Vehicle Welding Rig not usable for installing vehicle parts?

[Wetwings]

I decided to make a vehicle welding rig so that I wouldn’t go through tons of normal batteries, but It seems I cant use the vehicle welding rig to actually install new parts on vehicles. I can only repair inventory items with it.

Am I doing something wrong or is this vehicle welding rig totally useless?

[TheMurderUnicorn]

Well, I can think of two reasons why it might not work. Dunno if they’ll help.

One, are you close enough to both your parts and where the welder is installed on your vehicle so that they both count for crafting (also your glare protection)? That would be the first thing to check – I usually put my welder diagonal from my car door so I can stand in the doorway and therefore be within reach of everything. It sometimes doesn’t count parts if they’re obscured by ‘board’ vehicle tiles (IE: out of LOS).

Or, two, are you just (a)ctivating the welder? Don’t do that. Just (e)xamine your vehicle in a position where you can reach everything and (i)nstall the item you want.

Now, if those two aren’t your problem, then I suggest going into the vehicle menu, selecting what you want to install, and looking at the ‘recipe’ to see which thing you’re missing. That should give you some information and will give us a better idea of why you can’t craft.

[Wetwings]

Can I install parts on the same vehicle the welding rig is installed on?

Does there need to be a battery in the same tile as the welding rig?

When I look at the list with things that I need, it says I need a welder with 50 charges or other things like a makeshift welder or acetylene torch. But it doesn’t say vehicle welding rig in that list, so that’s what got me confused.

[Robik]

And, you need direct visibility to welding rig.

[TheMurderUnicorn]

You can install parts on the same vehicle as the welding rig, yes.

There does not need to be a battery on the same tile as the rig. As long as there is battery charge in the vehicle, it should work. Is it possible that the attached vehicle does not have enough charge?

EDIT: Other than the things we’ve mentioned I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t function. If nothing we’ve discussed is the issue I recommend you remove it from the vehicle and reinstall it. If it’s something bugging out, reinstalling it might fix it. I’m genuinely out of ideas.

[Wetwings]

For some reason it’s working now. I have no idea why it wasn’t working the first time, I am not doing anything different than last time I think.

Anyway thanks both of you for your help.

[Trigon]

I always put a shutter on one side of my vehicle with the welder adjacent to it so I can pop open the shutter and work while standing outside the car. Usually I find that this helps.