Building wheeled vehicles on planets

[🅶ila]

I've been having a bit of a tough time getting things built..

I initially tried to build a little rover directly from a landing gear placed on the ground, but that didn't seem to work - I couldn't get clearance to place the lower blocks. So I ended up building on a 3 block long "station" and then ground the blocks down where the vehicle fell down onto the wheels.

Now I want to add another set of wheels in hopes of better stabilizing it - effectively making it a dually, but I'm guessing I can't get clearance to place them with the ground being so close to the already present wheels.

How do you guys build anything with your creations on the ground? Or do you just have to build some type of piston lift so you can work on it?

[Kandor]

a piston lift is what we use in real life to work on our vehicles. I use a piston with a landing gear to pick my vehicles up in my garage.

[Voice From Beyond]

You can also build a crane with a rotor, pistion, and landing gear. Position the landing gear above the vehicle, lock it, and lift it up.

Or do the same thing with a piston and landing gear from below and lift.

This is Space Engineers after all.

[🅶ila]

I actually was wondering if I was doing something wrong - digging for tips and tricks, if you will. Seems like a mess to need to build infrastructure before being able to build a wheeled vehicle, as there are ways to do that outside of the game. Didn't know if there was something to it that I was missing out on.

The problem wasn't clearance after all. I had maneuvered the offset of the wheels in a way such that one corner - where a wheel was located - was lifted off the ground. Clearance looked to be good, but it wouldn't allow wheel placement.

I just recently built a piston lift, and still wasn't able to place a wheel on top of the other. Still not sure what the problem is. Will warrant further digging.

[Squidbush]

I'm just sick of dying from trying to jump up on a single block while on the surface of a planet.

[Zero Enna]

building without a station/garage or something is a mess ^^ my first car was only the chassis with the 4 wheels, everything in first stage of building (i didn't weld anything, just placed the blocks) suddenly the landing gear (which was also only placed, not welded) exploded when i placed another block on the car and the whole chassis rolled away, down a hill... had to search it for 10-15 minutes (it was night, i didn't see where it was rolling) before i found it and grinded it away to start building anew. that time i made a shallow pit so it couldn't roll away

[Voice From Beyond]

You can place blocks on a wheel's suspension after a wheel is placed, however, you cannot place a wheel on an existing suspension if that block is there. The block has to be removed but can be added afterward.

[ExpendableGrunt]

I built 2 rotors on my wheeled vehicle for the purposes of flipping it over in case it turtled. I accidentally discovered that these could also be used like car jacks, propping the vehicle up on arms of light armor blocks so that I could work on the wheels as needed.

Although it's a bit of a pain, I'm liking the additional challenge of building in gravity. But, like Squidbush, I'm looking forward to the devs fixing the piercing death nature of some blocks.

[🅶ila]

Originally posted by Voice From Beyond:

You can place blocks on a wheel's suspension after a wheel is placed, however, you cannot place a wheel on an existing suspension if that block is there. The block has to be removed but can be added afterward.

I see. I was just trying to add another wheel on the outside of the other wheel. Effectively making the vehicle a dually, with two wheels on the end of the suspension instead of two.

I've seen a few screenshots posted about in old threads where people have done so, and was hoping that it would give me a bit better traction; while keeping me from bouncing through the bottom of the map.

Originally posted by ExpendableGrunt:

I built 2 rotors on my wheeled vehicle for the purposes of flipping it over in case it turtled. I accidentally discovered that these could also be used like car jacks, propping the vehicle up on arms of light armor blocks so that I could work on the wheels as needed.

Although it's a bit of a pain, I'm liking the additional challenge of building in gravity. But, like Squidbush, I'm looking forward to the devs fixing the piercing death nature of some blocks.

That's a good idea. I had thought of something like that, but instead with downward pistons to do the lifting, but haven't given it a go to see it implemented.

[Voice From Beyond]

Originally posted by Gila:

I was just trying to add another wheel on the outside of the other wheel. Effectively making the vehicle a dually, with two wheels on the end of the suspension instead of two.

I've seen that myself, but haven't tried it.

I have also seen people put artificial blocks on the hubs of the wheels for better traction. I did try that and you can't do that anymore. That's probably why you can't add a dually either.