Using the green (medium) tank, i have a habit of killing myself by shooting too close to the tank while on the move. (Petrol or Light oil fuel)
I tried adding two diesel gens and two steel shields but that doesn't seem to help much. Using explosive cannons.

Any tips to avoid doing this to myself?

also i accidentally drove into a radar station that blew up my first tank...I was like wtf was that?

Even the scrap tank have a lot of health and resistances, you should be able to drove over your base without problem. Exploding on a radar Is NOT Normal. Just tested - Running with scrap tank at max speed over a vanilla radar takes 140 dmg and 290 over a Nuclear Reactor. (scrap tank has 5000 health)
All tanks have a stupid amount of weight, if they contact on something with very high impact resistance (like another tank, or some building from another mod), will lose health very quickly.
About the shields, only the Nano Armors regenerate shields. Steel Armors dont regenerate but dont need energy to keep when place, be sure you are placing the ones with a green check.
Explosive shells, Yes, you can harm yourself if running too fast and shooting forward, but with no Damage Upgrades, you take around 200 damage, with the first 10 upgrades, you take around 1k damage.
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I think you are using another mod that changes my tank. ( AAI mods from Earendel have a history of conflicts )
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If you send me the list with the mods you are using, will help find the problem

As for the radar. It was a radar and med power pole. I have that survalence mod that makes them scan faster and further. Not sure if it makes them stronger. Splitters still blow them up, and it was the med tank that exploded, not the scrap tank. Really not sure happened with that. I'm on level 12-13 of the damage upgrades with your mod. (just letting the labs work as i upgrade the factory for yellow sci) i dont have any other vehicle mods other thank the combat train and farl. When i get home, i'll post a mod list. I have just stopped using the explosive shells for now till i can get the next tank with sheilds ect. Great mod btw, lotta fun aside from the first weird death.

Just find the bug.
The mod Big Brother is the problem, and is very strange, because i use bob's and Big Brother mods and only the tier 1 has this bug, all other 4 tiers works as normal.
The problem occur with all tanks, including vanilla.

There is no way to upgrade radars using the game code, the Big Brother mod Replace the Radars every time you research the upgrade. To match every possibility, Big Brother adds around 100 radars to the game.
I will send a message to the mod creator to fix this bug.

Ah well glad to know there was a reason. My current project is building a road with rail crossings so i dont run over anything important and so my trains will stop killing me. I think i've been ran over 15+ times on this play thru.