Why can't I fit a (G5) A6 dirty drive to my vette?

[Innocent Bystander]

Wanting to reduce my Corvette's power needs, I decided to replace her A7 thruster with an A6. I happened to know that my Krait had a fully engineered A6 dirty drive thruster that would do nicely, so I hopped into the Krait and transferred her thruster into storage.
I then hopped back into the Corvette and tried to transfer-in the dirty A6 thruster but it wasn't available. The only thrusters available in storage were my other A7 engineered thrusters.
I was able to buy a new (non-engineered) A6 thruster if I'd wanted to
Back in my Krait, that A6 dirty was available as expected. Am I missing something here?

 

[Bigmaec]

Dirty Drives decrease optimal mass (and thus maximum mass). The 'Vette is far, far heavier than the Krait. Ergo, using G5 Dirties on 6A drives makes the maximum mass smaller than your 'Vette's mass, while the unengineered ones as still available.

This

 

[Innocent Bystander]

Ah-ha! That makes a lot of sense. Thanks commanders.

 

[Northpin]

you can swap the Drag Drives experimental for Drive Distributors, then you might be able to use 6A - depending on your loadout tho.
Play with Coriolis a bit and check it out

 

[Stealthie]

Why would anybody want to take a set of perfectly good thrusters off a Krait and bung 'em on a ship that weighs, possibly, four times as much?

My "heavy" 'vette has 7A DD5s and, IIRC, it only manages around 250m/sec (w/o boost).
Even if it would work with 6A thrusters, I wouldn't fancy flying it.

I realise the 7A thrusters are expensive (although they're actually just a drop in the ocean of outfitting a 'vette properly) but if you can't afford to outfit one properly, it's honestly best if you just leave it parked until you can.

Took me the best part of a year to accumulate all the parts for my 'vette, and get the engineering done.
Think of it as a long-term project.

 

[rrobes]

The Corvette is speed challenged, you want every bit of thrust available, even then, it's slow.

My favorite ship for maneuverability and great for PvE, PvP, not so much, it's a large target, easily sniped.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Wanting to reduce my Corvette's power needs, I decided to replace her A7 thruster with an A6. I happened to know that my Krait had a fully engineered A6 dirty drive thruster that would do nicely, so I hopped into the Krait and transferred her thruster into storage.
I then hopped back into the Corvette and tried to transfer-in the dirty A6 thruster but it wasn't available. The only thrusters available in storage were my other A7 engineered thrusters.
I was able to buy a new (non-engineered) A6 thruster if I'd wanted to
Back in my Krait, that A6 dirty was available as expected. Am I missing something here?

I agree with Stealthie.
An often overlooked powerhog could be any A rated utility scanner; eg KWS, wake scanner etc.
That uses almost as much power as a c7 biweave!

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

I am assuming you placed the one your switching into storage also. If one is on the ship, another different can not be added.

 

[Stealthie]

I agree with Stealthie.
An often overlooked powerhog could be any A rated utility scanner; eg KWS, wake scanner etc.
That uses almost as much power as a c7 biweave!

You're not wrong about how power costs accumulate.

An unmodded 0A utility scanner has a range of 4km and uses 3.2MW
Replace it with a 0D equivalent and G3 mod' it and you'll get 4.3km using 0.4MW

Then there's all the stuff you only use in SC.
Stick your fuel scoop, FSD Booster and Interdictor on priority 2 and you'll save another 3.5MW
If you have an SRV bay fitted, stick that on priority 2 as well to save another 1MW or so.
If you don't plan on scooping cargo during a battle, stick your cargo hatch on priority 2 to save 0.6MW.

And then there's lasers.
Don't really care what anybody says, Efficient is the best mod' for lasers - unless you specifically intend to use them at long distances.
NPCs always head toward you to attack so you'll be fine with Efficient lasers, especially in a tanky ship like the 'vette.
If you've got a pair of 4A beams on a 'vette, modding them to Efficient will save you up to 14MW.

Add all that stuff together and you should easily have enough to run 7A DD5s (and power a medium sized town).