depends what you are planning to do with it. a Mobile Base needs to be big enough to carry all your loot and strong enough to survive a serious accident. i personally start with a vehicle with regular frames in a 5 wide 6 tall. then surround that in heavy duty frames by backing into a swat car or something and basically consuming it. giving you a car that is 7 wide 8 tall, then i attach a real ‘ramming grill’ t the front. the actual ram objects are okay but are completely destroyed if you hit anything too tough, a ram grill is another line of heavy duty frames with military composite on them. also move your engine back some, i put mine under the windshield so you have your guarterpanels and your ram in front of them, you do NOT want to even CHANCE they could hit something nasty. and yes, armor will, more often then not, taking the damage first, my ram grill can easily kill a hulk and it often turns the armor on that section red, without the armor the heavy duty frame would probably be destroyed.
also gives you room enough for a 3x3 square of cargo spaces and room for your installed devices (welder, fridge, chemistry set)
next is engine and wheels, a monster truck like this needs monster engines, and of the engines the most powerful (that doesn’t use really exotic fuels) is the V12, found on a Sports Car. as for wheels, i have 4 near the front (still under the windshield layer) 2 on each side, the armored wheels from military vehicles. strongest and widest so they are the best. and then i have 12 near the back, clusters of 6 on each side
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like this. this is because being huge means you need a lot of wheels to have good offroad friction.
anyway, to sum it up
- no, just merge them.
- yes, plated parts will survive many more hits then armorless parts but you only really need to armor your outer most layer, go for 2 layers on the front since it;s the front.
- it is upto you, you only really need 1 raider vehicle if you make a regular base and 1 ‘power’ vehicle that you use to power your base with. (a bunch of frames with solars and a battery for night lights and powered crafting stations and UPS) while my design is for a big rig “take it all with you on the road” machine.
- no, by itself it will not be enough, steel rams would crumple really fast if you run into any real resistance. by that i mean anything more then a handful of basic zombies. and your carry capacity is far too low for it to be a base.
