Project Tow something with Winches/Hinges/winch Shackles

[KQ7]

I am familiar with attaching power to the Winch. I am familiar with attaching a hinge to your vehicle and maybe either Shackle and ore Winch to your hinge. I also know "be careful or you will get a facefull of hinge, metal , shackle and die.

My project is

find a large Tank 4 attach points on it.
Attach a hinge/Winch or something

Towing. I want to tow this tank back to my base and collect
Tanks, engines, anything else in the future releases.

How does towing work?

Do you have to have two Powered vehicles to use towing?
I Don't use the winch power On or it will just sling shot the other vehicle into a dangerous
place. Can I tow a large tank that has a Hinge and Shackle attached?

Can I even tow one of my own vehicles in Set to hover Mode as in Tow it back to base?

Anyone every towed an unpowered object or even a powered ship for that matter.?

I did my Tube research and No one has ever made a vid on Towing stuff.

On a side note.
VVV "The below comment is for all the Angry people who rant in forums VVV

"Let go of the anger." "All of the angry people" Just go to steam reviews and put in a nasty review on what ever you like.


Thanks alot.

K

[Husker_85]

From what I can tell, the winch will not work at all for towing. It only has two modes; powered off and dear god why. In powered off mode it will just show a line going from the winch to the shackle so you know it's ready, but trying to drive away at that point will snap the line. The only way I have ever seen towing done is with a chain of hinges. When linked, they function just like a chain and should allow you to tow an object. Attach the links perpendicular to one another (alternating) for maximum flexibility or align them all the same for rigidity along one axis.

(EDIT) I haven't experimented with it yet, but a chain of ball joints should function like a rope or cable.

[KQ7]

Originally posted by FallenCat:

From what I can tell, the winch will not work at all for towing. It only has two modes; powered off and dear god why. In powered off mode it will just show a line going from the winch to the shackle so you know it's ready, but trying to drive away at that point will snap the line. The only way I have ever seen towing done is with a chain of hinges. When linked, they function just like a chain and should allow you to tow an object. Attach the links perpendicular to one another (alternating) for maximum flexibility or align them all the same for rigidity along one axis.

(EDIT) I haven't experimented with it yet, but a chain of ball joints should function like a rope or cable.

Thanks alot.

I never thought to try that.

K

[CoinSpin]

I've made interesting trailers with a rotor, hinge, armor block (if I need some length between vehicle and trailer), hinge, rotor combination. But, if you are going with wheels, the trailer has to have the wheels mounted to rotors and not directly to suspensions if you want them to be free-wheeling (highly recommended, a powered trailer with flexible hinge combo can really freak out the physics engine at times).

As for your challenge, I've done something similar by making a "cargo truck" modification to one of my rigs, where it's got a depression in the back that will cradle the tank. At the location where I found the tank, I put 4 pedestals in 4 corners around the tank (wide enough apart that I can drive the truck in between, taller than the truck by at least 2-3 blocks), then put a winch at the top inside of each pedestal. 4 handles on the tank, connect a winch to each point, power them all up simultaneously and the tank gets airborne (if you dug it out already). Drive under, turn off the winches, and hope you lined up right.

I've also gotten it to work with a sloped back on the truck and using 2 winch points high up on the truck itself to drag the tank up and into the back, but it's pretty flaky. If the winch had a slow speed setting it would be way easier to fine tune some positioning in situations like this.

[johndai]

Some very interesting creative ways for trailers to carry items.

Nice one guys, thanks for the info.

Good luck with your project KQ7

[KQ7]

Originally posted by CoinSpin:

I've made interesting trailers with a rotor, hinge, armor block (if I need some length between vehicle and trailer), hinge, rotor combination. But, if you are going with wheels, the trailer has to have the wheels mounted to rotors and not directly to suspensions if you want them to be free-wheeling (highly recommended, a powered trailer with flexible hinge combo can really freak out the physics engine at times).

Baby steps for me.

I will take your knowledge and first just tow a Red wagon behind my Ultra powerful Land Rover.

Next I will attempt to use a low atltitude Small Air Blade setup to just hoist a tank off the ground.

Kids Don't try this at home.

Thanks Alot all for your great input.

K

[CoinSpin]

And now you have reminded me of a challenge that I want to try to duplicate. I have successfully made a big flyer that held a small wheeled vehicle suspended below it with winches once. Only once. It was sketchy to be sure, but it was also fun to work out.

Back before the air blades were around, I also managed to make a large (and very tall) mobile base that had a scout vehicle suspended under it with winches. Again, sketch and difficult to get right, but it worked. Usually. Large bumps at speed usually blew things up with it, but that just added to the suspense.

Now I want to go back and try them again, see if I can improve the concept. Slower winch speeds would certainly help the cause, and also a way to disengage the hooks remotely would be cool. Time to ponder options while I pretend to work, until I can get home tonight and tinker.

[Mr. Fibble]

Winches are pretty maligned because of how they work. Most of the problems stem from the speed of the thing being just too fast so when you try and shift a vehicle it ends up getting catapulted.

Best thing I did with them was a vehicle hoist to raise a buggy up off the ground under a base. Height or cable length has a maximum the game doesn't mention so you need to find via trial and error although there doesn't seem to be much of a weight limit.

[catnipsongs]

I have carried things that had their own power to get up on a deck of a larger machine. May have to try that with obects I find, but that means building a tow truck/flyer of sorts. Something to play with I guess. A S-64 sky crane comes to mind.

[KQ7]

Originally posted by catnipsongs:

I have carried things that had their own power to get up on a deck of a larger machine. May have to try that with obects I find, but that means building a tow truck/flyer of sorts. Something to play with I guess. A S-64 sky crane comes to mind.

I actually built a LAB "Large Air Blade" with a front Loader scoop. I then went to my large Barrel and built a wench tower. The hardest part was to keep the wench cables from breaking.

It took 3 cables attached at the same time and sycned to 1 switch "Thanks CoinSpin" and It was trial and error about 4 times to the get Barrel Suspended. I then , Just moved my LAB over to the Barrell and very gently raised it up to cup the barrel.

I found when You fly around with a Barrel in your Scoop , you can not make sudden altitude
changes or the Barrell will bounce around "like a ball in your hand" So I secured it with more blocks on the front of the scoop to keep it from bouncing out.

It was challenging but well worth the experience. I now have a basic understanding of the game object physics and how to simplify that transport.

I did make videos and screen shots but they are still in my Fraps Folder.
I may push them up to Youtube. or IMgur.

K

[Mr. Fibble]

I know for making a drawbridge that rests at a downward angle you need to tuck in a hovepad or two to get the angles right to stop the cables breaking.

Anything over 90 degrees and they don't like it much.

[KristofDeRaver]

Originally posted by KQ7:

Originally posted by catnipsongs:

I have carried things that had their own power to get up on a deck of a larger machine. May have to try that with obects I find, but that means building a tow truck/flyer of sorts. Something to play with I guess. A S-64 sky crane comes to mind.

I actually built a LAB "Large Air Blade" with a front Loader scoop. I then went to my large Barrel and built a wench tower. The hardest part was to keep the wench cables from breaking.

It took 3 cables attached at the same time and sycned to 1 switch "Thanks CoinSpin" and It was trial and error about 4 times to the get Barrel Suspended. I then , Just moved my LAB over to the Barrell and very gently raised it up to cup the barrel.

I found when You fly around with a Barrel in your Scoop , you can not make sudden altitude
changes or the Barrell will bounce around "like a ball in your hand" So I secured it with more blocks on the front of the scoop to keep it from bouncing out.

It was challenging but well worth the experience. I now have a basic understanding of the game object physics and how to simplify that transport.

I did make videos and screen shots but they are still in my Fraps Folder.
I may push them up to Youtube. or IMgur.

K

Could you share this video ? I was trying something like this myself today. Would love to see it.