.8 MPH), but hit a particularly rough bump while cutting between a pair of mountains. Darn it Alley Kerman (who is totally a girl in my game, cause that name! Dang it, we need girlbals in the space program!!! LOL)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=375218178

The 17.5 km and 28.9 km flags mark the failure points of the last two runs... Each run has started from the runway, so this last run has gone about 30 km! I'm trying to cross the "Africa" shaped portion of the continent that the KSC is located on. I recalled Billy-Bobdan and Alley Kerman and plan to level them up on an asteroid capture mission that's coming up... maybe drop them on Mun and Minmus real quick... You know, so she can FIX A FRIGGIN TIRE!!! XD

I'll return them to the Gilly Vanilli rover with a sub orbital drop capsule. Alley can fix the wheels, and they can get on their way. They are also officially members of my Ace team backups if they make it to the distant shores. Wilsy is a Scientist, so that works out, as that makes them Pilot, Engineer and Scientist! WOOT!!! I'll have a "B" team!

Edited January 15, 2015 by richfiles

[eddiew]

Not much compared to many of the designs in this thread, but I thought he was cute enough to share

Seismobug class rover, my favoured ultra-light (372kg) surveyor. As his name suggests, he's just big enough for a seismometer and thermometer duo. Small reaction wheel at his core keeps him stable despite his small wheelbase (drive in docking mode!). His older brother has been on Mun for about 200 days so far and has completed three survey missions to date with no damage sustained - let's hope this little guy proves as useful!

Can be moved from LKO to Minmus' or Mun's surface on a small tank of fuel, and fits in a spaceplane MK2 cargo bay; but this Moho mission needed a tad more grunt to land him safely, and Antenna Range mandated a communications relay anyway.

The dropship's 2.5m cargo bay is provided by SXT while most other parts are stock + TweakScale. Some part clipping required, but nothing horribly abusive

[bdito]

It redocks so I can fly it home.

[Spartwo]

On the flipside of a rover carrying plane.

I'd call that a design flaw.

[sharpspoonful]

Javascript is disabled. View full album

My TRacked, Long-Range Scout - Colony Survey Rover. Made for atmospheric scouting and surveying, I took inspiration from the Haglund ATV. I want these to support a mission on Duna, as the setup is fairly flexible to support multiple missions. I just wish I could limit the uncontrolled IR joints. As it stands right now, the whole tractor-trailer turns rather than pivoting horizontally. Mods: IR Rework, LLL, Gravatons and more!, TAC-LS, KAS, Karbonite, Texture Replacer, KVV for the screenshots, and Tweakscale.

Edited January 21, 2015 by sharpspoonful
wrong link.

[richfiles]

Not much compared to many of the designs in this thread, but I thought he was cute enough to share

Seismobug class rover, my favoured ultra-light (372kg) surveyor. As his name suggests, he's just big enough for a seismometer and thermometer duo. Small reaction wheel at his core keeps him stable despite his small wheelbase (drive in docking mode!).

That's a pretty cute rover! Dead opposite of mine too! LOL! Mine is 44 tons! Anyway, I landed one on Mun and one on Minmus. MAN did I cut it close on Mun. Ended up with a night landing, with engines that BARELY could slow it... and no Radar altimeter, as I had forced myself to control from one of the suspension docking ports, to keep me vertical. If I switched to IVA, it would rotate my controls 90° when it reset my control point.

I did some testing on Minmus. Top speed of Gilly Vanilli is 134 MPH (60 m/s). The wheels themselves simply can't take anything higher. They just shred, even on Minmus's flats. I've gotten incredible air as well, and on a low gravity body like Minmus, I've been able to land, or cushion my landings using the down facing ion engines, well enough to have NO vessel damage at all, not even a single blown tire... This on a trip that covered over 1/3 the distance around the moon, over 110 km!

I have no idea what this thing will do or how it'll handle when I actually get it to Gilly. I know I won't be driving 134 MPH... I'd probably launch!

[BaryonicMan]

Jebediah and Bill were testing a new rover/lander prototype. All went well, until they bumped into the VAB...

[fenya]

Simple and reliable suspension. Increases the strength and durabilityof the rover in two, if not three times.

[Flixxbeatz]

Something I designed for extended interplanetary rover missions. While it may not look that impressive, it's built to last - it won't just simply give up.

Land tests passed! Now for the missions...

[Chaotic]

Scooby is my go-to.

Grappling hooks are used for when vehicle rolls out of control. Works brilliantly for immediate anchoring.

Carries around 11,000ec on board, with another 20,000 in capacitor? Not that I ever run out of charge, but he recharges quite quickly.

Obviously can drive upside down without trouble. Landing gear on the sides rotate and flip vehicle onto tracks.

Storage containers on hinges, so they are accessible regardless of vehicle orientation.

Practically indestructible. Launched off a few different "mountains" on Mun, let him roll for 400-500 meters. Just walked away, and let it tumble for a few minutes. No damage. Probably doesn't hurt that there's a total of 30-40 strut bars on it....Maxes out on Mun at around 25 m/s? I think. 15m/s on a 45 degree uphill. Need to test on other surfaces.

There's a smaller version named Scrappy, of course. Working on a larger version.

[Wabbit]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-03_00001_zpsjwtzkdra.jpg

Scooby is my go-to.

Grappling hooks are used for when vehicle rolls out of control. Works brilliantly for immediate anchoring.

Carries around 11,000ec on board, with another 20,000 in capacitor? Not that I ever run out of charge, but he recharges quite quickly.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-03_00002_zpscxehbiva.jpg

Obviously can drive upside down without trouble. Landing gear on the sides rotate and flip vehicle onto tracks.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-01_00044_zpsaxjzoc64.jpg

Storage containers on hinges, so they are accessible regardless of vehicle orientation.

Practically indestructible. Launched off a few different "mountains" on Mun, let him roll for 400-500 meters. Just walked away, and let it tumble for a few minutes. No damage. Probably doesn't hurt that there's a total of 30-40 strut bars on it....Maxes out on Mun at around 25 m/s? I think. 15m/s on a 45 degree uphill. Need to test on other surfaces.

There's a smaller version named Scrappy, of course. Working on a larger version.

Awesome! That thing is a rover and a half!

[Cobalt60]

I made a huge exploration rover with a smaller rover inside that can drive back into the bigger rover.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109076-Chariot-of-Medusa-Rover

[JaredTheDragon]

I made a space-truck with the B9 S3 cockpit. Even made a semi-type truck bed attached by docking ports. Then I made it all VTOL. Then I made a launchable fusion-powered version. It lands horribly back home, but does fine to the moons and drives quite nicely.

[Littlestlynch]

This is a laggy work in progress. The Sandcrawler! I think it's about a 1/4 of actual size.

The link you want is Imgur's BBC code. Copy/paste it into your posts, like this.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Vanamonde

[Sampa]

Yeah...rovers...not my biggest forte'...

[Kip336]

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-03_00001_zpsjwtzkdra.jpg

Scooby is my go-to.

Grappling hooks are used for when vehicle rolls out of control. Works brilliantly for immediate anchoring.

Carries around 11,000ec on board, with another 20,000 in capacitor? Not that I ever run out of charge, but he recharges quite quickly.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-03_00002_zpscxehbiva.jpg

Obviously can drive upside down without trouble. Landing gear on the sides rotate and flip vehicle onto tracks.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a85/Chaotic762/2015-02-01_00044_zpsaxjzoc64.jpg

Storage containers on hinges, so they are accessible regardless of vehicle orientation.

Practically indestructible. Launched off a few different "mountains" on Mun, let him roll for 400-500 meters. Just walked away, and let it tumble for a few minutes. No damage. Probably doesn't hurt that there's a total of 30-40 strut bars on it....Maxes out on Mun at around 25 m/s? I think. 15m/s on a 45 degree uphill. Need to test on other surfaces.

There's a smaller version named Scrappy, of course. Working on a larger version.

What mod is the cabin from?

[JaredTheDragon]

That looks like the Overlook Cabin (I think it's called?) from the B9 Aerospace mod.

[Tyrred]

JaredTheDragon... That's quite the ludicrous spacetruck jalopy you got there... How many redneck kerbals can hitch a ride?