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Antarctic Snow Cruiser ~ AMAZING

Melensdad

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I was digging around on Wikipedia and found something that blew me away. It is called the ANTARCTIC SNOW CRUISER and has a 20' wheelbase, 55' lenght, 19' tall, with room to carry a small airplane on top and a 5000 mile range on 1 tank of fuel.

There is a whole website about this thing, which has to qualify as the world's ultimate snowcat: http://www.joeld.net/snowcruiser/snowcruiser.html

The image below is on this Wikipedia page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_snow_cruiser

I've sent an email to the guy who owns the SNOW CRUISER website in hopes that he will come here and give us more information.
 

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mtntopper

Back On Track
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Great find Bob :applause:

Boggie, this would be another great one to fit in your collection of odd snow cats/vehicles from around the world...:yum:
 

Melensdad

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MNoutdoors RIP

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Do you think. :rolleyes: wonder if the F350 would pull it.:alc:

Very intresting link. Now we have to go back to work :drink: doing a complete rebuild on a J5 :17875:
 

Snowcat Operations

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Its 19 1/2 feet wide by 55 feet longs and weighs in at 55 tons? Cant remember the weight for sure. If I remember correctly it was woefully underpowered and was a flop in Antartica but was completely built in like 2 to 3 Months! My research on the vehicle found out that she was left in Antartica in January 1941 with hopes to reffit her with lower gearing on another expedition but the war ended that dream. I had read that she actually traveled about 95 miles (backwards) across the artic to a base called West Base and or America base III. She was intoombed in a huge igloo like structure and the aircrew used it as a home for the duration of the expedition. She was rediscovered by the 1957 Expedition "Deep Freeze" and dug up. They found a bunch of gear still inside her. In 1967 so the story goes the ice shelf this base was on broke free and drifted out to sea. It was also supposed to have been filmed by another expedition also called Deep Freeze. So if this is the case which for some reason I dont really believe then the Artic Snow Cruiser is at the bottom of the sea hundreds if not thousands of miles from Antartica. Pretty amazing how they designed it and built it so fast!
 

Snowcat Operations

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There is some debate wether or not that she actually was on the piece that broke off. Some say she was not, others say she was. The base was taken but the airstrip was not according to some records I found. The Cruiser was used at the air strip to house the original aircraft crew. I bet and I feel she is probably still there. But thats a personal feeling.
 

Snowcat Operations

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The amazing this is she would still be in pretty much working order. It would not take to much to get her fired off again. As you know in those temps things stay pretty much as ther are (metal and such) No rust. Imagine if we could retrieve her and give her to the Smithsonian! What a story that would be.
 

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
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This has to be one of the most expensive flopps in history! But still cool.
Mike, I'm thinking the same way you are. I actually can't believe they built it with wheels. Basically its design, while innovative, doomed it to failure from the start. It might have had a chance on the snow with 8 or more wheels to increase the floatation? But clearly the design was flawed by only allowing for 4 wheels to drive it in the snow. It was nearly saved by bolting the 2 spare tires next to 2 of the existing wheels to give it more ground contact area to reduce the PSI on the snow, but why the designer chose to go with rubber tires instead of tracks simply is baffling :smileywac

Had it worked it would have been an amazing machine. :snow2_smi: Still, based on what I have learned about Antarctica, I think it would have been an amazing machine that ultimately would have fallen into a hole in the ice. It is simply too big, and the cracks in the snow and ice that coat the surface of Antarctica's inland areas would probably have proved to have been its downfall. JMO
 
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