[0.20] Crawler Heavy Duty Rover

[sauliukas]

I would like to share two of my workhorse rovers. Crawler Mk1 and Crawler Mk3. First one is 4 wheel drive unmanned rover with 2 seats for kerbals, but has plenty of space for adding more seats or other devices.

Second one is Crawler Mk3 6 wheel drive rover. It has plenty of room to attach additional seats or devices.

Both rovers are nuclear powered so don't need batteries or solar panels.

After lots of tests on Kerbin surface, I can say they are very robust. Especially Crawler Mk3 it can drive with only 3 wheels left without any problems. Possible to drive with only 1 or 2 wheels, but needs corrective steering and is rather slow, but could be able to limp back to base. The weakest point of the rovers are front damage. At Kerbin hitting the wall at speeds higher than 10 m/s is not recommended. It will survive impact, but may lose some not structural parts such as Nuclear generators, lights, landing gear and etc. Hitting an object with the rear of vehicle might destroy docking port.

Crawler Mk3 is extremely stable and should not roll easy, but if you go roof down there are landing gears which will put you back on wheels. The only problem might be if you end up front up after a roll, the only way to go back on wheels is if somebody pushes it back on wheels or roof.

Both vehicles brakes only with rear wheels to avoid rolls over front.

If you want more stability in corners, especially at high speed you should steer only with front wheels.

Because of space constraints getting into Crawler Mk3 cockpit is tricky, you should get as close as possible and board the seat which is on top of cockpit, leave the seat and board the cockpit. To make it easier you can add 1 seat at the back of rover, so you can board it, leave it, board top seat, leave it and board the cockpit.

Crawler Mk1

Crawler Mk3

Action Groups:

9 - toggles rear stearing

0 - toggles landing gear

Craft files:

Crawler Mk1

Crawler Mk3

Edited May 30, 2013 by sauliukas
update