Rover Wheels

Parts Expansion Required
Some or all of the parts and/or features on this page require the Parts Expansion in-app purchase.

Wheels
The large and small rover wheels.
Code name	Wheel Big(large) Wheel Medium(small)
Mass (t)	0.3t(small) 0.5t(large)
Heat tolerance (°C)	400°C
Ground velocity (m/s)	5.8 m/s(small) 17.6 m/s(large)

Rover Wheels are two types of attachable wheels that can be used to move rovers and other stuff around on celestial bodies.

The two types of wheels mainly differ in size (2×2 and 3×3) and the maximum ground speed (6 m/s and 15 m/s).

Large wheels seem to be able to overlap with other parts, and full squares on their corners can be obstructed without them becoming unbuildable, but they will collide if not part of the same vehicle.

The small variant is free, but the large variant requires the Parts Expansion.

Building Tricks

Example of a landboat

• Landboat
  • One can make large wheels stick out slightly through fairings by placing the wheels right next to the sides of the fairing on the inside. Combined with the fairing attachment trick (mentioned in fairing page), allows the player to make landboats. The No Collision Damage cheat is recommended for this one since the fairing bumps into terrain a lot.
• Airbags
  • Since rover wheels can break at around 50 m/s you can consider it as airbags if your going to lithobrake or survive an impact more than 12 m/s (Note: The impact speed should not exceed more than 50 m/s)
• Spherical Solar Panels
  • Rover Wheels can be used as spherical solar panels for RP purposes.
• Spherical Fuel Tanks
  • The part can even be as spherical fuel tanks unlike BP-Editing a fuel tank spherical or clipping a parachute in all sides.
• Retractable Part
  • Like using a landing leg; rover wheels can even work as a cargo door retractor.
• Hinges
  • Since they rotate with very little friction, they make for great hinges for planes, rockets, strongbacks, service arms, etc.

Trivia

• Small wheels break when moving at more than 30 m/s downward, making them a relatively strong item.
• Although the game indicates that the maximum velocity of large rover wheels are 15 m/s, they can reach speeds of 17.9 m/s while going downhill in version 1.4.06.
• Prior to being patched in 1.35, rover wheels could work without capsules or probes. 1.35 also made them require electric power to work. The requirement was removed in 1.5 due to the electricity rework. For more detailed info look at Version History.
• Before 1.5, wheels used to consume energy (1 unit for small; 2 units for big).
• Wheels can be used as balls and they are difficult to destroy when impacting the ground. They can also used as projectiles along with side separators.
• In the files, the small wheel's name is Wheel_Medium, and the large wheel's name is Wheel_Big.
• It has much higher friction than every other part in SFS.