Rover advice?

[MaverickSawyer]

I've never been much of a rover builder, until recently. However, I just caught the rover bug, and started with something that I can airlift to points around Kerbin...

However, it's nose heavy, and has a disturbing tendency to completely obliterate the front wheels.

As you can see, the crew is unhappy at their premature return to the Space Center due to a missing front right wheel.

This has been bothering me for a few days now... Does anyone have any good advice for designing compact rovers?

[Dispatcher]

Ideally, your design would be symmetrical, in terms of balance.

[inventor121]

fix a docking port to the cargo bay and then another one to the bottom of the rover and attach the two via the docking ports (you may have to use an empty fuel tank to keep your wheels off the floor of the cargo bay

[MaverickSawyer]

Ideally, your design would be symmetrical, in terms of balance.

Having a little trouble with that, as the Kerbals DO add weight. Not sure how much, need to check.

fix a docking port to the cargo bay and then another one to the bottom of the rover and attach the two via the docking ports (you may have to use an empty fuel tank to keep your wheels off the floor of the cargo bay

That's what the KAS is for, in addition to added hill-climbing ability.

[tobjv]

Having a little trouble with that, as the Kerbals DO add weight. Not sure how much, need to check.

That's what the KAS is for, in addition to added hill-climbing ability.

Mass Tool is great to use.

The way you have KAS set up does not form a rigid connection. your wheels can bounce around and get ripped off. The clamps are rigid though.

Edited May 7, 2014 by tobjv
editing

[MaverickSawyer]

Ok, perhaps I should make some clarifying statements:

The wheel broke off while driving around the Island Airfield, not on the plane.

The winches are pulling a slight amount of tension to keep the rover from bouncing around or rolling.

Mass Tool is great to use.

What's Mass Tool?

[biohazard15]

Ok, perhaps I should make some clarifying statements:

The wheel broke off while driving around the Island Airfield, not on the plane.

The winches are pulling a slight amount of tension to keep the rover from bouncing around or rolling.

What's Mass Tool?

Mass Tool is a little button with green weight on it

It won't show correct weight distribution for a rover with command seats, though - it won't account for Kerbals (90 kg each).

Three major flaws in your design:

1) Command seats should be at the CoM. Currently, your rover is front-heavy - that means poor handling and unreliable braking.

2) KAS connections isn't as reliable as it may look. You'd better do as inventor121 suggests and use docking ports to connect your rover to the airplane.

3) Do not use RoveMax 1 for such heavy design - TR-2L is your best friend here.