"The Snow Cruiser"-Antarctica's Abandoned Behemoth
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- Опубликовано: 19 мар 2019
- What happened to the Antarctic Snow Cruser? In 1939 a fifty-five feet long, twenty feet wide monster, weighing 37 tonnes and designed to have a range of over 8000 miles arrived on Antarctica. Built in the late 1930s for Richard E. Byrd’s Third Antarctic Expedition, it was one of the most incredible ventures in engineering history, not just in its size and scale but also her failure as an exploratory vehicle and subsequent disappearance.
In this video, I look at the background, design and disappearance of the Snow Cruser and ask what happened to this incredible vehicle (I'm afraid it's not good news).
I have a Patreon now! / calumraasay
More photos, video and sources on my website: calumraasay.wordpress.com/por...
Source & Reading:
The best website for archives and information on the cruiser: www.joeld.net/snowcruiser/snow...
Best overview and details on the design and history of the cruiser:
www.autoclassics.com/posts/re...
An Atlantic article with great photos of the cruiser:
www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016...
Interview with someone who saw it in person:
web.archive.org/web/200701291...
Colour footage of the cruiser:
• Antarctic Snow Cruiser...
"With Byrd at the South Pole"- a documentary Byrd made (where I got most of the stock footage) that went on to be the first documentary to win an Oscar. - • Video
Books on the subject:
Antarctica: A Biography by David Day
www.amazon.co.uk/Antarctica-B...
All the information you could ever need on the attached plane:
www.joeld.net/snowcruiser/wing...
For Shackeltons/Scott
Shackelton: By Endurance We Conquer by Michael Smith
An Unsung Hero- Tom Crean by Michael Smith
Corrections:
The Ferguson tractors show at roughly 4:00 are not the tractors Byrd used during his second expedition. This is placeholder footage of Fergressons used in the 1950s as I couldn't find any photos or videos of the tractors used in the previous 'little America' expedition. Upon Reviewing my footage I found there was actually a clip of the tractors in Byrd's 'Discovery' film made about the second expedition, linked to 26:24 in this video- • RICHARD E BYRD "DISCOV...
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I remember seeing the Snow Cruiser roll past my home in Schenectady N Y on its way to Boston Mass. Your film is the only presentation of experience with it in Antarctica I have ever seen. I am very grateful for your depiction of its ultimate employment and final fate.
That you for watching William and it means a lot to have shared this incredible machine with a wider audience. I'm always amazed to think of the people who got a chance to see this in real life, and I'm glad you got to finally see it actually on the snow!
Grandpa just to collect all the newspaper clippings from the machine trip.
Cool
Albany, NY here :-)
Now where is this beast..under the snow...
Very interesting and no unnecessary background music.
So many RUclipsrs add unnecessary music to otherwise interesting and/or informative videos. This was a pleasant change.
@@rubennavarro2003 Thanks, I always feel background music to be a bit unnecessary and hard to get the levels right on when I'm putting these together. Glad people agree!
Can't see how those who agree with you can do it. Makes me feel uneasy.
@@CalumRaasay Im glad you just use your voice instead of music. It makes things feel more authentic.
it needs the necessary background music
I knew this vehicle before and asked myself; how could this thing move around in the snow with such a small clearance angle and bald tires... but now I know; it didn’t.
It was built and designed in under a few months. Dumb choices in rushed thoughts.
i know. It seems blatantly obvious that it was not well conceived to say the least!!!
Not only the clearance and bald tires but the tires are also extremely narrow and the approach and departure angles of the vehicle are atrocious. It's like the designers didn't even understand basic physics
ayy MasterMilo!!!
@Enzo Issac The only thing anyone should care about (aside from your scamming, piece of shit ass) is that you violated the privacy and trust of someone you supposedly love. Shame on you for scamming, and shame on you more for promoting despicable behavior!
I'd love to design something like this, but more practical. I love the idea of a mobile base for dangerous conditions
Well you'll be happy to hear the Soviets succeeded in creating one! The Kharkovchanka! ruclips.net/video/f6R-h06IsJw/видео.html
That is a fascinating idea isn’t it. It seems like such a crazy idea to venture to Antarctica in even today’s standards let alone almost 100 years ago. Such a mysterious place. Wonder what’s buried in the ice there
Didn’t Top Gear make something like that in a special?
@@oliverguidetti7569 As far as I know they drove there in a lifted Toyota but that's it. That sounds like an great idea for old top gear though, planning this big expedition in some half assed contraption lol
You would think they would have had tractor tread or snow tyre spikes for better traction.
So they didn't even test in in the snow in the U.S. before leaving and they put slick tires on it.
Matt Wolf ....the slick tires were the first thing that struck me. Ridiculous
The one or two guys on the design team , that were from the north east were faced with the prospect of being right, and replaced, or not mentioning the king has no clothes . Good year was no help, must have saved a bunch making that mold with no tread
@@mercoid slick tires are better
@@aegisgfx yet you're watching this video on an American platform,gtfo here.
@@aegisgfx We are fucking stupid. We're letting our country be flooded with millions of people from shithole countries. Where are you from by chance?
Principle #1 for engineering in unknown environments: Calculate the engine power required-then double it, and add 25%.
and then round it up
Oddly enough that's the same formula used to estimate how long it will take to write a program - the final 25% being for management overheads and admin tasks (that basically give the managers something to manage).
The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was a complete failure.
...If you look up the word "Boondoggle" in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser!
It was likely one of those high profile projects, where everyone wants to get into the act, so there were probably too many chiefs and not enough indians, internal politics and external politics, corruption, etc.
I'm sure, that many, who worked on or were close observers of the project had doubts, that it would work at all in Antarctica, but once all that money was spent, they pretty much had no choice but to go ahead and send it to Antarctica! ...Classic boondoggle.
notsoancientpelican Except it wasn't the *power* which was the issue here. It was the *traction* , or lack of, by using smooth rubber tires. Even if this snow cruiser would have had TWICE the power it had it would still get bogged down.
Principle #1 for common sense. Don't ever reduce every single issue into power.
I sincerely hope you're kidding. You must be.
"Let's build something that won't sink into snow"
"Yes , and make it weigh 38 tons,"
It's probably a blessing in disguise that it didn't make it very far. Imagine if it fell into a (I don't know the term, thin ice form?). Whether into water or cavern, all crew aboard would have been lost.
And with that tonnage, they would have found one.
a vehicle's footprint could largely counteract its weight, in theory
Yes in theory
@@mam362 yes, to measure if a KingTiger could pass over bland terrain one of the crew would jump onto another's back and that one would stand in one feet over said terrain, if they didn't sink then the tank could pass, so yeah, tracks are helpful to distribute weight, 79tons putting the same pressure to the ground that a couple of germans
sorry for my english btw :)
Looks like my first space engineer rover: Took a lot of time and ressources to build, travelled 100m, flipped over in a ditch and was never touched again.
Was going to say looks like my moon rover bases in Kerbal. Which rolled over and exploded.
Looks like my APV from alian in space engineer
@@rambo8863 That's the first vehicle I thought of.
@@rambo8863 I tought about the Alien the Marine vehicle lol
Scrolling through I honestly thought this was a Space Engineers video.
"Hey, look at how well tanks and other tracked vehicles move around on the ice. Lets not use anything like that."
sorta a predecessor to the Mars roamer
We big brain do better
The Cruiser was built in 11 weeks, and Poulter (the designer) accepted from Gulf Research a set of moulds for large tyres 3 m in diameter and 0.9 m wide, developed by Goodyear for a lightweight swamp vehicle used in oil prospecting. At the time they knew that wheeled vehicles worked on ice but not on snow, however, there were no real measurements or systematic observations to say why that was the case. Poulter had seen tracked vehicles running successfully on deep snow, and could not see why suitably clad wheels, large enough to distribute weight and minimize pressure over the surface, should not work just as well.
The cruiser was tested briefly on Sand dunes and found to work quite effectively. Sand and very cold snow behave similarly but not identically. Poulter had measured and found coefficients of friction for the two to be about the same, but the unit weights (which he apparently did not measure) differ. Sand is roughly four times heavier than snow, and Poulter might have predicted that performance in sand could well be four times better than in snow.
It's frustrating in the comments of the video because I keep having to respond to people calling the designers and entire team 'morons' and even worse weirdly aggressive insults for not knowing how to build the snow cruiser effectively. It's hard to appreciate how much of the technology that was being utilised here was in its infancy, and that so much of what we now know about tyres, treads and transportation over ice and snow came through failure such as this.
Another Trent Sup
Calum cmon its just the typical yt joke.
The Snowcruiser became stuck in a creek near Gomer, Ohio on Lincoln Highway. Still the biggest event to ever happen in Gomer.
Jeff Martin My Mom told the story of seeing the cruiser, since the family lived about a half mile from the event. 😊
Jeff Martin any pictures?
Still better than slipping off the ship and falling in the water.
@@nztphotography5758 ruclips.net/video/3ixqwDecLno/видео.html
One in Ohio
My dad used to say “Son, just remember that every idiotic endeavor was somebody’s fantastic idea”.
Thats a great comment. Well said.
Soviets learned from this which lead to Kharkiv'yanka (Ukrainian: Харків'янка) or Kharkovchanka (Russian: Харьковчанка. Which BTW I learned last night from Calum.
Adobedirt Blues my dad used to say,” the titanic was built by experts,but the Ark was built by ‘Amateurs’!”🤣🤣
Rod Gillanders my dad used to say “why are you wasting your time making RUclips videos?” Proved him wrong! 😂
Calum haha,checked out a few vids,awesome job bud! I’m up in Applecross,fishin’ n crofting!👌
I can't believe that such a crazy machine ever existed. She looks so far ahead of her time that it's hard to believe she was built in the 1930s.
The strong Scottish accent combined with the wealth of information make for a good way to spend 16 minutes.
this thing looks like it was designed in the late 1960s, yet it was made before WWII
Totally right, very 50/60s "retro futuristic" design
@@CalumRaasay Now I want a WWII or Cold War Video game set in the Antarctic
I was thinking the same thing! Looks totally out of place for the era.
*during WWII
It could have looked like a spaceship but it doesn't matter if it's a failure
Alarm bells should have rung when the " Snow cruiser " got stuck in a country road ditch on the way to the ship.
I agree xD
stormywindmill
Would have given anyone with an ounce of common sense a real good clue that it was a non starter in the snow, ( running on slick tyres). if it can't pull it's self out of a ditch what chance would it have over a crevice,? But I suppose bull shit rules once again
Alarm bells should have rung when the supply ship was named NORTHSTAR
At that point the whole thing had already been built, might as well have sent it off to its doom even if it was a one in a million chance it would work. Better than spending all that money and scrapping it immediately
"During the trip, a damaged steering system caused the vehicle to drive off a small bridge on the Lincoln Highway and into a stream near the town of Gomer, Ohio near Lima, Ohio, where it remained for three days" - alarm to fix steering? they did
*Can't handle creeks*
"I'm sure it'll be fine!"
They have a historical marker near Gomer,Ohio about it getting stuck.
Hank Wegesin I need to visit it!
@@CalumRaasay I've seen it
The airplane, a Beechcraft D-17A "Staggerwing" that served in Antarctica is being restored in Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand. It is well along and is being restored as it was in 1939. I met and spoke in great length with Sgt. Pete Petras, the gentleman who flew the Staggerwing originally. Very interesting gentleman. Great story.
Yes I've been talking to the couple behind the restoration, lovely folks, and incredibly interesting project. wish I had covered it in this video- maybe in the future!
So the designer was inspired by the success of the early snow tractors, and decided nah, it wasn't the tracks that helped, lets give ours balloon tires.
it wasn't such a strange idea - The balloon tyres weighted far less and made for better ground pressure than the tracks on a vehicle of that size
Also in sub-zero temperatures for long periods track linkage pins become brittle and risk throwing a track
If the technology was there to put tread on those tires and a mechanism for regulating tire pressure I think they would have done much better. Big smooth balloon tires may have been efficient for getting them along a flat surface, but there was no way it was going to be effective in the snow on any kind of incline.
@@Dr.TJ_Eckleburg the tread directly runs counter to the ability of the balloon tyres as they restrict the volume adjustment of the tyres.
You are applying logic from tyres that have PSI that work in a range of +/- 15% to ones that work with +/- 300%
The tread of a tyre is based on the idea of compacting material under the tyre to gain surface area for friction as the vehicle bites the material.
Tread works on compressed pack snow, and only on powder snow by packing it using vehicle weight.
The balloon radically increases contact surface area and prevent the compression of the snow that tread needs, as all surface snow in on the poles is powder for dozens of feet thick, standard tread ideas simply throw a powder plume until the vehicle is beached on its belly.
The biggest issue is The Cruiser was built in 11 weeks, and Poulter (the designer) accepted from Gulf Research a set of moulds for large tyres 3 m in diameter and 0.9 m wide, developed by Goodyear for a lightweight swamp vehicle used in oil prospecting. At the time they knew that wheeled vehicles worked on ice but not on snow, however, there were no real measurements or systematic observations to say why that was the case. Poulter had seen tracked vehicles running successfully on deep snow, and could not see why suitably clad wheels, large enough to distribute weight and minimize pressure over the surface, should not work just as well.
The cruiser was tested briefly on Sand dunes and found to work quite effectively. Sand and very cold snow behave similarly but not identically. Poulter had measured and found coefficients of friction for the two to be about the same, but the unit weights (which he apparently did not measure) differ. Sand is roughly four times heavier than snow, and Poulter might have predicted that performance in sand could well be four times better than in snow.
i like how u defend an obvious FAILURE. I mean its was stupid and it was proved to be so. Tracks are used for ice and snow and until this day its the most effective way to move around with. So wtf are u talking about.
We need to send Freiberger and Finnegan down to Antartica to revive this beast
LOL!
Just shove a supercharger on it and they’ll get it going
Not sure leaf blowers are going to get that moving
Roadkill Antarctica
Hell yes!!!!!
I came here to rewatch this masterpiece after Mustard's recent video
Got it recommended after I watched that video
"what an amazing vehicule, it's strange to think the slick tires can be useful on ice"
2 min later : oh
The new crown jewel of Jay Lenno’s garage
Don't we wish. This would have made an amazing addition to any collection!
That thing looks like something International Rescue would have to go after... _Thunderbirds are _*_GO!_*
Check out Caterpillars Trucks and Wheel loaders. I think they’d work. I’ve seen them work in Sweden at -30.
FAB!!!
Exactly....
@Alex M Actually they didn't ...strings and etc.Models.Not real.So this thing would have been perfect there.
I preferred the cartoon over god live action dolls. Damn I am old. I think their were licensing issues over the American release of the cartoon so it will never be seen again.
Very interesting bit of history, but also (and rarely heard on RUclips) a natural, professionally delivered and entertaining commentary. Thank you.
I imagine it drifting out to sea. Then sinking at the bottom. 300 years from now someone will find it at the bottom of the sea. They will wonder.
"Slick treads on the seabed? it would never work!"
@@CalumRaasay "Those tyres not big enough to float"
These guys are dumb as they fly away
Future person : and this is a perfect example of a typical underwater Winnebago used by the people of the lost city of Atlantis
I imagine trying to take a scaled model for a drive on snow would not have been expensive
I would have not been most effective *_not_* to bring the full sized equipment with them, if they're already en route to such a distant place.
@@PACKERMAN2077 Didn't have to be snow in antartica
@@CarlMarx oh sorry I understood you as saying, _"go all the way to Antarctica with the models just to test them there because they didn't have snow in the place where they built them at that time of year because they were trying to meet a deadline."_
🙄😅
@@PACKERMAN2077 You know if they went up to canada there'd still be snow in summer in some northern parts right? And besides, testing it on sand or something would have sufficed. Testing it at all would have been a good idea.
@@Shorjok noo no, you can't do that
25’wide 37 tons, it gets ten feet and it’s stuck forever.
Indeed It would’ve been better if it rolled on caterpillar tracks like a bulldozer, granted not as fast as wheels, but at least it would not get stuck
what's that in non retarded units?
Carlos Leon
For countries that haven’t landed on the moon, it’s 7.5 m wide, and 33,000 kg.
@@the0mighty0burrito lol even NASA uses metric
@@carlosandleon 1/4 of a football field wide and weighed as much as the water that would fill a 20th of a Olympic size swimming pool or about as much as 4 school busses
Funny, the Antarctic Snow Cruiser turned up in Clive Cussler's novel, 'Atlantis Found'. I had no idea that it was real.
Yup!
There were tundra tractors in use in Alaska, and one is still sitting as you come into Homer from Fritz Creek. They were similar, with extremely tall tires, but were Bar ribbed, as the WWII USA vehicles were.
This was awesome!! I've watched tons of documentaries on the Antarctic, but never knew about this failure.
Great job with the voicing, the pace of the video, and wow... the footage you pieced together!
..and thank you for no background music!
Thank you! I'm obsessed with the antarctic and I had never even heard of this, so glad others have been similarly interested!
my grandfather was on the ship when it was transported to Antarctica , the north star , he was the steward on the ship.
Fantastic! I used to be a ship steward as well, although we didn't have as interesting cargo!
Naheim Googolla cabin boiiis
This thing looks like something I would have drawn as a kid.
Or Elon Musk announces is the future of transportation.
@@ian_b Cybertank
homer car
Looks like the early concept art for a Star Wars vehicle
you are hired!
you made by far the best snow cruiser video available, thank you.
*Thanks for posting this video!!!*
I know a lot of people have already commented on this. However it struck me as a superb project, however really stupid mistakes. No testing in say Alaska beforehand, slick tyres, madness. Surely spikes or a deep off road tread, snow chains even. It just strikes me as a great idea but ruined by simple mistakes. Engineers got the basics wrong!
It was designed by a Physics Professor then built in 11 weeks by a company that made train coaches, started up only to be driven across country without any testing or even a shakedown run. Crashed into a creek because a faulty steering system. It was a rush job and a publicity stunt with a bit more development time and testing it might have been a success not likely, but politics got in the way as they often do.
It's wildly odd how this was engineered in Chicago. The winters can toublesome there. I wonder what kind of tires simple trucks were using around then and there. Atop of that, what were we using in Alaska at the time? (Being our snowyest local territory).
I bet there were a number of engineers quietly shaking their heads after being told to "shut it", after bringing it up during design. Of course, Illinois isn't known for its squeeky clean politics. So in hindsight, its not hard to understand how "a" led to "b", and then to the flop that is "c".
One article I read said that chains were used on the tires, when it was learned that the slicks did not function in Antarctica. One can only imagine how chains were fashioned for ten foot diameter tires, but it went on to say they were a failure as well. The article also said that the air plain malfunctioned too and was never used.
@@dycantos World War 2 was around the corner and nobody wanted to invest time and money in a machine like this by this point.
@@brunoraoni To us in hindsight WWII was just around the corner but in the United States late 1930s that was a distant possibility an ocean away the funds were there for the project but it was a race to build it and get there first.
"Little America, Little America 2... What should we call the third one?"
"No use getting creative now."
Big foot 7
"Fuck off shi.thole countries 1"
My science teacher in high school was the lead medic on both of the little America expedition. He even was on the cover of life magazine. He was carrying 2 big steaks out of the “ freezer “ room. He told us many stories of both expeditions. His name was Ken Aldrich.
New Moscow
@@sniperdoug1969 That is so awesome!
My friend, this is extreme effort. Thank you.
Video is well done, professionally edited, instructive and entertaining. You covered a lot of information in sixteen minutes. Thanks.
Who would have thought that the bald tires on the Snow Cruiser wouldn't grip the ice and snow like an eagle grasping a fish?
alphaone101 your wrong bald tires are actually better they still use bald tires today in the Arctic and Antarctic
@@donovan9356 that sounds interesting. Do you know why bald tires are better?
They did not have the knowledge we have today, but they could've imagined it, it's pretty intuitive.
@@IIAndersII More surface area to grip, especially if they're really soft they will conform to the shape of the surface. They just should've had like, twelve of them.
@@TheMarkk116 ah that makes sense. thx :)
slick tyres on snow and ice is just the start of a long list of why this wouldn't work and I'm frankly amazed that anyone could think it would
Me too. Absurdly, weirdly naive to think it would.
Lol I thought same thing
Wonder why they didnt make some giant tire chains for it like they use on log skidders?
@@robhartshorn6823 I think in 1 of the pics it did have chains on but only 4 so waste of time on such a big wheel
Smooth tires, 🤫 low air pressure 🤔🤨tires, equals maximum grip 😏 today we have
Tubeless mountain bike wheels 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Seriously high quality documentary thankyou!👍
Fun fact, the Snow Cruiser played a role in the Clive Custler novel "Atlantis Found". Our heroes Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino utilized the vehicle after it had been found in the ice and restored.
The firsst thing I noticed was the treadless tires. Did they not see that before they left ? Like seriously lol. WTF ?
Same thing I was thinking. It's like someone who had never driven in snow decided on what tires would be best for driving on snow.
If that was the only problem it begs the question why didn't they knock out 4 new tyres and send them over for a try
I’d bet they designed that deliberately that way.
Tracks would maybe have solved this issue
250txc not to 60 miles an hour in the thirties, though. Especially not at that size.but then they probably shouldn’t have designed for faster than 5-10mph.
Should have brought the snow chains.
There is a photo where they are putting on snow chains...
They did try chains actually, but also it's important to note that the tyres weren't exactly the failure point- it was bad maths and too much weight that sunk it. Poulter (the designer) had calculated that a vehicle with capabilities to drive in the sand would also work in the freezing snow as both shared similar behaviour and weight-bearing capabilities, however, he miscalculated the unit weights. The friction between rubber tyres and snow remained was perfectly high enough for traction but the weight of the vehicle caused the wheels to sink in deeper than they calculated, so that the 'climb-out' of each wheel rut was equivalent to ascending a 20-30% slope. Power had to be expended to break the snow structure and climb this ‘slope’; applied to the tyres this overcame friction and caused wheel slip, which served only to deepen the wheel ruts. If Poulter had calculated correctly they could have accounted for the weight differences and she probably should have been a lot more effective even with treadless balloon tyres.
@@CalumRaasay Imagine shipping it to Antarctica without even testing it in snow though, or any prototype
@@brynclarke1746 sounds like bad idea to me
@@CalumRaasay so what you're saying, in a very complicated way, is that it lost traction or spun as we say in english. I get the reason you so perticularly explained, but do you mean that winter tires would not have improved the performance ?
Absolutely wonderfully executed and detailed story of the Snow Cruiser! A subject that has fascinated me for many years! Thank you!
Thank you for the post! This vehicle has always fascinated me. I hope it's found one day.
Only driveable in reverse?
Snow cruiser = Italian tank
Haha, they say Italian tanks have 1 gear to go forward and 3 in reverse 😂
@@chrissyboi88b wasn't that a joke about french tanks?
Jan Krähe yeah it was a french joke, guess its Italians now
The french have a tank that has four gears in reverse and one in forward, in case the enemy attack from behind.
The Italians paint their tanks with the enemies flag on them for when they change sides.
French.
French surrender after valiant minute 13 hour fight.
We left things just as you wanted, French high command says to Adolph Hitler.
The snow cruisers little brother was in the movie "Alien" . The low flat tank that they broke the transaxle of
* Aliens
@@Will-kt5jk It was converted aircraft tug. Red about it in some "Aliens" trivia.
That was a model... 🤔
Apc
birdpersonpilot ~ great name . what's apc ? wait stop I googled it . Correct "THE APC"
Callum great video my friend very informative very well put together video make some more videos for sure that was great thank you for sharing
One of the best documentaries ever watch :) Bloody GJ.
This is one of the most Dieselpunk things to ever actually happen.
It absolutely fits the aesthetic, that thing's an RV I'd love to live in!
and there's plenty of similar vehicles been in extensive use in Russia. Except successful ones. Noyt to mention the one experimental with locomotive cab and missileplatform bottom.
@@sergeytn6487 But you have to really appreciate the context.
A vainglorious and ill-conceived behemoth made to cement nation ownership of a little-explored icy wasteland, only to be brought to nothing by improbably faulty design. Abandoned, it was lost to the ice, only to be sporadically seen for decades until it finally collapsed into the sea.
That is some Grade A pulp material. A hackneyed plot about man's reach exceeding his grasp practically writes itself.
@@sergeytn6487 I'm actualy making a video about those- the 'Kharkovchankas'. The Soviets took the idea of a self-contained exploration vehicle and really perfected it. Amazing vehicles.
They should've learned from the St. Chamond tank that anything with long overhang is far from an "all-terrain" vehicle.
Yeah that's just asking to get stuck, looks goofier than an old school bus
It also slips sideways like a real bitch if Battlefield 1 is anything to go by
I think the overhang was supposed to be a feature, if the terrain is relatively flat except for crevasses, the overhang would help to cross them, which is also why the wheels were retractable.
Ah, like a hook. Push up on wheels, overhang hooks, let wheels down, etc. But it probably didn't work as planned. Tank tracks might have been better.
@@chinocracy More like a big ski, but ya. Yah, I can't possibly imagine who thought giant innertubes would provide good ice traction. You literally use those for sleds on toboggan hills. Tracks was the logical step.
Now this is an outstandingly engaging documentary! It's clearly in the nature of a personal project, but dense with information and narrative wit, right up there with the best of the institutionally funded material. What a pleasure it is to encounter this!
Wow thank's for sharing this! This is pure Historic gold!
Painting it "John Deere Green" would've helped.
lol - And paint the rims bright yellow.
Why paint it that way? It would only show everyone the owners are gay
@@zekeoutdoors Tell that to the owner of any John Deere tractor. S/he'll hand you your ass.
+5 offroading
They should have went to John Deere and asked them about where they get their tires.
30+ tons of weight on tires that relatively small?
What were they thinking? Getting stuck in the creek should have told them...
Exactly. Someone should have stopped this silly waste of effort.
And the tyres where smooth without paddles or any real tread, it wouldn't get through deep mud or sand let alone snow.
Smooth tires, too.
They were worried about traction when they should have worried about floatation. Dispersal of vehicle weight over the ground.
@@bzdtemp at this point it's important to remember not much was understood about tire design. Honestly I am shocked that none of those tires poped....
I remember reading an article about this in a magazine in the 80's. Absolutely fascinating something like this was approved and built. I agree it would be awesome to find it but it is almost certainly at the bottom on the ocean now.
This was fascinating! Thank you.
When the 'Unstoppable' expedition vehicle gets stuck *on the way to the pier* , it's time to rethink the design ,LOLOL
@@DarkAlex1978 They tested on sand which is similar to snow, the only catch is... sand is 4 times heavier than snow, consequently, the machine had 4 times better performance because of that little detail.
@@DarkAlex1978 There is also the detail that those tires actually worked incredibly well on ICE, not SNOW.
The smooth bottom was to slide over ice and snow. Over earth and grass it just got stuck.
This thing was built in Chicago and couldn’t drive on snow and ice? *sigh*
Chicago..., a snowy wonderland...... should have seen this coming
Yeah, i mean slicks work so well in snow..
Democrats strike again
jeff allbright Way to bring politics into this...
... Sent here by a friend, this video has sparked some memories from my childhood in the 60's.
Thanks for posting the video 👍🏻
Clive Cussler used this vehicle in his book Atlantis Found. Heros Dirk and Al drive across 90 miles of frozen wasteland to defeat the bad guys. He did a great job of explaining how it was built and wrote that it was pretty much useless due to the tires having no tread. With a few modifications to the tires, it performed flawlessly. Cool video!
Another, Cussler junkie. I like it.
Great, now every soccer mom in America is gonna want one of these.
LOL, I was thinking if it rearends a Hummer they would look like they were mating 😅
♪♫ Twelve yards long, two lanes wide, 65 tons of american pride, canyoneroooo-hu-oh, canyonero...
Well at least it doesn't look like a minivan, so it's sexy
'I like the high driving position'
Kelly Larsen “It’s easier to get in and out”
This looks like something that I the Thunderbirds would bust out for one of their more mundane rescues
But it would work!
Cameron Bruce
As long as it doesn’t involve driving over small creeks
Very fascinating, I've never heard of this before! Just goes to show how rugged the terrain of the Antarctic is. Great video. Subscribed!!👍🏼👍🏼
Wow great video & good info / content thanks ✨👍
An interesting design, but incredibly naive/optimistic. The schematic showing how it would get over crevices.... omg that thing would be stuck the very first time. There is no chance whatsoever this thing would have made it. There's no chance it could have made even a fraction of the journey.
The main reason why the vehicle failed was the lack of spiked tires. Those doughnuts it had offered next to no traction and were not shaped accordingly. 3 extra wide tractor tires strapped together would've been a good start for the design as the mass of the vehicle would've had to been spread on a large area to minimize pressure.
@@I_THE_ME No,i think we should go with the slicks,??? 🙄
lots of designing 0 testing. cant believe it lol
@Funny Bunny We're still learning. There will be things we're doing now that people of tomorrow will be like "OMFG, how can they have been so STUPID🤦♂️🙄"
Soviet Union built several special Antarctic tractors. The most succesful was Kharkovanka, built on a base of a military tank. www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/12/unique-soviet-snowmobiles.html
Those tires are perfect for drifting.
Get it?
Snow drifts?
(I'll let myself out)
and close the door, will ya? but as you and about everybody else here have noticed, I was also wondering what's the story behind the tires. I mean what kind of enormous communication breakdown happened at goodyear or elsewhere that made them not put snowtires on ??? I mean tire-heaters, but no threads ? It must have been a gigantic meat head that made those tires and let them ship out to the snow mobile..and even when it got stuck in a ditch, and somebody MUST have said someting, the brains obviously had no say, and the deciders had no brains..
😂😂😂😂😂
Your pic is perfect for this video lol
Hey mate, i'm finally stoked at my youtube recommendations. 19k subs, add 1 to that. loved the vid. cheers, keep it up.
Totally interesting video,..thank you for your research into this folly of automotive history.
I enjoyed watching this,...Cheers Calum.
Glad you enjoyed it! An interesting 'bookend' to the story is that the Soviets got the cruiser right and they're still running to this day: The Kharkovchanka! ruclips.net/video/f6R-h06IsJw/видео.html
my great grandpa helped byrd design and build that snow cruiser. my family has lost of pics with byrd and my great grandpa together during the build process
popanollie1 did he ever explain the relatively skinny smooth tires instead of tracks like those of the tractors and smaller machines of before?
A shame about the pictures, this is really interesting exploratory history!
@@chucky29949 sorry that was supposed to say lots of pictures. not lost. and i vaguely remember something about the tires being heated and easier to heat and retain the heat. and wouldn't say they were skinny compared to the more common car tires of that era that were not much more than a bicycle tire with wooden spokes. (my grandpa drives a 1932 model a, have pics and video of it driving 50mph on my insta, its pretty sketchy lol) i also dont really think tread was a thing back than, or im just guessing here but maybe they thought without tread they would have more surface area and get more traction in return. i dont know for sure but i will definitely mention it to my grandpa and sit down and talk over the pics and get back to you. might not be this week but i will let you know when i do. also funny you ask about the wheels, i know for a fact my great grandpa designed or helped design the wheels, tires, suspensions and i think something else drive related.
@@popanollie1 if you can get all the photos scanned they'd be much appreciated by people who study and preserve the history of Antarctic exploration.
@@greggv8 i do have a scanner, i can copy them for anyone who wants, tell me where to send them, or private message me on instagram with a email to send the pics
popanollie1 I think we’d all love to see these, have read lots about Byrd and seen most of the clips on YT, amazing to see the colour film on this great channel please share your photos!
I hope this is replicated in a game, would be fun to drive around
Spintyres needs it
I would totally play a game where thing thing serves as your home base.
Gta it’s called the chernogbob or something like that they’ve added missiles too the back tho
Visible Confusion the whole idea of something like sim city in Antarctica would be cool.. (pardon the pun)
@@misty8623 the cernobog is just a missile launcher not an enormous mobile laboratory unfortunately
awesome video!👍
Well done! Thank you.
Oh yeah, as a Film Director I find this content very educating and inspiring! Keep doing the great work, sir !
"...innovation for the time, but remarkable for its instantaneous and complete failure"
sounds like Tsar Tank type project to me.
the tsar tank was outdated from the drawing board on. lmao
@@comethiburs2326
what i was referring to was that Tsar tank was conceptually wrong.
with just a little bit of thinking both of these massive vehicles would have been scraped or redesigned before building them. I mean BOTH failed on their maiden drive (as far as the intended place to drive goes - offroad), both got stuck and left in the same place.
So what if (this would never have happened but is just a hypothetical) the tsar tank turned out to be amazing and utterly destroyed all othe tanks at the time and that then tanks evolved from the tsar tank ww2 battlefields being littered with massive metal tricycles how would modern tanks look
@@monteb6276
leaving aside the fact that the gigantic wheels are naturally good target i would guess that the Star Wars Prequel IG-227 (starwars.fandom.com/wiki/IG-227_Hailfire-class_droid_tank/Legends) you know that thing with gigantic wheels. would have been somewhat natural evolution of idea of Tsar tank.
or maybe more of the velocipede designs would come back.
Love those grand transportation designs (being myself an airship enthusiast).
When I look at the diagrams how ice crevasses were expected to be crossed, I cannot help thinking that each time it happened, the whole crew would be kneeling down and praying, while the behemoth did its 'leap of faith' - if the other side was not strong enough to support it, they would just fall to their deaths. And if any of the sides were too sllippery for the baloon tyres grip vs "sliding belly" - they would be stuck over the crevasse - in which case they would be better off with entrance hatches on both ends of the vehicle.
And all this when tracked vehicles and mobile bridges were already in existence and doing well...
This story is amazing, and I come back to it time after time
I really cannot express my thanks enough for you producing this video!
As soon as I saw the image of this machine I knew exactly what I was seeing!
About 50 years ago, as a boy, I read a book which contained this machine, and in all that time I never forgot about it (except one relevant part!).
Over the years I've kept thinking about it, especially when I attended Motorcycle Technical College and became a professional motorcycle mechanic, setting up my own workshop.
I had tried to find out more about this machine over the years, but about the only thing I forget was the name of the machine itself, and that of the explorer whom commissioned it!
Seeing your video and the links to a wealth of information on the machine and other amazing creations has meant so very much to me!
Thank you, naturally, I have subscribed.
Wow, what a great comment and I'm so happy you finally found the information after all this time- and that I could provide it! I know exactly what you mean though, so many books and stories and facts I can half-remember that I would desperately love to remember and rediscover!
That looks like a great machine for finding crevasses
It would be very successful on at least one occasion 😂
Stefan Cocciolone what are you trying to say?
made me giggle, i thought the same thing when they brought it out
😂😂😂
Looks like a pain in the crevass.
Thank you for posting.
You're welcome!
Great video what a cool vehicle !
In the Clive Cussler book "Atlantis found", the "hero" Dirk used the Snow Cruiser in his mission to save the world!
That's the first thing I thought when I saw the thumbnail.
Couldn’t read Cussler. He kept writing himself into the books.
@@blisterbill8477 Well... not really. These days other people pretty much write his books.
Jeff DeWitt
Well, I stopped reading Cussler about 25 years ago.
@@blisterbill8477 Well, so what? Custler wrote in his (annoying) style, but great yarns at that. However, he employed the essentially useless Snow Cruiser as an hero machine in a book. I like that he utilised a "failed" piece of kit and informed many people - myself included - about this awesome machine.
Clive Cussler wrote about it in one of his famous Dirk Pitt and Giordino books. They found it and managed to start this monster to attack an enemy base. Great book and story.
The description and name of this vehicle is the same.
I remember it well. As is usual in Cussler novels, some bad guys are trying to engineer a worldwide calamity, and Dirk Pitt and Al Giordino saves the world. In this case, the bad guys were nazis trying to establish a fourth reich after killing the rest of the world, but Pitt and Giordino use the Snow Cruiser to infiltrate the nazi base in Antarctica and put a stop to their antics.
I followed up my viewing of this video with your video on the Soviet Colossal Cruiser - very interesting - thanks for posting.
Wow! Thank you for this.
I read about the snow cruiser in a car magazine many years ago but that article didn't have as much info as this. Thanks for posting!
No problem! I have some more photos and photos on my blog if you'd prefer the long read! calumgillies.com/2019/03/20/the-snow-cruiser-antarcticas-abandoned-behemoth/
I remember that also, but I thought it was a poplar science or mechanics illustrated. I have looked for this in thee past but could never find mention of it. Interesting story.
@@bradmetcalf7832 I believe it was Special Interest Autos, published by Hemmings Motor News.
I heard about this thing in James Rollins “the sixth extinction,” however I thought that one more piece of science fiction in the book. Very cool to know it actually exists!
Very interesting, I have subscribed
Great article.
Thanks
I love the Snow Cruiser.I would live in that behemoth .It reminds me of a massive car that Speed Racer had to race and avoid being killed by
Pacem Parabellum ......I remember that episode. Was my favorite.
+Pacem Parabellum - Yep. The Mammoth Car.
Like something out of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds!
If I had known about the Snow Cruiser back when I was a kid watching Thunderbirds I would have lost my mind!
The Snow Cruiser looks like one of the elevator cars from Thunderbirds "Trapped in the Sky".
FAB!
@@CalumRaasayYou and me both They still have Thunderbirds on the Comet channel. Maybe they could send Stingray or Supercar to look for it.
@@trespire precisely!
Great production and narration.
gbangerau thank you, much appreciated
Thank you for this! Ever since I first heard about the snow cruiser, it's been an incredibly fascinating story so I'm just binging on whatever content I can find of it. Speaking of - there's a channel named Derelict Doug who has recreated your video basically word for word in some parts. It has far less views and I don't know if you even care about that, but I thought I'd let you know :)
What Einstein decided it was a good idea to put smooth tread tires on a 35 ton ( or however many tons it was ) on a vehicle designed to travel across ice and snow?! And it was government funded? Looks like little has changed in the last 80 years!
Yep
I still want them to revive it somehow with some design changes
Wow, it reminds me of the "Landmaster" from "Damnation Alley," except it's even bigger.
Damnation Alley came to mind for me as well.
Great research on this and other Antarctic vehicles.
Thank you so much!
thank you for sharing
Your telling me we built this thing and didnt even try it out in the snow and ice before shipping it across the globe and depending on it.
That's because America doesn't have any snow or ice areas to test it 😀👍 LOL!!
I was thinking exactly the same thing, someone should have been jailed for this untested pile of steaming poo!
No, the private owners who built it didn’t test it out properly. _We_ had nothing to do with it, mostly.
@@air7tv Alaska?
@@andrewyork3869 check out the meaning of " sarcasm " you might like it 😀👍
@@air7tv I still don't get it Alaska is the only place in the USA that can be compared to the South Pole.... To properly test it it would need to be tested in Alaska....
thankyou for this. i learn something new about extremes every day. this is quality material..
Thank you Mono man!
Very cool! Thanks!
Neat. Thx for this cool vid.
Carpe Mkarzi thank you for watching!