How to balance a vehicle ?

[A3D1]

so i've built a nice little car with x3 wheels and 3 Drills at the front , but the thing is that hes twisted in the front and thats a problem cause whenever i use brake it loses his balanceand gose only at front wheels. i imagine its because of the weight of those 3 drills at the front so id if theres a way to balance 2 parts.
i've half maxed the strenght of 4 wheels but no resultat.

[Svartis]

make the strenght on the front wheels less then the back maybe

[A3D1]

Originally posted by Oddipod:

make the strenght on the front wheels less then the back maybe

i'll try that , thx

[mid endian]

Keep in mind once you fill up your cargo container it's going to shift the weight back towards them from the drill bits. Sometimes I just use armor blocks to balance out my drilling Rovers and make sure that the cargo container is right there at the center of mass. Whether it's empty or full, it shouldn't shift the weight around a bunch.

[Botji]

You can also just add more stuff to the back of the vehicle, add some extra storage space, a few solar panels, another battery or perhaps even use the artificial mass blocks.

... Or you make the vehicle longer with the same equipment you have now, a longer vehicle will bring back the center of gravity further away from the front as long as you have at least some weight in the rear so it might still be front heavy but perhaps it wont simply flip when you stop.

You can see the center of gravity if you toggle it in the info panel of the vehicle, very useful for problems like this or when trying to balance a gravity drive for example :)

[Mikal]

Originally posted by Oddipod:

make the strenght on the front wheels less then the back maybe

Yeah you've probably solved it now but that is the answer, I built a 4 wheel vehicle that was listing to the right side and playing with the wheel settings fixed it.

[BurlsoL]

Originally posted by Botji:

You can also just add more stuff to the back of the vehicle, add some extra storage space, a few solar panels, another battery or perhaps even use the artificial mass blocks.

... Or you make the vehicle longer with the same equipment you have now, a longer vehicle will bring back the center of gravity further away from the front as long as you have at least some weight in the rear so it might still be front heavy but perhaps it wont simply flip when you stop.

You can see the center of gravity if you toggle it in the info panel of the vehicle, very useful for problems like this or when trying to balance a gravity drive for example :)

This is the better answer. Although you can compensate with wheel height and strength, it is best to do those things only when necessary instead of being the norm.


Although a cargo container can add more weight when a vehicle is under load, this can lead to a reverse situation where the back is too heavy and you can't reasonably drive uphill without losing traction, or downhill without things sliding. If you were relying on wheel settings to compensate previously, you may not be able to adjust for the new weight distribution or may notice the problem too late. For this reason, cargo containers are usually best off near the center of the vehicle. This helps ensure that as you get loaded, your weight will become more central.

For counterbalancing, batteries work well since they have a constant weight and you usually need a few for anything that uses any amount of power. If you need to balance right to left, or need to offset non-symetrical parts, artificial mass blocks can be used on one side where you might have a piece of armor on the other. Even though the effect of these being powered doesn't work in planetary gravity, they have an unpowered weight that is fairly large compared to their bulk.

[Smokey]

try artificial mass at the rear of the vehicle, single item that can solve things like that.

[NYVS]

This sounds like a classic play on the reliant robin design.
I find if you are using cargo containers, to keep cargo low on the design of the wheeled vehicle, and try to center it within the vehicle. I find this helps the best to prevent rolling the vehicle during turns, as well as with braking performance.

[Dan2D3D]

The Shape, Mass, Strength and Friction are the ones you have to mess with to find the best solution for not "flipping over"

My best race car is made with heavy armor and low profile, I sometime use a few Blast door blocks to add mass but I may have to add more "Strength" on some wheels.