https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1138675837

Wheels
The first and most important part of wheel placement is the size of wheel. For general use, the 3x3 wheel suspension does the job, but the principle is the same for the larger 5x5 wheels. (I won't cover the 1x1 wheels because they are kind of useless)

The wheels should be placed in such a way that they aren't too close together or far apart. This is crucial because otherwise it will result in rolling or bumping on turns.

If you are planning on a 4x4 vehicle, the wheels should be placed something like this: (you can scale it up or down, it's the proportions that are important.)











If you wan't a heavier, 6-wheeled truck, they should be placed more like this:










The wheels should obviously be kept as low as possible, to maximise ground clearance.

Vehicle Frame
The next important step is constructing your rough vehicle. This should be done at the same time as the wheels as you may want to move stuff about a bit. This step is also important because the vehicles centre of mass has a huge effect on how it performs. You should try too balance it as much as possible, and keep the centre of mass as close to the middle as possible. Also try to keep it relatively low, but try to minimise putting important components on the underside as they could bump the ground if it's rough.

Examples of parts that should be near the middle: Cargo containers, hydrogen tanks, etc.



If the centre of mass isn't in the right place, some artificial mass blocks can make a big difference. They also have the added bonus of letting your vehicle work in artificial gravity environments.

Next up is the configuration.

Overview

The context menu for wheels is fairly complex, so I'll just quickly go over what all the sliders do.



Firstly "Steering" decides whether the wheel will steer the vehicle or stay straight.

Power
The power slider controls how much torque the wheels provide - how hard they force the wheel to spin. This slider is very variable, and you will probably end up tweaking it as you go, depending on the terrain, and how full you vehicles cargo is. Think of it like a gear shift!

This slider will generally be between about 20% and 80% - too little power and you won't move, too much and you'll skid all over the place!

Friction
Another slider that changes a lot - This controls how easily the wheels slide. This slider, along with the power, will probably be changed on the go - Mostly depending whether you're going uphill or not, how fast you intend to go, and if you're driving on ice.

This slider can be quite dangerous - don't turn the friction too high! Because of the way the steering works in space engineers, turning while you have a relatively high friction will cause the wheels to catch on the ground, bouncing your car, and sending you completely out of control. Setting the friction too high and travelling fast nearly always ends in a flip.

Damping and Strength

Damping and strength don't need to be changed much - Damping is how resistant the suspension is to bouncing: If it's at 0, hitting a rock will cause the wheel to bounce up and down, but if it's at 100, hitting that rock will rattle the whole car. As before, it changes per vehicle depending on weight, but between 20% and 60% is a normal range.

Strength is how much the suspension pushes down on the wheel to raise the car. The slider for this one is far bigger than it needs to be - As you can see even on a medium sized rover, it's only at about 7% or 8%. To set the strength, first make sure the height offset is as low as it goes. starting higher up the slider, slowly move it down until your car starts to dip a little - ideally (if you have gyroscopes on your car) wiggling the mouse up and down should cause the car to bob, but the wheels to stay on the ground. If they don't lower the strength and the damping until they do.

Height offset
This is what height the suspension tries to keep the wheel - For most off-road vehicles you want it as far down as it will go (-50cm) - This increases the ground clearance. Sometimes you'll want to raise the height offset to make it possible to jump on the back of the car, but just leaving low is good.

Suspension Travel
This controls how far the suspension is allowed to move up and down. 0% effectively locks the suspension in place. I normally leave it at 100% unless the game starts glitching, or I want to transport the rover without the wheels wobbling about.

Speed limit
This puts a weak speed limit on the wheels - if the car is going faster, it will try to gently slow down. Be warned, it doesn't have much effect going downhill, so don't rely on it too much.

Uphill Climbing
If you plan to drive a car up hill, increasing the Power and friction is important. This gives you the extra power you need to get up. The other VERY important bit is that you reduce the strength a very small amount (1-2%) This ensures that all the wheels stay on the ground, rather than spinning uselessly.

On Ice
Driving on ice is really fun, but it's best if you do it with a very low friction setting. Although it means you'll slide about even more, it also stops the wheels catching on anything and flipping your car at high speeds!

Gyroscopes
Attaching one or two gyroscopes to the car is a good idea. Firstly, it lets you steer the car in mid air, if you do a jump. Secondly, you can use it to effectively change the weight distribution in the car. For example, if you want to accelerate, holding the up arrow and W at the same time puts more pressure on the rear tyres by tilting the car backwards slightly. This means they get more grip and propel the car better, but also means the front tyres won't steer as effectively. On the other hand, if you're trying to manoeuvre in a small space, turning becomes especially awkward, and having gyros lets you nudge the car a little bit more in the right direction.

Pistons
There are two uses for pistons on a car like this - firstly, putting 4 pistons on the bottom of the car lets you raise it up for maintenance on the go, or for building on the underside. also sticking one or more pistons on the roof to help flip the car upright in the event of a crash is a good idea.

Heavy armour
(Thanks to DragDen for reminding me to put this here)
spacing out heavy armour along parts of the rover can balance the weight better, as well as strengthening the vehicle. Also, the "Shaocorp Bumpers Mod" adds some incredibly heavy and durable bumpers and tubes - those are what i used on the rover in the pictures - but don't do what i did: make sure you take note of how heavy they are, and don't just stick bumpers on the front, or else the car will be really front heavy and it'll upset your balance!

Thrusters
(Thanks Sketchfox00653)
Small atmospheric thrusters in different directions can drastically change the way your rover drives, but they have some negative impacts as well. Wheels in space engineers use a tiny fraction of the power that a thruster uses, and that's why rovers are so viable, in that they can travel long distances and function for a long time on very little energy. Adding even one or two small thrusters can often require extra reactors or batteries, weighing the rover down and making it more expensive!

BACK - Putting a thruster on the rear of the vehicle does exactly what you'd expect - it goes faster! generally i wouldn't recommend rear thrusters being on all the time - you'll just end up using more power and going too quickly, but they are useful for going uphill, or just to get going.

SIDES - Thrusters pointing sideways on the car are pretty rare, but there are situations where they can be useful. Mainly, they would be found on "Drifty" cars, that rely on sideways thrusters to prevent them skidding out of control. Vehicles like these only really work on flat ground or ice, as otherwise little bumps can flip them if they're travelling sideways.

BOTTOM - Again, these thrusters have a fairly obvious function; going up. These thrusters can be used for jumps, crossing ravines, or getting down cliffs safely. They shouldn't really be necessary if the suspension is set up right, but if you're planning on going up mountains they can be good for getting over steep ledges. Keep in mind that once you put a certain number of thrusters on a car it becomes a flying machine rather than a rover!

TOP - thrusters on the top of the car are only really useful in two situations: To prevent flipping, and to recover from a flip. A thruster on the top of the car constantly pushing down with a thrust override will increase the pressure of the wheels on the ground, giving better traction etc, without making the car much heavier. If the thrusters on the top are strong enough, they can help the rover flip back the right way up again, but keep in mind pistons are normally cheaper.

Thrusters on the top are also important if you're driving in a lower gravity field! This means the car stays on the ground without adding loads of extra mass!

FRONT - Braking thrusters aren't hugely common, but they can be useful for slowing down in midair, if, for instance, you go off a cliff too quickly and would otherwise hit the ground at max speed.

Thanks a lot for reading, and please give me any suggestions or point out spelling mistakes.

And once I'm done building that car I'll stick it on the workshop ;)

*EDIT*
although the car i used for demonstrating here looks correct, the bumpers I used for the frame are really heavy. All the info in the guide is still ok, but I won't upload the rover cause it sucks!