giant rover wheels

[Stilgar2300]

I love them but I have never been able to send them to another planet. To big and messes up my rocket. Does anyone actually use them off OK kerbin

[Whackjob]

I tried once.

It did not end well.

[Stilgar2300]

I tried once.

It did not end well.

I think my computer wet itself a little

[Whackjob]

I think my computer wet itself a little

Don't look at anything else I post in, god help you!

[Sirine]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/50559-Serial-Multiplayer-Space-Program-0-22-Kethane-KAS?p=695819&viewfull=1#post695819

Someone did, send my design to the Mun.

[Spatzimaus]

Here was my old Mun rover, using those wheels:

I'm not happy with them, since they fall apart a bit too easily, but for really huge rovers they're really the only choice.

[FatboyTim]

I used them for a Kethane-mining Mun rover, but felt the wheels weren't really strong enough when I had a full fuel load.

It was nothing so elaborate as Spatzimaus creation above though...

I would've loved to have seen that landed.

[Spatzimaus]

It was nothing so elaborate as Spatzimaus creation above though...

Heh, you think THAT's elaborate? That rover (from version 0.19) was only ~200 tons. The new version, which I haven't sent to Mun yet:

It's just over 400 tons sans Kethane. Lifting it to Mun isn't the problem; I can do that easily enough, since I've got an SSTO booster that regularly lifts 900-ton payloads into circular Kerbin orbits. The problem I'm having now is that any time I make a turn on Kerbin, it shreds at least one tire. This might or might not happen on Mun, given its much lower gravity, but I'm seeing what I can do to minimize the issue first. So for now I'm sticking with smaller designs that don't need those giant wheels, ones that work fine even on Kerbin, but that limits the size of my rovers to maybe 30 tons. (The smaller rovers are fun to drive, though.)

Besides the shredding issue, the large wheels have a real problem attaching to a curved surface; the tangent line is just too small, so you have to use a bunch of struts to keep the wheels rigid enough to handle the strain. If you look closely as the picture of my old version, you see I put flat plates on the sides for the wheels to attach to, with four struts linking each plate to the body, but even that doesn't work too well at the masses I'm dealing with.

I would've loved to have seen that landed.

It wasn't that tough, really. On the old version, there were detachable booster pods placed at the ends of the two "arms", drawing fuel from the main body. Once down, I dumped those pods. The real pain was that the design predated the flywheel change, so I had to steer solely with RCS, and that almost made the whole thing fail at one point. The new version uses flywheels and integral engines (enough to get TWR=2.0 on Mun), so it should be much easier to land.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Spatzimaus

[Vrana]

My old Mun base:

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4 base modules+tanker module+visting spaceship/rover all docked on surface.

[Merinsan]

I have a few times, Mostly on the Mun. I seem to recall putting a rover with said wheels on Duna or Eve in an old save.

It's not too hard once you learn how to put huge payloads into orbit. The biggest payload I've done is about 6 orange tanks - a rover with giant wheels is nothing compared to that.

My typical payloads are around 1 orange tank in weight.

The biggest problem with these rovers though is landing them.

I've come up with a number of crazy designs for that. The craziest was to land it upright and get it to fall down onto it's wheels. The best approach is to just load it with fuel, and make it so it can land itself, but it cuts back on crew space. The approach I often use for landing rovers is to put a rocket on top, with inline decouplers. Once it's landed, I decouple and fly the landing mechanism away to crash. You just need to make sure the COT is down low enough, or it becomes impossible to control.

[FlamedSteak]

I put this down on Duna. To be honest, it was one of my less hair raising missions, but I did plan and test the hell out of it.

[djnattyd]

I tried once.

It did not end well.

Judging by your other creations, this one seems quite modest. Still makes my processor weep though.

[celem]

I use those wheels almost exclusively.

Everytime I go to build a rover I start with a tiny, automated, realistic rover...

And end up with what is to all intents and purposes a 200-part tank. They are usually the only wheels that get me the clearance I need.

That said, first time I used them on a kethane-equipped rover I discovered they also tend to raise my drills too high.

Rovers are something I need to get to grips with, mine are always monstrosities, usually making journeys solo, because they can. (rover @ 50 tonnes that can take itself lko to duna surface and land)

I just fail at designing small stuff, by the time they are that large its more part-count efficient not to provide them with external propulsion solutions.

I really do want to start using those round 'inflated-looking' wheels. Apart from anything else the monster-ones weigh too much.

[Duke-49th]

I love them but I have never been able to send them to another planet. To big and messes up my rocket. Does anyone actually use them off OK kerbin

Yep

[Tidus Klein]

I use those wheels almost exclusively.

Everytime I go to build a rover I start with a tiny, automated, realistic rover...

And end up with what is to all intents and purposes a 200-part tank. They are usually the only wheels that get me the clearance I need.

That said, first time I used them on a kethane-equipped rover I discovered they also tend to raise my drills too high.

Rovers are something I need to get to grips with, mine are always monstrosities, usually making journeys solo, because they can. (rover @ 50 tonnes that can take itself lko to duna surface and land)

I just fail at designing small stuff, by the time they are that large its more part-count efficient not to provide them with external propulsion solutions.

I really do want to start using those round 'inflated-looking' wheels. Apart from anything else the monster-ones weigh too much.

The polar opposite over here. Smalls is my specialty,I once built a rover and used it as an entire two stage lander on the Mun, it landed roved around jettisoned the wheels and docked back with the CM all while only using 4 of the rugiderized wheels. not to mention the micro rovers I sends to planets before any type of big mission. 12 parts of roving awesomeness!

[Catullus]

I love the big ones but they're too wobbly to use that much. Hit a bump with them and your front wheels bend back like a banana.

[Boris_T_Roach]

Not usually , but inspired by Whackjob.....

Bill and Jeb had a go at building a suitable rover.... but found it has a slight design flaw while test driving it..

Boris

[phunk]

I used them to build a massive eve lander, that was basically a mobile launch platform, carrying a large asparagus rocket, that was supposed to drive to higher ground. Didn't use enough of them though, and they broke too easily. Planning on making it even bigger and trying again.

[ArmchairGravy]

I've been known to use them...

Had to seperate this due to lag, but hopefully the optimizations in .23 will let me put it back together.

[jurfburf]

Does anybody remember those animated gifs that were going around sometime right before .18 came out that showed the wheels as being retractable?

One of my biggest conceits is that I want all my payloads to fit into "realistic" looking fairings so I always have a bit of a rough time using wheels- of any sort- much less the huge ones, which would be really awesome for a huge kethane miner.

[M5000]

Of course! I love those big wheels!

The lifter for this thing was insane, it was like four massive lifters, one on each corner. I still have no idea how, or why, that entire mission worked.

Here it was landing...

Kind of a bad picture but it shows the skycrane (more of a landercrane, as it landed first then dropped the rover a short distance onto the surface) in the background.

And here it is in all of its 12-wheel glory.

Yes, there was a MechJeb module on the back. No, I did the flight entirely manually, I just needed MJ to help with rover autopiloting. To be entirely honest, this was probably my favorite (and best) rover I've ever launched. It crewed 16 Kerbals and I was constantly leaping and bounding over hills and craters with no real damage... Though, there was one point where I blew out all the wheels from going too fast. I slid over a kilometer until it finally stopped so a Kerb could get out and repair the wheels. That was fun... Though, through the whole mission, I don't believe there was a single hitch. Not one quicksave or quickload, no structural failures, it actually held together quite well, surprisingly.

[Bizmar]

I started using these wheels when learning to land on the Mun. They have some of the highest impact tolerance in the stock game which makes up for some of my less than perfect landings. You can come down really hard on these with out them breaking, usually breaking the connection before the wheel itself. They also stick out so far that they give you a lot of stability on uneven surfaces.