Re-Inventing the Wheel
Imagine you are living in a world after the crash of civilisation. You have plenty of automobiles and spare parts, but the roads and bridges have all gone to hell. You need a serious all-terrain vehicle that will not bog down in mud or snow, nor stop at the water's edge.
The Russian wheel track modification in the video above would presumably work for a wide range of vehicles. You decide whether you prefer the Russian modification or the Subaru WRX STI Trax.
Apparently the brainchild of a resourceful inventor from Chelyabinsk, Russia, Metelica is constructed from the leftover tread assemblies. As the videos show, the car is driven onto the treads, the wheels are removed and (although exactly how the conversion works remains a bit of a mystery to us) the driver is able to control both the speed and steering of the treads using the cars controls._more at Gizmag
Labels: reinventing wheels
posted by al fin at 2:48 pm
4 Comments:
Now, if it was amphibious too...
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2007/06/amphibious_car.html
This looks a lot like a Minnesota company called Mattracks. Check them out at mattracks.com
Except for the tracks, it's probably easily made from existing stuff. Big problem I see is that it's top heavy, but that's not too big of a problem.
The Subaru looks nice, but the tracks probably cost as much as the car.
A bit of lift, and good tires, and most four wheel drives will go most places you'd want to go with them.
Right. It needs to be truly all-terrain, and amphibious.
The hovercraft is one good approach to that level of versatility. Of course, a helicopter on floats would also work -- but uses a lot of fuel.
Perhaps a combination hovercraft and ground-effect flyer would work -- except for crossing wide and deep canyons.
A tracked vehicle is heavy. I've driven amphibious tracked vehicles but they are very expensive and fuel hungry. But fun.
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