In both flooded swamp and dry land it left behind a smooth, clean surface. The Crawler-Crusher exceeded every expectation, clearing 5 acres of land during the 1-hour demonstration - far more than the half-acre it was expected to accomplish. Husebo Advertising & Public Relations organized the event that brought in news reporters from across the United States and Europe. The completed Crusher was first demonstrated for a crowd of 300 people off of State Route 19, 15 miles (24 km) south of Palatka, Florida. There were two rows of short, vertical beams running down the center of the bottom of the pod between the two track roller channels, these supported the above mentioned 16 I-beams. The I-beams near the front and rear of the pod were tilted to follow the curvature of the bottom of the pod. Sixteen I-beams were oriented widthwise along the bottom of the pod, above the area containing the track rollers and their supports. Structurally, the Crawler-Crusher’s track pods were constructed and reinforced with hundreds of I-beams. For comparison, the largest tracked tank ever built (albeit unfinished), the K-wagen, measured 42 feet 8 inches (13 m) long and 19 feet 8 inches (6 m) wide. Including the operator’s cabin, the entire machine stood 22 feet (6.7 m) high. Each pod by itself measured roughly 50 feet (15.2 m) long, 12 feet (3.65 m) wide, and 12 feet 6 inches (3.8 m) high. The Crusher’s left and right track pods were mirror images of each other, but otherwise were identical. While the Army’s tree clearers are at home on hard ground, sand, or open water, they struggle to operate in mud and marsh, where they bog down and cannot gain sufficient traction.” ![]() The Crawler-Crusher is superior to the Army’s tree clearers because it is fully amphibious and can regulate its ballast. The design builds upon the armored, amphibious tree clearing machines in use by the US Army in Vietnam at the time. Powered by 2x Caterpillar D432 270 hp Diesel Engines, 540 hp total In terms of overall dimensions, the Crawler-Crusher was 58 feet (17.7 m) long, 24 feet (7.3 m) wide, and 22 feet (6.7 m) tall. For such a heavy vehicle, the Crawler-Crusher was surprisingly buoyant, able to float in just 7 feet 10 inches (2.38 m) of water. 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. ![]() 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 Heaviest Tracked Amphibian Ever BuiltĪt 306 US tons (277.6 metric tons) fully loaded and 204 US tons (185 metric tons) dry, the Crawler-Crusher is the fourth heaviest amphibious vehicle of all time. It was built to crush forests.just walk through crush and then push the trees into the ground. Built exclusively for use on the Cross Florida Barge Canal: “The Ditch of Dreams”, another failed project brought to you by the United States Government.
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