Broken wheels are the first real roadblock in Scrap Mechanic Survival, and fixing them means a trip to the Craftbot. Building a proper set of wheels for your car in the Drilling Thunder update comes down to three materials and a bit of harvesting, and the same station lets you bolt on storage so you stop losing loot every time you drive.
Quick answer: One standard Wheel costs 20 Wood Block Level 1, 10 Metal Block Level 1, and 10 Beeswax at the Craftbot Level 1. Craft the wood and metal blocks first, harvest beeswax from cliff hives, then build and install the wheels using the Lift.
Wheel recipe at the Craftbot Level 1
The Craftbot handles the whole wheel build. Open the Level 1 Craftbot at your Mechanic Station and check the Wheel recipe before you start gathering, since two of the three ingredients are crafted blocks rather than raw drops.
| Material | Amount per wheel | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Wood Block Level 1 | 20 | Crafted from wood at the Craftbot |
| Metal Block Level 1 | 10 | Crafted from metal at the Craftbot |
| Beeswax | 10 | Harvested from hives on cliffs |
Note: A single wheel eats a lot of raw material once you factor in the block conversions, so plan on gathering enough wood, metal, and beeswax for two wheels if you want a matching set for the back of your car.
Gathering wood, metal, and beeswax
Your sledgehammer does most of the early collecting. It knocks down small birch trees for wood, cracks open Haybots for their metal spines, and pries beeswax off cliff hives. There is one hard limit to remember here.
The sledgehammer can only fell small trees like birch. Large trees show an on-screen prompt telling you a saw blade is required, so don’t waste time swinging at the big trunks. Refine the metal you pull from defeated Haybots, then turn wood and metal into blocks back at the Craftbot.
Beeswax is the material players usually run short on. It comes from golden-brown hives stuck to rock walls and cliff faces. Many of these sit high up, out of jump range, so deploy your Lift against the rock to reach the elevated deposits and harvest them with the sledgehammer.
Craft and install the new wheels
You’ll know the swap worked the moment the car sits level and steers cleanly instead of dragging on a broken corner. Improved handling on the road is the confirmation that the new wheels are seated correctly.
Add a Scrap Chest for vehicle storage
While you’re at the Craftbot, the Scrap Chest is worth building. Craft one, then place it on the back of your car to hold the excess resources you’re carrying from ruin runs and harvesting trips.
Storage chests keep their contents when you pick them up and move them. That means you can craft a second Scrap Chest, load it, and relocate it without dumping anything on the ground, which makes rearranging your car’s layout painless.
Unlocking the saw blade for bigger trees
If the sledgehammer’s tree limit is slowing your wood runs, the saw blade fixes it. It comes as a quest reward rather than something you craft early on.
Down the road from the Packing Station, a trapped stranger named Robert is pinned by bots beside a broken-down vehicle. Clear the bots, talk to him, and take on the “A Stranger in Need” quest, which asks you to wipe out the Haybots in the nearby farm ruins.
Finishing that job completes the quest and unlocks the “Your Nice Car” blueprint. Robert then hands over a Saw Blade along with a purple schematic chest containing a schematic block, seeds, and soil. With the saw blade equipped, you can finally cut down the large trees the sledgehammer couldn’t touch.
One more combat tip worth locking in before you head out. The fire extinguisher looks like a weapon but deals no damage to hostile bots, so keep the sledgehammer ready for Haybots and Totebots instead of relying on it in a fight.
