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OT: strange vehicles I've seen

I

IA Leo

Member
1970's 3/4 or 1 ton dodge pick up with tandem rear axles, don't know if both drove, suspect one set was a cheater. Nice job on wheel cutouts, had a vegetable farm logo on side, seen in NE Iowa a few years back.

Circa 1959 BMW Isetta two seater. Whole front swung open with a universal jointed steering wheel on it. Rear wheels so close together it didn't need a differential. Only problem in Iowa snow, if you nosed up to the parking meter snowbank and you couldn't backup, you were trapped inside or had to crawl through the sun roof.

And of course the Model T snow mobiles.

What have you seen that you thought was unusual?
 
Back in the 1990's Dodge made a prototype pickup with tandem rear axles they called a "T Rex". I don't think any went into production.
 
That BMW car with the single front door only had 1 rear wheel on it and had an 850CC motorcycle engine in it. A place in town had one in there shop not to long ago and I had the pleasure to be able to look it over real good when it was there. Sure would be nice to own one like that just to save gas on trips to the V.A. hospital etc.
I also know of a guy who built one sort of like that but his had side doors and steering was done with motorcycle handle bars and he even had a heater in it by way of an oil cooler
 
There was some kind of amphibious command car on Ebay a few years ago. Built as a prototupe for somebody's army. Spain? Italy?
It weighed in about 40,000 lbs, had a big diesel plus extra electrical capacity for all the communications gear. Had an armoured hull and mountings for a couple of 20 mm machine guns.
This one had been all pimped out and had the bar and everything else but the dancing girls. Would do like 20 knots in the water if I remember right.
Maybe the pictures are still around somewhere on the net.
The only other thing I've seen like that was a Farmall M. It only had a drawbar. I thought all tractors had 3 point hitch.
 
a 1970 Merc. pickup strange? I never thought the '69 Merc I drove was strange except when you had to crawl under it and wire the shifter linkage back on because you were stuck in 3rd gear at an intersection....I had other words for that, Bob
 
Circa 1959 BMW Isetta two seater. Whole front swung open with a universal jointed steering wheel on it.
My younger brother had one in the early 60s. A dimes worth of gas would go far then. David................
 
in 2005 ,My Sicily born wife took me home to meet her folks,,Those People have some odd stuff on wheels, CITROGEN ,SMART CAR, Fiat makes some dinky effecient 3wheel vehicles that some guys can yank up into their apartments ,, and the little Gas powered unicycle puppies..farm produce mule carts, Horse drawn funeral Hearses are common there , and the neatly Decorated horses EASTER and Holiday family wagons,(carretto siciliano), that has got to be a TRUE labor of LOVE.. .But thats a whole other world,.. No wonder My Sara LOVES that LIFE SO MUCH ....
 
When I was in high school (1964-1967) one of the kids had an Isetta. He was a BIG boy, and his size made it a one seater. Very interesting car, the only one I ever saw. I think it was made in Italy?

Paul
 
ive seen 2 or 3 tandem axle pickups, none had the 3rd axle powered and only 1 had the slightest idea of how a tandem axle suspension worked the other 2 had the dead axle independtly sprung ie; a trailer axle under the truck the problem with that is when driving over speed bumps or thru a shallow ditch it would stop the vehilce dead with its drive axle off the ground, for strange ive got 2 ive personally seen here, 1 was some nut built a cabin cruiser complete with a flying bridge- on top of a mid '70's olds 98 and actually drove the thing around town here for awhile the other was a old vw transporter completly covered with old cameras guess one nut attracts another lol
 
I thought momentum would propel it far enough for the drive axle to kick in however saw a ute with a laxy axle stop near the gutter at a shop in the country , only problem his lazy was on the highest point, needless to say whizzzzz.
 
Didn't Messerschmidt make one of these . 3 wheeler and door opens at the front.IMMSMC. ok, if my memory serves me correct.
 
All REAL tractors have 3-point hitches, right? :)
Farmall's didn't even have their 2-point (fast-hitch) until the mid '50's.
I've ridden on the "ducks" in the Dells - WWII amphibious vehicles, and seen pictures of an amphibious car (regular production - it was made that way)
 
I was driving through town years ago and got passed by an old Workd War Two DUKW, an amphibious truck. It was quite a head turner.
 
Reference 3 pt. hitch. My dad actively farmed for 76 years before retiring and never did own a tractor that had a 3 point hitch. Wheatland models were the rule. Fordson, JD D, LA Case, MM GTB, MM M-5, MM GVI, MM G-705.
 
The US Army Overland Train. At 570 feet long it qualified as the longest off-road vehicle in history. Four IH 1170 HP Solar Saturn turbine engines drove Westinghouse generators that powered DC traction motors at the wheels. Designed and built by R G LeTourneau, one of America's great self made men. He left school at age 14 and became, among other things, a foundry worker, welder, electrician, carpenter, miner, farmer, auto mechanic and racer, land leveler using a Holt tractor and scraper, etc. His factories eventually supplied 70% of the heavy earth moving equipment used by all Allied forces in World War II. Considered to this day to be the world's greatest builder of earth moving and materials handling equipment, he was finally awarded, at age 76, an engineering degree. He remarked: "So, I have a diploma. I'm finally educated."
 
Rode in the DUCK'S at the Dells in WS. Not strange just different. On a honey moon and wasn't interest in the green boat ride per say.
 
Boy, I wonder what I did with those pictures.... Fellow made a camper out of two or three station wagons. Took the top off the first. Cut the front end, wheels and all off the second, and attached them to the front of base vehicle, rear end to rear end - so he had a 8 wheel chasis. The front 4 wheels all steered, rear set one pair drove the vehicle, and add on set were just along for the ride. Then he took passenger compartment and placed it over the front wheels/engine compartment. Rear end went over rear wheels. Then he connected two ends with sheet metal. So he had an 8 wheel, overhead drive outfit that looked something like a commercial bus. Painted it red, white and blue, with a gold eagle medallion on front. Actually drove it on several cross country trips. Donno how he serviced the engine however.
 
Thanks for the bio/history.
I remember the LeTourneau scrapers when they rebuilt US 169 back in the early 60s.
Dad had something of a fondness for them. Partly from his French heritage but also from having seen the name at hard use in the south Pacific in WWII.
 
Caterpillar bought his US operations in the 60s just as the US Interstate highway building was getting underway. He signed an agreement as part of the deal not to build or sell earthmoving machinery in the US for 20 years. He retained ownership of his international operations and is most famous for building those huge machines that gobbled up "rain forests" (jungle) in South America. In one pass, those machines would digest triple canopy jungle and leave behind level mulch. Those fields are immense farms today.
 
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