How to keep kerbals from flying out of the command seats?

[pantheis]

I've built spaceships, I've landed on various moons and planets, so I decided with "Science!" now available to try my hand a building a rover.

And I did! And it looks and drives awesome! Very low to the ground and very stable, very sturdy... except...

The blasted kerbals keep flying out of their command seats while I'm driving around. I see them rubber banding around in the command seat and after a tight turn, one (or both) of the kerbals go flying out of their seats. Checking the mission log it shows "structural failure between Kerbal and Command Seat" (slightly paraphrased).

How do I keep my kerbals in their seats?

Edited April 24, 2014 by pantheis
KJR was at fault, fixed now

[TechnicalK3rbal]

Try to reduce the G.'s endured by the kerbals.

[pantheis]

Try to reduce the G.'s endured by the kerbals.

I suppose I over-engineered the rover. It's capable of a top speed on Kerbin of over 20m/s on level ground and can turn very quickly without risk of flipping over. I guess it's just too much for the seats to handle. Other than driving around slower (boo!) any other suggestions? Anyone know of a command module style mod item that's small enough to fit in the space that the two command seats take and has a forward looking window with the hatch entry on the top or sides (not rear, that's blocked by other stuff)?

[Azereiah]

I don't have those issues.

The Command Seats may be positioned in a way such that the Kerbals are clipping through another object and are therefore being knocked around?

[pantheis]

The command seats are positioned flat against a structural plate in an upright position. They don't seem to be clipping through anything nor do the kerbals that are attached to them. The kerbals themselves rubberband around near the seats with even slight acceleration / braking though, so something is definitely a bit off. I was expecting the kerbals to be very rigidly attached to the seats and not move around at all.

[Roxette]

Somebody needs to write a seat belt mod I once built a 40 seat bus for amusement and jumped it off the launch pad - kerbals flying everywhere.

[pantheis]

I tried to use module manager to add SQUID to the command seats, but all that ended up happening was the game crashed. It was late and I haven't revisited that idea yet. If it works like I think it should the kerbals should be quite stuck to the seats.

[catastrophy]

Daww, I was just thinking about launching a parade without seat belt into orbit. For science - I might to it nonetheless.

I once built a kind of cage for a suborbital EVA and was lucky when the Kerbal didn't fly out. He sure did survive some stress. It would have been more safer with the robotic arm mod I used before the latest version.

[DrMonte]

Currently I'm running tests for my Jool mission on Kerbin.

I've hit a wall in my rover test at ~23m/s and both Kerbals stayed in the seats. Also they were happy in lander/launcher at ~3G.

I suppose main issue is side force. Kerbals should be able to sit tight to high G if you keep it straight.

You might try rotating seats to the rover center _/_\_ and have a roof. Would be interesting if this helps.

[magnemoe]

Cliping might have them falling out easy, howver they also tend to fall out if you do to hard landings. The type who have the tires pop also tend to pop kerbals.

I use an simple bumper and roller cage to make it harder for them to be thrown out and I have to collect them so they can repair the tires.

[PhanThom]

I've never had that before. Perhaps it's just a glitch. You should send a message to Squad. https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/contact.php

[vexx32]

Never seen this be an issue before... if you're using any mods, they might be triggering some kind of glitch. I know the Lazor System used to exhibit weird behaviour where Kerbals would fall out of seats and then glitch, not properly being "disconnected" from the seat (i.e., you wouldn't be able to walk them around, and you couldn't go back into the seat even if you happened to be close enough).

[pantheis]

My guess is the Kerbal Joint Reinforcement mod may be playing with the joint strengths of the command seat -> kerbal interaction. It's also possible my rover somehow has some clipping happening, although I'm not quite sure how. I'll play with it a bit more.

[nhnifong]

The kerbals can stay in their seats till around 10 Gs in my experience. You try staying in your seat at 10 Gs!

[pantheis]

The kerbals can stay in their seats till around 10 Gs in my experience. You try staying in your seat at 10 Gs!

I'll have to check out how many G's I'm pulling on those turns, but what concerns me most is that even minor acceleration or braking causes the kerbals to rubberband in their seats.

[SSSPutnik]

Strut them in!