Ideas for wheeled mining vehicles?

[Miedein]

So here's the story. Been trying to go with wheeled mining vehicles cause of all the hazards of over filling by accident on a suitable mining ship for the planets. And I've tested around with wheeled vehicle mining in my test world and got a system that works with a rotored drill arm to change the pitch of the drills to allow downward sloping.

The problem we've been having with any wheeled vehicle is suspension. Hitting a tiny bump too hard or wrong and the vehicle shoots off flying.

What we got so far for our 6th attempt at just a wheeled transport is 10 degree wheel turn. Only the front tires turn. 4 wheeled vehicle. 45% suspension travel. 50% friction, 30% power. 10% strength. Speed limit set to 60kp/h But even still just barely touching the steering makes it feel like it wants to flip and we don't dare trying to drive it on any sort of rough terrain. We're using small ship 3x3 wheeled suspension for the wheels also.

Any ideas or suggestions from others with wheeled vehicles (preferrably mining vehicles) on suspension settings for something that's stable and somewhat easy to handle?

[DoomHammer]

Ok somethings to help you out. You need to design the center of mass of the vehicle. Lower is better. there is a check box in one of the "k" menu tabs. SLOW DOWN! 60Kmp/h is way too fast unless the center of mass is very low. 20-30 kmp/h is about the limit if the center of mass is above the wheels. Use heavy armor blocks as counterweights.

One thing that always makes my vehicles go crazy is the dampening stat. Make sure it is low I only use about 5-10% on vehicles around and under 100,000 Kg mass. Anything higher and the vehicles like to bounce around. Higher dampening for heavier loads, light loads less dampening.
General dampening tuning: if the wheels are in constant contact but the vehicle is shaking uncontrollably the wheels need more dampening. If the vehicle flies into the air after a hard bump you need less dampening.

[Astasia]

Build it on a lake and never move it anywhere else. Or put a lot of thrusters on it and make it fly everywhere. I honestly don't think there is any other reasonable option at the moment. Wheels are just so horribly wonky.

If you really want to stick with it, drop the speed to like 30 max, or lower, and just go very slow. Clear any trees in front of it with another vehicle, and avoid anything even close to a hill. You are still going to have issues with invisible trees and random bumps, wheels occasionally deciding they don't exist anymore, or worse, blowing up for no reason, and patches of terrain that just swallow your vehicle whole and suck you into the abyss.

[LoneGunman]

I've got a new drill car I've been working on. I can attest to the lower dampening. I'm still trying to figure it all out in terms of settings but one thing's certain: my drills are dragging even though they technically aren't touching the ground.

I'd added pistons adjacent to each wheel more because I needed a jack for when I lose a wheel. What I've been doing is actually using the rear pistols to raise the rear and point the drills (which are pointing forward but are fixed and attached to the chassis) down enough to start digging. I'm trying to also make sure I drill on an angle so I can get out of wherever I'm digging.

I'm thinking about a new design that'll put the drilling mechanism on pistons so the drills could be lowered (I'd put it in the center of the vehicle to balance the center of mass) and I could just drive forward and backward, stripping the ground in a more flat way.

I agree with Pika about speed. Even though the initial driller I created can achieve those speeds pretty easily (if slowly) I tend to maintain a straight line at those speeds to avoid rolling the vehicle. FYI, my current driller (forward facing drills), I've built a chassis that's low with the various bits built on top but distributed (cargo, cockpit, battery). I've got the drills (6x) in front but with the front wheels right at the base of them and the three medium cargo containers at the back with an extended connector for docking to the station. The wheels (four of them) all have propulsion checked (helped with getting me out of the ditch I've drilled), friction and power are at about 50% with dampening 5% or less.

[Miedein]

Ok then. So another question I have then since you answered what Dampening is. What is Strength? I understand all the other sliders but that one.

[Miedein]

And Lonegunman. I can invite you to my test world if you wanted to see the rotored drill arm I built that works. The only problem with the test vehicle at that time of creation though was ground clearance. (which actually thinking about the new found knowledge I have on the suspension settings I may be able to get it out of the ditch it dug.)

That system worked for being able to change the pitch of the drills whenever needed. Allowing for drilling up or down to stay with the ore deposits.

[DoomHammer]

The STR stat is for lifting heavy stuff. For the most part you can set it to max. BTW, I dug up one of my wheeled mining rigs check it out. You can go like over 100 km/h in a straight line.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=556098776

[Voice From Beyond]

What is the wheel velocity setting (speed?)? I thought it could be used to regulate my speed but it doesn't seem to do that.

[LoneGunman]

You know you can also attach atmospheric thrusters as an "escape" mechanism to get out of ditches.

[LoneGunman]

@pika that's actually what I was thinking about (putting the drills in the middle of the vehicle).

[DoomHammer]

Originally posted by Voice From Beyond:

What is the wheel velocity setting (speed?)? I thought it could be used to regulate my speed but it doesn't seem to do that.

The max speed the wheels will propel the vehicle. You can still roll down a hill faster.

Originally posted by LoneGunman:

@pika that's actually what I was thinking about (putting the drills in the middle of the vehicle).

Yeah it works ok, problem is the stuff you want needs to be near the surface.

[Xuhybrid]

This is the only thing i've had success with so far. Everything else shakes itself to pieces.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=557168309
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=557168346

[Modi]

Someone linked this on a similar subject and helps quite a bit with setting up wheels properly for your vehicle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rqX7yUVC74

[Farsil]

Have you tried lowering the friction? From what i understand is that if your vehicle is sliding in turns you should raise friction to get more grip and if you turn over a lot you should lower it. I´m currently down to 3-5% on my mining rover and it seems to work much better but i think i need to raise it when fully loaded.

[SpetS]

https://youtu.be/VRDvbvB08GQ

[Cigarette]

When you make the claw or whatever it is to mine, i reccomend to use pistons (Speed verry slow) and add a way to transport the items back up.