The Crawler-Crusher - Swamp Clearing Machine - Heaviest Tracked Amphibious Machine Ever Built - Operational In 4.1967.
Built to clear land, much of it swamp across Florida for the Cross Florida Barge Canal which was proposed to run from Jacksonville to Yankeetown.
At 306 US tons fully loaded and 204 US tons dry, the Crawler-Crusher is the fourth heaviest amphibious vehicle of all time. It is surpassed only by the Aist-class LCAC hovercraft at 302.8 metric tons fully loaded, the Saunders-Roe N.4 Mk.III passenger hovercraft, at around 320 metric tons, and the Zubr-class LCAC hovercraft, which can weigh over 500 tons when fully loaded. The Crawler-Crusher is by far the largest and heaviest tracked amphibian of all time, vastly surpassing all other conventionally (non-hovercraft) powered amphibious vehicles. For such a heavy vehicle, the Crawler-Crusher was surprisingly buoyant, able to float in just 7 feet 10 inches of water. In terms of overall dimensions, the Crawler-Crusher was 58 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 22 feet tall.
Able to mow over trees up to 6 feet in diameter, or as many as eight 2 foot diameter cypress trees at once, the Crawler-Crusher worked with such astonishing efficiency that it served as a rallying point for environmentalists.
You can read the story about the proposed canal and the Crusher-Crawler including much of the building plans of the machine at the link. Included in the article are canal maps and many patent papers for Crusher-Crawler.
The Crusher-Crawler failed miserably in its intended task in that it was supposed to push the downed, crushed trees and brush down into the mud, never to be seen again. The original study had been conducted using northern hardwood trees, while the trees along the intended route of the canal were mostly softwoods: gum, bay, pine, cedar, and cypress. As the softwoods sat under water or extremely wet ground, they would repeatedly rise back to the surface.
Very thorough article:
https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/crawler-crusher/
No comments:
Post a Comment