Yeah since that video went up I've been seeing a lot of the same discussion on the cruiser so I thought I'd try to answer a few of the most common comments that I see!
@@CalumRaasay honestly I am glad you put it in my mind and hope more info can be found A question I have though is, is the couple planning on making the plane look like its snow exploration self or would that be too out of season for a place like theirs?
I find it so strangely haunting thinking about that thing at the bottom of the freezing, black ocean. I'd imagine the temperature would keep it relatively well preserved. What a crazy discovery it would be if they found it again. Also, love the content - keep it up!
I literally just went down a deep dive wiki hole about this thing last week. I still think it’s incredible that they built this hot mess in just 11 weeks. I’ve seen my fair share of SEMA cars get pushed in cuz they couldn’t finish it in 6 months.
@@CalumRaasay Your video has Inspired me to start a project on building a motorized model of the snow cruiser out of Lego. Right now I am trying to figure out the right scale to make all of the functions work while retaining interior space for minifigures. Working off of original blueprints.
Big difference with Kharkovchanka is while they got similar time frame for building, one is builded from ground up and other has to adapt proven design. And also, Kharkovchanka wasn't trully autonomous-they had limited, but vital logistic supply by air. For their threads' load and outside conditions, it needed constant maintenance.
Nice job on these documentaries! I've been fascinated by the Snow Cruiser since reading about it in old car magazines in the 1980s, and because of that I've been fascinated by all things Antarctica. Especially land transportation there. It's interesting that while it was a failure in the 1930s, the Snow Cruiser has helped keep discussions and research about that continent going for decades!
I wonder how the snow cruiser would have gone if they had managed to get it away from the heavy and relatively warm snow of the coast and into the Antarctic interior.
It depends what you mean. If you mean just hypothetically plonking it down in the Antarctic interior, then it would have got stuck there too. If you mean had they managed to drive It into the Antarctic interior, how would it have got on, then you're hypothesising a different design that was absent the flaws that caused it to immediately get stuck (i.e. Weighing too much in relation to tyre contact area and resulting point-load put on the snow overcoming friction and allowing wheel-slip) in which case it might have been okay. I guess,, since you're alluding to the possibility that the problem was not in the design, but the fault of 'the wrong type of snow' that you're an employee of Network Rail?!
@@K1lostream I have no idea who Network Rail is, are you assuming my nationality? I've spent a lot of time in Antarctica and I can tell you there's a huge difference in the amount and consistency of the snow near the coast and the snow on the ice cap. Would it have worked? Don't know, hence my comment.
Graham O The report said it might have gotten 'a little further' if it had been built to aircraft specifications rather than railcar ones. It also said it was too heavy by a factor of three to five for the tyres available. Whilst I am aware that snow can have consistencies varying from powder to polystyrene, being overweight by such a non-trivial factor would make that something of an irrelevance. Perhaps if the performance had been marginal, but it was not even close to being a viable design. The Network Rail comment was rather UK-centric, I'm afraid. They are the UK rail operator and one of the things Brits love to do is ridicule their excuses for being unable to keep trains running - in winter their go-to trope is to blame 'the wrong type of snow' hoping we won't realise Canada, for example, routinely keep their track operable in conditions far worse than anything the UK experiences, including on occasion, the worst possible consistency of snow. (In spring it is flooding, in summer it is the heat and in autumn it is leaves on the line, so they have excuses to cover the whole year for why the service is consistently shit).
Thanks for this follow-up. Definitely one of the most interesting vehicles. Somewhat like a deep space spaceship...well, without space, but still. I aboslutely love this topic. And so far your video/s on this topic seem to be the best ones in production quality, detail and personality ^^
Its pretty interesting to see that you and other creators have basically shown millions of people this long forgotten piece of hardware. Thats just insane! Many thanks again for such informative video!
It's so awesome the airplane meant for the cruiser survived and is still around is kind of heart warming. When it was seized for wartime use i almost thought it was going to be the end of it.
ok i admit it .. the Snow Cruiser was the first video of Calums i saw .. but then i subscribed & have watched everything he's made .. & they have all been interesting
12:31 - a thing that came to mind is motorsports, with rally racing on snow a larger wider wheel and tire doesn't do you any justice, you want narrow and studded so this appears to be a case of not being able to test ideas
Nice one Calum! Cool follow up. So good to see the Staggerwing made it through the years. Although it definitely had it's ups & downs! (Did you see what I did there? 😆) Cheers! 🥃
That's so awesome that the snow cruiser might be along the edge of the Ross ice shelf. I'll never forget sailing along side it and seeing it stretch to the horizon in both directions. So lucky to have been able to visit Antarctica, was my #1 dream when I joined the U.S. Coast Guard.
I wonder if the depth of the water and mass of the vehicle would allow it to be detected by a Magnetic Anomaly Detector from a sub hunting aircraft? Edit: it’s a long shot but a magnetic survey was undertaken by the USGS. I’m not sure if the instrumentation was sensitive enough for something like the snowcruiser to show up if someone went over the data with a fine toothed comb.
Problem is - that is high chance that it smashed into little pieces in the fragmenting iceberg stage. Millions of tonnes of snow and ice and fairly thin steel.... Yes shipwrecks can be found intact... but they were not frozen in the ice cliff then ground along it after it fractured and then fragmented. And MAD looks for big masses all in one place.. and apart from engine block, chassis , suspension and transmission most it will have been fairly lightweight thin steel. Fragment ot down, MAD wont find it.
Great videos, I'm really enjoying them. I worked for a company called FMC in the 70's. One product they made was something similar to the snow cruiser and I only saw a photo and description. It looked about the same size as the snow cruiser and I only remember a couple things about it. It had giant wheels perhaps 6-10 feet in diameter but they were very low pressure 3-5 psi and they were designed for minimal damage to permafrost or the tundra. Part of the advertisement showed the giant vehicle rolling over a human being without injury. I remember seeing the photo. I've googled all over and can't find anything on this vehicle. Part of FMC was a division called ESD that eventually became an independent separate company. ESD was know for building one of a kind strange machines, such as the first automated postal sorter, a pepper picker, an automated system for assembling the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk, automated warehouses, coal mining machines and underwater living units. I worked on some very unusual coal mining machines which were called mobile roof supports.
@@CalumRaasay I think that's closer but not quite. I jogged my memory and I think this vehicle was used in the Alaska Pipe Line construction as like a hauler of equipment, even pipe segments. It was massive about the size of the snow cruiser.
You made mention of the ice breaker Edisto as an army vessel. Ouch. It was U S Navy, then U S Coast Guard. This comment from a coastie. You present very good, informative vids on some now obscure bits of history. I look forward to showing these to a neighbor who worked Antarctica stations for Navy. The push to deploy the snow cruiser was a great, much publicized hurry-up-and-fail. Snow junket.
That snow cruiser really reminds me of a huge aircraft tow vehicle. One of those big ones that have tank controls and crab crawling, beefy tires with no suspension or anything mechanically fancy. It both looks and essentially works the same way. They had very good reason to think it would work, considering that basic design could do so much more on every other surface and it's so mechanically easy to fix compared to something brand new, sorta why military uses that design to this day.
I have been to McMurdo and had access to one of the National Science Foundation Ford vans with a 4X4 conversion and 44" tires (if I remember that correctly). The REALLY cool ones did in fact have four individual track assemblies, but the one I had could power itself around pretty well. You only really need to drive around on the hard-packed snow roads or the lava rock roads anyway, though, in the typical work on or around McMurdo Base. The snow cruiser was clearly underpowered and unsafe and completely unacceptable for going too far away from the base. The huge wheeled personnel carriers like "Ivan the Terrabus" usually work, but when snow drifts cover the roads, it needs to be parked on a huge metal chain link assembly and pulled by a huge Caterpillar loader. They call this "The Magic Carpet Ride". The McMurdo scientists havea sense of humor for everything. I have a picture of a pallet crate with professional-looking spray-painted stenciling that says "Fork Other Side"....when you walk around to the other side of the crate, the same stenciling now reads: "Spoon Other Side". The dorky scientists there are hilarious.
Very interesting. You're a natural at this, I'm surprised you don't have 100s of thousands of subscribers! The research you do alone puts most other YT channels to shame. Although, it has to be said that the Snow Cruiser was a badly designed vehicle, built in a rush by someone who refused to believe his ideas could be wrong, that then was so useless, it never really went anywhere, and was abandoned and forgotten. Rather ironically, from a British point of view, it bears horrible parallels with Scott's expedition! Whilst I appreciate how interesting all this is, it was basically a failure - and was always going to be. Soviet historians must be looking at all the fuss about this and thiking to themselves "but ours worked!".
@@CalumRaasay I actually remember learning a bit about the snow cruiser before you put your video up, and making similar vehicles in games such as Space Engineers. I quickly found out the reason why you normally don't see vehicles with such enormous overhangs; they dig themselves into the ground wherever the ground slopes up, or they'll force the body off the ground, making the nearest wheels ineffective. If you like, I can also send you some interesting articles I've found about the soviet An-2 cargo biplanes used in Antarctica; I've seen them in the background of several shots in your Kharkovchanka video.
Ten Years ago I took a trip round Scotland with the express purpose of going to as many distilleries as possible. Out of all the many single malts I tasted, Talisker was by far my least favourite. Just thought I'd drop that bombshell. :)
Keep in mind that the Soviets used tracked vehicles rather successfully in the Arctic. I blame Good Year for the tires as they surely wanted to promote rubber tires. Interestingly, the Soviets tried to learn from the American SnowCruiser and their first attempt also put the engine in an interior space on the premise that you would be sheltered while doing maintenance but because of that, the engines overheated, the interior cabin was too noisy and exhaust soot got everywhere in the living space. They also failed to have auxiliary heating and electrical power in their first version so when the engine wasn't running, they froze. The Soviets with their second version went back to the AT-T tracked trucks as a basis with the engine under a hood in front of the cab, both of which being separate from the interior space. They also included auxiliary heat and power with the second version though they could not benefit from that when maintaining the engine. (I'm surprised the Soviets didn't use one of their Strontium RTG's for auxiliary power). They could've just gone to multiple tracks to be long enough for large crevasses so crossing large crevasses wasn't a reason to not use tracks... I suppose we could say that the Soviets lucked out as they started with surplus tracked vehicles (the surplus AT-T trucks based on the T-54 tank) not purpose built Antarctic vehicles and found the tracks worked well so their purpose built vehicles used tracks whereas the US really had nothing to go on except that some of the financial contributors such as Good Year wanted tires. To be honest, I would've expected a lot of the supports to be skies with tracks for propulsion like a ski-doo. I believe the first Canadian patent for a "motor sleigh" was in 1915 and involved the familiar front skis and rear tracks. The Snowcruiser was 1937 so well after the suitable strategy was already known (at least known in Canada). The Soviet Karkochanka was in 1959 with versions used through 2010 so you could also say they probably learned from the US failure but really why didn't the US just learn from Canadian successes...
I've not watched past the section that described it sinking in the snow unable to surmount that problem. Two improvements Keep the dual wheels but upgrade to eight huge rice paddy tires used in farming today with the equally huge 4-wheel drive tractors and add chains to provide more traction. Sorry just what iffing.
Because of how long ago the machine was left in Antarctica, I believe it will look alot like a snow or ice hill matching the vechicle's dimensions. Kinda hard to find a white hill in the land of white hills too. Lol
IF it wasn't abraded away/crushed by the chunk's movements, they will likely find it upside down at the bottom. Whilst the balloon tires wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat, it would be enough to force it heavy part down (assuming, they were still inflated). That means that it's likely crushed (much like other things that fell in such a manner, be they planes, boats).
Lets go get that thing. Pop the rubber off the bead, throw some screws through it and make a proper ice tyre. Bring some Tesla engines while we're at it, get this thing moving with some real authority. But the most crucial thing? Don't forget the whiskey! Calum, I here it's good over your way ;D
I think about the beetle from another one of your video's that fell thru the Ice and sank. Someday somebody is gonna be scanning the bottom and come across this. WTH?? There is a VW parked there! [OK, your relieved of duty for Drinking on the job] 😅
The fact is there were a lot of very intelligent people who worked on the AC, and intuitively their decisions make sense at first. You go with wheels instead of tracks because wheels are a lot lighter and easier to replace, and in a place as remote as Antarctica that means a lot. You go with a balloon or treadless design because if you're just driving on relatively flat, packed snow, and not going very fast, then you don't really need tread. These decisions were wrong and misguided, and the whole philosophy of the vehicle just didn't work. But at the time it's really easy to see how these decisions got made.
My grandma once showed me a picture it was of admiral bird standing beside the snow curser in byucrus Ohio ,if you would like I could get the photo to show u?
Late to comment but I wonder if the idea of underinflating the tires when stuck in soft snow was something they thought of back then? One of the images of the ASC on snow looked like one set of tires at the front were underinflated maybe? Or did Poulter and his team discuss that when the ASC got on solid ice (as often found in the middle of the Antartic) that the tires would need to be more fully inflated?
Since the SC was built like a boat to keep the cold out if the tires were fully inflated would it float? I suspect it would. In that case it may not be on the bottom.
If ever anyone were to set out on an expedition for the Snow Cruiser, and if the estimations of the ice shelf drift were accurate, then the chances of finding the Cruiser are [relatively] high. The Ross sea has an average depth of 500-550 meters, and a maximum depth of around 1200. Those depths fall within "The Twilight Zone"; where their is still some natural light. Also, technology like Synthetic Aperture Sonar allows for much more detailed images of objects on the ocean floor (search for sonar images of U-853 for example).
Interesting video. I have to admit that I often forget to take into an account the fact that tings obvious to us, were not so obvious years in the past. I now wonder if in the future there will be a guy watching youtube videos on space travel and comment something along" this is so obvious they should use...". Also, I guess I am lucky this video was on my to watch list. May I ask why did you unlist it?
Thanks very much for the follow-up. I am still unable to comprehend how they elected to use balloon tires, given that tractors of the day (including those used on snow) always had an aggressive, deep, tread pattern, especially on the rear wheels. There is a reason Canadians use one set of tires in summer and a different set in winter. Hint - The winter tires are *not* racing slicks.
Again it was more a matter of timescale, they were unable to create their own and had to go for the 'next best thing'. I think poulter had some blinders on when it came to a lot of aspects of the design but I think maybe he figured even if they didn't have the best performance, they would still at least do the job until they could get another set made up. Obviously it didn't even work slightly and had to then be abandoned. Poulter thought the issue was to do with the gearing on the motors but changing the gear ratios wouldn't have helped as the vehicle was simply too heavy.
@@CalumRaasay All very good points, I appreciate the response. Full disclosure - I have, on occasion submitted work that I knew wasn't 100% perfect due to time constraints... 🤫
I’m surprised they didn’t try to rig up some chains with something like scoops or spikes etc. Admittedly that would be a ton of chain they likely didn’t have in Antarctica.
The Christie tank suspension system was rejected by the US govt so he sold it to the Soviets, then when American Officials saw it in use they realised they should use a similar system, This was around the same ERA
I have hope that one day (as you say) while searching for something else they find what's left of the snow cruiser plenty of cases of ships being found entirely by accident as you mention with Terra nova, but another good example is the MV Dona Paz and MT Vector, which were found by a crew off the Philippines who were looking for WW2 Warship wrecksites and happened upon the spot where both ships had collided and sunk I do wonder what state the cruiser is in now days, if we are lucky it probably just sorta "fell out" in one piece but the more sad and likely case is it was well-stuck in the ice and each time it hit the wall it ripped more and more small pieces off, and all that's probably left is a bit of once red colored plating and maybe a wheel or two...shame really
You’re video about the snow cruiser was in my Recommended list and I thought I’m going to watch it because it looks weird Well I like this video and last video about it. I wish I was rich so I could find it but I’m not rich, I live in Australia and I’m only 17
1. design a snowcruiser 2. build the snowcruiser with living suite and scientific gadgets 3. ship it to antarctrica 4. realize that slick tires dont work on snow while your snowcruiser is stuck after rolling off the ramp;
can't wait in like 10 years time when the snow cruiser just appears on the chilean coast
I'd need to get over there and review before Doug DeMuro
Probably in Argentina, like others from that post world War era
@@CalumRaasay you better not forgor 💀
@@CalumRaasay😅
Maybe the Nazis stole it, modified it to actually work, and are using it on their base.
Haha
When I saw mustard do a vid on it, I instantly remembered learning about it from you first.
Yeah since that video went up I've been seeing a lot of the same discussion on the cruiser so I thought I'd try to answer a few of the most common comments that I see!
@@CalumRaasay honestly
I am glad you put it in my mind and hope more info can be found
A question I have though is, is the couple planning on making the plane look like its snow exploration self or would that be too out of season for a place like theirs?
I find it so strangely haunting thinking about that thing at the bottom of the freezing, black ocean. I'd imagine the temperature would keep it relatively well preserved. What a crazy discovery it would be if they found it again.
Also, love the content - keep it up!
Either that, or crushed by the Arctic Ice
I literally just went down a deep dive wiki hole about this thing last week. I still think it’s incredible that they built this hot mess in just 11 weeks. I’ve seen my fair share of SEMA cars get pushed in cuz they couldn’t finish it in 6 months.
A fully funded expedition in search of this vehicle would be an incredible Interesting project.
The dream!
@@CalumRaasay Your video has Inspired me to start a project on building a motorized model of the snow cruiser out of Lego. Right now I am trying to figure out the right scale to make all of the functions work while retaining interior space for minifigures.
Working off of original blueprints.
@@mrpoool1015 that's awsome
Big difference with Kharkovchanka is while they got similar time frame for building, one is builded from ground up and other has to adapt proven design. And also, Kharkovchanka wasn't trully autonomous-they had limited, but vital logistic supply by air. For their threads' load and outside conditions, it needed constant maintenance.
Nice job on these documentaries! I've been fascinated by the Snow Cruiser since reading about it in old car magazines in the 1980s, and because of that I've been fascinated by all things Antarctica. Especially land transportation there. It's interesting that while it was a failure in the 1930s, the Snow Cruiser has helped keep discussions and research about that continent going for decades!
I wonder how the snow cruiser would have gone if they had managed to get it away from the heavy and relatively warm snow of the coast and into the Antarctic interior.
It depends what you mean.
If you mean just hypothetically plonking it down in the Antarctic interior, then it would have got stuck there too.
If you mean had they managed to drive It into the Antarctic interior, how would it have got on, then you're hypothesising a different design that was absent the flaws that caused it to immediately get stuck (i.e. Weighing too much in relation to tyre contact area and resulting point-load put on the snow overcoming friction and allowing wheel-slip) in which case it might have been okay.
I guess,, since you're alluding to the possibility that the problem was not in the design, but the fault of 'the wrong type of snow' that you're an employee of Network Rail?!
@@K1lostream I have no idea who Network Rail is, are you assuming my nationality? I've spent a lot of time in Antarctica and I can tell you there's a huge difference in the amount and consistency of the snow near the coast and the snow on the ice cap. Would it have worked? Don't know, hence my comment.
Graham O The report said it might have gotten 'a little further' if it had been built to aircraft specifications rather than railcar ones. It also said it was too heavy by a factor of three to five for the tyres available.
Whilst I am aware that snow can have consistencies varying from powder to polystyrene, being overweight by such a non-trivial factor would make that something of an irrelevance. Perhaps if the performance had been marginal, but it was not even close to being a viable design.
The Network Rail comment was rather UK-centric, I'm afraid. They are the UK rail operator and one of the things Brits love to do is ridicule their excuses for being unable to keep trains running - in winter their go-to trope is to blame 'the wrong type of snow' hoping we won't realise Canada, for example, routinely keep their track operable in conditions far worse than anything the UK experiences, including on occasion, the worst possible consistency of snow. (In spring it is flooding, in summer it is the heat and in autumn it is leaves on the line, so they have excuses to cover the whole year for why the service is consistently shit).
Or if they took Firestone tires to it from an overland train
Thanks for this follow-up.
Definitely one of the most interesting vehicles. Somewhat like a deep space spaceship...well, without space, but still.
I aboslutely love this topic. And so far your video/s on this topic seem to be the best ones in production quality, detail and personality ^^
Its pretty interesting to see that you and other creators have basically shown millions of people this long forgotten piece of hardware. Thats just insane! Many thanks again for such informative video!
It's so awesome the airplane meant for the cruiser survived and is still around is kind of heart warming. When it was seized for wartime use i almost thought it was going to be the end of it.
I am utterly intrigued about this vehicle and mission. I watched your video and another one that came out very close to each other
Seeing a plane being dragged around by Husky's is such a surreal thing to see
Amazing isn't it!
@@CalumRaasay surreal, amazing, bizarre
ok i admit it .. the Snow Cruiser was the first video of Calums i saw .. but then i subscribed & have watched everything he's made .. & they have all been interesting
All is answered in the first 6 mins of this video. 11weeks to build it! Madness
12:31 - a thing that came to mind is motorsports, with rally racing on snow a larger wider wheel and tire doesn't do you any justice, you want narrow and studded so this appears to be a case of not being able to test ideas
Wonderful addition to that video and general Q&A.
Thank you! Much appreciated!
Thanks for the follow-up and for introducing us to such a fascinating piece of history!
I first saw reference to this years ago in a Clive Cussler novel. Thank you for sharing. Have a blessed day.
That's where I heard of it too, glad to see more info on it is getting put out there.
Thanks for the update Callum. Very interesting and well presented. Just picked myself up a FDC like yours
I honestly think if they ever do find the snow cruiser they should restore it to its former glory!
Nice one Calum! Cool follow up. So good to see the Staggerwing made it through the years. Although it definitely had it's ups & downs!
(Did you see what I did there? 😆)
Cheers! 🥃
That's so awesome that the snow cruiser might be along the edge of the Ross ice shelf. I'll never forget sailing along side it and seeing it stretch to the horizon in both directions. So lucky to have been able to visit Antarctica, was my #1 dream when I joined the U.S. Coast Guard.
I wonder if the depth of the water and mass of the vehicle would allow it to be detected by a Magnetic Anomaly Detector from a sub hunting aircraft?
Edit: it’s a long shot but a magnetic survey was undertaken by the USGS. I’m not sure if the instrumentation was sensitive enough for something like the snowcruiser to show up if someone went over the data with a fine toothed comb.
Problem is - that is high chance that it smashed into little pieces in the fragmenting iceberg stage. Millions of tonnes of snow and ice and fairly thin steel....
Yes shipwrecks can be found intact...
but they were not frozen in the ice cliff then ground along it after it fractured and then fragmented.
And MAD looks for big masses all in one place.. and apart from engine block, chassis , suspension and transmission most it will have been fairly lightweight thin steel. Fragment ot down, MAD wont find it.
I really hope they didn't abandon the Beech Staggerwing. That thing is super cool. I'm hoping one day I'll get to fly one
No I mention in the video, it’s being restored!
@@CalumRaasay yep I know that I think it’s super cool it’s being restored here in NZ too. Hopefully one day I might get the chance to actually fly it
Thank you very much for the follow up video. I always enjoy your content.
Great videos, I'm really enjoying them. I worked for a company called FMC in the 70's. One product they made was something similar to the snow cruiser and I only saw a photo and description. It looked about the same size as the snow cruiser and I only remember a couple things about it. It had giant wheels perhaps 6-10 feet in diameter but they were very low pressure 3-5 psi and they were designed for minimal damage to permafrost or the tundra. Part of the advertisement showed the giant vehicle rolling over a human being without injury. I remember seeing the photo. I've googled all over and can't find anything on this vehicle. Part of FMC was a division called ESD that eventually became an independent separate company.
ESD was know for building one of a kind strange machines, such as the first automated postal sorter, a pepper picker, an automated system for assembling the 3 1/2 inch floppy disk, automated warehouses, coal mining machines and underwater living units. I worked on some very unusual coal mining machines which were called mobile roof supports.
Are you talking about the Rolligon perhaps?
@@CalumRaasay I think that's closer but not quite. I jogged my memory and I think this vehicle was used in the Alaska Pipe Line construction as like a hauler of equipment, even pipe segments. It was massive about the size of the snow cruiser.
'at the mountains of madness' always springs to mind.
You made mention of the ice breaker Edisto as an army vessel. Ouch. It was U S Navy, then U S Coast Guard. This comment from a coastie.
You present very good, informative vids on some now obscure bits of history. I look forward to showing these to a neighbor who worked Antarctica stations for Navy.
The push to deploy the snow cruiser was a great, much publicized hurry-up-and-fail. Snow junket.
New Calum, let's get into there.
Enjoyed the video heaps mate. Maybe we need some more details on local whisky next...
Haha well I've been in the whisky industry for a long time now, happy to talk about it!
Wow how convenient i just watched the first video and now this video dropped, awesome!
Thanks for revisiting this. Fascinating stuff. Great great great presentation!!
This is the first time I've seen Calum's face. I subscribed off the Snow cruiser video. He looks exactly how I imagined him
Hahaha I truly hope thats a compliment
@@CalumRaasay It is. I wish I had your accent. Epic accent.
Love the work and research you did. Excellent video.
That snow cruiser really reminds me of a huge aircraft tow vehicle. One of those big ones that have tank controls and crab crawling, beefy tires with no suspension or anything mechanically fancy. It both looks and essentially works the same way.
They had very good reason to think it would work, considering that basic design could do so much more on every other surface and it's so mechanically easy to fix compared to something brand new, sorta why military uses that design to this day.
I have been to McMurdo and had access to one of the National Science Foundation Ford vans with a 4X4 conversion and 44" tires (if I remember that correctly).
The REALLY cool ones did in fact have four individual track assemblies, but the one I had could power itself around pretty well. You only really need to drive around on the hard-packed snow roads or the lava rock roads anyway, though, in the typical work on or around McMurdo Base.
The snow cruiser was clearly underpowered and unsafe and completely unacceptable for going too far away from the base.
The huge wheeled personnel carriers like "Ivan the Terrabus" usually work, but when snow drifts cover the roads, it needs to be parked on a huge metal chain link assembly and pulled by a huge Caterpillar loader. They call this "The Magic Carpet Ride".
The McMurdo scientists havea sense of humor for everything. I have a picture of a pallet crate with professional-looking spray-painted stenciling that says "Fork Other Side"....when you walk around to the other side of the crate, the same stenciling now reads: "Spoon Other Side". The dorky scientists there are hilarious.
Weight. ,we use go drive a geo metro in snow and on the jeep trails ..it worked really well
Very interesting. You're a natural at this, I'm surprised you don't have 100s of thousands of subscribers! The research you do alone puts most other YT channels to shame. Although, it has to be said that the Snow Cruiser was a badly designed vehicle, built in a rush by someone who refused to believe his ideas could be wrong, that then was so useless, it never really went anywhere, and was abandoned and forgotten. Rather ironically, from a British point of view, it bears horrible parallels with Scott's expedition! Whilst I appreciate how interesting all this is, it was basically a failure - and was always going to be. Soviet historians must be looking at all the fuss about this and thiking to themselves "but ours worked!".
Fantastic follow up. Keep up the great work!
Yet another informative, interesting, and well researched video. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I love how your recommended videos included Tom Scott, Men, Mentor Pilot, and more
excuse me thats private information look away!
@@CalumRaasay I actually remember learning a bit about the snow cruiser before you put your video up, and making similar vehicles in games such as Space Engineers. I quickly found out the reason why you normally don't see vehicles with such enormous overhangs; they dig themselves into the ground wherever the ground slopes up, or they'll force the body off the ground, making the nearest wheels ineffective.
If you like, I can also send you some interesting articles I've found about the soviet An-2 cargo biplanes used in Antarctica; I've seen them in the background of several shots in your Kharkovchanka video.
I had a sailplane instructor that was...ready...get ready...he was one of the Test Pilots on the Stagger Wing Beechcraft! Eddie was his name.
heya buddy, love your content... Keep up the good work
Thanks!
Ten Years ago I took a trip round Scotland with the express purpose of going to as many distilleries as possible. Out of all the many single malts I tasted, Talisker was by far my least favourite. Just thought I'd drop that bombshell. :)
It can be hit or miss. Raasay is better (because I make it)
Ah my question answered as promised 😁
Mustard recently covered the Snow Cruiser. But Callum did it better.
Keep in mind that the Soviets used tracked vehicles rather successfully in the Arctic.
I blame Good Year for the tires as they surely wanted to promote rubber tires. Interestingly, the Soviets tried to learn from the American SnowCruiser and their first attempt also put the engine in an interior space on the premise that you would be sheltered while doing maintenance but because of that, the engines overheated, the interior cabin was too noisy and exhaust soot got everywhere in the living space. They also failed to have auxiliary heating and electrical power in their first version so when the engine wasn't running, they froze. The Soviets with their second version went back to the AT-T tracked trucks as a basis with the engine under a hood in front of the cab, both of which being separate from the interior space. They also included auxiliary heat and power with the second version though they could not benefit from that when maintaining the engine. (I'm surprised the Soviets didn't use one of their Strontium RTG's for auxiliary power).
They could've just gone to multiple tracks to be long enough for large crevasses so crossing large crevasses wasn't a reason to not use tracks...
I suppose we could say that the Soviets lucked out as they started with surplus tracked vehicles (the surplus AT-T trucks based on the T-54 tank) not purpose built Antarctic vehicles and found the tracks worked well so their purpose built vehicles used tracks whereas the US really had nothing to go on except that some of the financial contributors such as Good Year wanted tires.
To be honest, I would've expected a lot of the supports to be skies with tracks for propulsion like a ski-doo. I believe the first Canadian patent for a "motor sleigh" was in 1915 and involved the familiar front skis and rear tracks. The Snowcruiser was 1937 so well after the suitable strategy was already known (at least known in Canada). The Soviet Karkochanka was in 1959 with versions used through 2010 so you could also say they probably learned from the US failure but really why didn't the US just learn from Canadian successes...
Calum I replied to your FB Message regarding our Staggerwing restoration project.
I've not watched past the section that described it sinking in the snow unable to surmount that problem.
Two improvements
Keep the dual wheels but upgrade to eight huge rice paddy tires used in farming today with the equally huge 4-wheel drive tractors and add chains to provide more traction.
Sorry just what iffing.
Had a pinto with a 351 cj c6 auto very out of control. Loved it.
Please do a vid on the Beechcraft.
Also :Talisker👍
Talisker Port Righ! Best release 🙏
"So, how well does this thing do on ice and snow?"
~No one during the design and building process, apparently
I wish they would make a show on finding the land cruiser. Maybe exhibition unknown will make a show out of it.
It is one of those things that beg the question " just because you can ? "
Good video:) Cheers mate:)
Thank you!
Because of how long ago the machine was left in Antarctica, I believe it will look alot like a snow or ice hill matching the vechicle's dimensions. Kinda hard to find a white hill in the land of white hills too. Lol
IF it wasn't abraded away/crushed by the chunk's movements, they will likely find it upside down at the bottom. Whilst the balloon tires wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat, it would be enough to force it heavy part down (assuming, they were still inflated). That means that it's likely crushed (much like other things that fell in such a manner, be they planes, boats).
Your channel is SO FUCKING GOOD!
What the hell, i decided just yesterday to re-watch the previous Snow cruiser video.
Lets go get that thing. Pop the rubber off the bead, throw some screws through it and make a proper ice tyre. Bring some Tesla engines while we're at it, get this thing moving with some real authority. But the most crucial thing?
Don't forget the whiskey! Calum, I here it's good over your way ;D
I think about the beetle from another one of your video's that fell thru the Ice and sank. Someday somebody is gonna be scanning the bottom and come across this. WTH?? There is a VW parked there! [OK, your relieved of duty for Drinking on the job] 😅
Totally off-topic, but nice Nikonos and Pentax 6x7 in the background!
Haha nothings off topic for this video! I actually have a Nikonos III as well. Definatley a video i want to make in the future!
The fact is there were a lot of very intelligent people who worked on the AC, and intuitively their decisions make sense at first. You go with wheels instead of tracks because wheels are a lot lighter and easier to replace, and in a place as remote as Antarctica that means a lot. You go with a balloon or treadless design because if you're just driving on relatively flat, packed snow, and not going very fast, then you don't really need tread. These decisions were wrong and misguided, and the whole philosophy of the vehicle just didn't work. But at the time it's really easy to see how these decisions got made.
Exactly, a lot of stuff has to be viewed through the lens of the time. Hard to do with hindsight!
They look like tundra tyres, which kinda makes sense - till you take it to the Antarctic
Great video...👍
I doubt it but has there been ANY updates about this? If so, I would love another video on it.
I'm just gonna say, if it so happens that an expedition gets started, and you happen to get invited for it, that better be fully documented on here xD
Hahaha that’s the dream!
Some very happy Old Ones have repurposed it into something like a big smokehouse for curing giant penguin meat.
Port Ruighe is legit as hell, nice
My grandma once showed me a picture it was of admiral bird standing beside the snow curser in byucrus Ohio ,if you would like I could get the photo to show u?
2:53 Dig the alligator skin texture on the envelope. 🐊😆
Late to comment but I wonder if the idea of underinflating the tires when stuck in soft snow was something they thought of back then? One of the images of the ASC on snow looked like one set of tires at the front were underinflated maybe? Or did Poulter and his team discuss that when the ASC got on solid ice (as often found in the middle of the Antartic) that the tires would need to be more fully inflated?
Your videos are weasome, i love your chanel
There are historically very few staggewings here in New Zealand. Possibly 2 have been here in my lifetime and none that I know of before I was born
Since the SC was built like a boat to keep the cold out if the tires were fully inflated would it float? I suspect it would. In that case it may not be on the bottom.
Let’s go find it
If ever anyone were to set out on an expedition for the Snow Cruiser, and if the estimations of the ice shelf drift were accurate, then the chances of finding the Cruiser are [relatively] high. The Ross sea has an average depth of 500-550 meters, and a maximum depth of around 1200. Those depths fall within "The Twilight Zone"; where their is still some natural light. Also, technology like Synthetic Aperture Sonar allows for much more detailed images of objects on the ocean floor (search for sonar images of U-853 for example).
If the Snow Cruiser is found if it’s a even able to be lifted ( it weighs 75k lbs) it would be absolutely priceless
The yellow aircraft is a Boeing I'm 99% sure
The Beach would have been used as a target tug...
The big yellow twin engine biplane is a Curtiss Condor.
Is there anything left of Little America 3?
Never clicked on a video faster than this
haha thank you! More videos on the way ;)
@@CalumRaasay Glad to hear that, especially the long videos about antartic vehicles were very Interesting to me.
Will find it
I wish someone would raise and restore the Caspian Sea Monster.
Or even restore Lun' to presentable shape, as planed
Ground-Effect hunk of junk made to kill peasants!
Interesting video. I have to admit that I often forget to take into an account the fact that tings obvious to us, were not so obvious years in the past. I now wonder if in the future there will be a guy watching youtube videos on space travel and comment something along" this is so obvious they should use...".
Also, I guess I am lucky this video was on my to watch list. May I ask why did you unlist it?
Dirk Pitt found the Snow Cruiser... read Atlantis Found by Clive Cussler for an alternate ending to the Snow Cruiser's fate, you'll get a good laugh.
Is it confirmed little America 3 has 100% broken off and drifted away from the main ice shelf?
I wonder if someone found a way to move it and use it for housing or shelter of some sort
Thanks very much for the follow-up.
I am still unable to comprehend how they elected to use balloon tires, given that tractors of the day (including those used on snow) always had an aggressive, deep, tread pattern, especially on the rear wheels. There is a reason Canadians use one set of tires in summer and a different set in winter. Hint - The winter tires are *not* racing slicks.
Again it was more a matter of timescale, they were unable to create their own and had to go for the 'next best thing'. I think poulter had some blinders on when it came to a lot of aspects of the design but I think maybe he figured even if they didn't have the best performance, they would still at least do the job until they could get another set made up. Obviously it didn't even work slightly and had to then be abandoned. Poulter thought the issue was to do with the gearing on the motors but changing the gear ratios wouldn't have helped as the vehicle was simply too heavy.
@@CalumRaasay All very good points, I appreciate the response.
Full disclosure - I have, on occasion submitted work that I knew wasn't 100% perfect due to time constraints... 🤫
I’m surprised they didn’t try to rig up some chains with something like scoops or spikes etc. Admittedly that would be a ton of chain they likely didn’t have in Antarctica.
@@H3110NU It looks like they did put (at least some) chains on the tires. (refer 3:49)
@@BatCaveOz yeah they did try chains! Though it didn’t seem to help much haha
I love how the airplane didn’t have wheels but the cruiser did. ;)
The Christie tank suspension system was rejected by the US govt so he sold it to the Soviets, then when American Officials saw it in use they realised they should use a similar system, This was around the same ERA
Did anyone ask goodyear about those tires they provided🤔
I have hope that one day (as you say) while searching for something else they find what's left of the snow cruiser
plenty of cases of ships being found entirely by accident as you mention with Terra nova, but another good example is the MV Dona Paz and MT Vector, which were found by a crew off the Philippines who were looking for WW2 Warship wrecksites and happened upon the spot where both ships had collided and sunk
I do wonder what state the cruiser is in now days, if we are lucky it probably just sorta "fell out" in one piece but the more sad and likely case is it was well-stuck in the ice and each time it hit the wall it ripped more and more small pieces off, and all that's probably left is a bit of once red colored plating and maybe a wheel or two...shame really
It is at the bottom of the ocean as the ice shelf it was sitting on has caved off. the ice then melted & it sank to the sea floor.
Nice one Pal ;-)
Thanks Paul! 👍🏻
Once failed did this thing saw use as a base structure?
Yeah they used it as a stationary barracks for a bit.
Enjoyed the video but couldn't help but notice the whiskey was not touched.
great!
Thank you!
You’re video about the snow cruiser was in my Recommended list and I thought I’m going to watch it because it looks weird
Well I like this video and last video about it. I wish I was rich so I could find it but I’m not rich, I live in Australia and I’m only 17
1. design a snowcruiser
2. build the snowcruiser with living suite and scientific gadgets
3. ship it to antarctrica
4. realize that slick tires dont work on snow while your snowcruiser is stuck after rolling off the ramp;