Decoupling triple nuclear engine

[Marval]

Hi, I have a problem with that:

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/9334/m1u8.png

When I decouple that, engine are destroy.

Jettison that covers destroy near engine.

Is there any way to make it work?

[DMagic]

You need to rotate the nuclear engines the right way. When you activate them the covering blows off in two directions, so when you have them grouped like this the covering from one engine can slam into another and destroy it. I'm not sure exactly what direction they need to be rotated, just use Q and E or Shift+Q/E to rotate them and keep trying it out until you get them in the right orientation.

[UnthinkableThinker]

Try using docking ports instead of decouplers on the bottom, it might help.

[Sirine]

Refer to bellow.

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[Virindi]

You can also easily make a quad LV-N drive section by attaching the engines through cubic struts and leaving the bottom of them unattached, then running a structural member through the middle to a decoupler on the next stage. Keep in mind that, like in your picture, when you try to attach the bottoms of the 3 engines the way you have to a splitter, only one of them actually attaches anyway.

[Marval]

Rotate the engines work, thank you very much.

[codepants]

These guys have answered your question, but FYI, you rarely ever need more than two nuclear engines. They aren't that powerful, sure, but when you're in space, you've got all the time in the world because there are no drag losses. I only use more than two if I'm moving something HUGE (more than one orange tank worth), but at that point a lot of people switch over to Skippers or Mainsails.

[Jarin]

I liked having three LV-N on my orbital tug, but that was an orange tank body + framework AND whatever it was pushing around.

Incidentally, I got it into orbit with a kludged framework and radially-mounted decouplers that actually had my tug's engines free-hanging over the body of the lifter.