"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
03/03/2020 at 18:27 • Filed to: None
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"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
03/03/2020 at 18:27 • Filed to: None | 9
| 9 |
Oppo seems to be a bit slow today, so here’s another of the many gigantic, bizarre, and fascinating vehicles built by LeTourneau. It is called the Lan ding Craft Retriever and its purpose was... well, to retrieve beached landing craft. It appears to have used the same 10 foot-tall tires that were shared by the Sno-Buggy, overland trains, and other vehicles. Unfortunately, although it was widely publicized, no technical specifications were ever released, so it’s unclear exactly how it worked, though I’m assuming it probably had something like a diesel-electric drivetrain by the looks of it. The general idea is pretty self-explanatory, though.
It was basically a giant frame on tall wheels, and the idea was that it would wade out into the water until its massive frame was centered over the beached landing craft, at which point it would hoist the boat up, and either put it back in the water or drive back to shore with it. It’s a bit of an odd idea, but it appears that it worked. It appears that it didn’t get used much, though, and it doesn’t seem to be around today, so for now I guess it’s just an interesting curiosity.
ttyymmnn
> Jim Spanfeller
03/03/2020 at 18:32 |
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In all my years of reading about WWII and looking at pictures from the war and the D-Day landings, I have never seen that before. That’s just awesome. Thanks for posting this!
ETA: read the post, didn’t just look at the pictures. It may well be that it was a cool idea, but turned out to be impractical when actually used.
DirtyDodge
> Jim Spanfeller
03/03/2020 at 18:33 |
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Neat, quite the purpose built vehicle, 10/10would restore and daily.
CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
> DirtyDodge
03/03/2020 at 18:36 |
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It would still be more practical than any vehicle Aestheticsinmotion owns
12and35
> Jim Spanfeller
03/03/2020 at 18:42 |
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Was this front wheel drive or did it have motors/engines in the rear? Either way very interesting!
Noodles
> Jim Spanfeller
03/03/2020 at 19:13 |
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Everytime I see tires that big I think of the Rainbow Sheikh.
Here’s a Clarkson video of the giant Dodge.
And here’s a bit more of that crazy Rainbow Sheikh’s car collection.
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Jim Spanfeller
> ttyymmnn
03/03/2020 at 19:19 |
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I was wondering how this vehicle would actually be useful in a war situation. I think it would probably be best for cleaning up after training missions or something, because the thought of someone driving this thing through a war zone and going “excuse me, we just gotta fetch this landing craft real quick” seems kinda silly to me.
ClassicDatsunDebate
> ttyymmnn
03/03/2020 at 19:20 |
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I’d bet those pictures are closer to Galve ston than St. Laurent sur Mer.
BaconSandwich is tasty.
> Jim Spanfeller
03/03/2020 at 20:30 |
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The more I hear about LeTourneau, the more I like them. They seem to actually care out their insane ideas, and for the most part, it seems to have worked.
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Jim Spanfeller
> BaconSandwich is tasty.
03/04/2020 at 09:49 |
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And that’s exactly why they’re my favorite heavy equipment manufacturer. They got a reputation for specializing in whatever weird and/or gigantic specialty vehicles you needed them to make. Unfortunately, they can be a bit hard to research, but the photos of them are amazing.