off road tractor trailer RV

[Tallpine]

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/08/13/kiravan-extreme-off-road-tractor-trailer-almost-ready-to-span-globe/?intcmp=obnetwork

Not sure exactly where you would take this thing 

Somewhere without trees I reckon ...   

[vaskidmark]

The Kiravan is a seemingly unstoppable, all-terrain excursion vehicle

I hear Mother Nature has accepted the challenge.  I'm putting my money down on her.

stay safe.

[charby]

I know of some Mississippi River bottom gumbo mud holes that would eat that rig for breakfast.

[erictank]

I'm sure that's not terribly expensive at all...

I still like it.

[Brad Johnson]

Looks like an uglied-up Kenworth to me.

Brad

[KD5NRH]

Put it up against one of the Pinzgauer RV conversions and let's see which one gets through a real obstacle course.

[Harold Tuttle]

http://kiravan.net

[Harold Tuttle]

Dobbertin Surface Orbiter
http://www.dobbertinhydrocar.com/Dobbertin%20Surface%20Orbiter.html

http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/strange_vehicles/dobbertin_surface_orbiter.html

[roo_ster]

I bet I could buy an over the top tricked out Unimog and trailer and be more mobile and still have a buncha $$$ left over.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I think comms in that thing are gonna be in 6 figures.

[Tallpine]

I always wanted to "retire" my old GMC log truck into a chassis mount RV 

4wd is not really necessary on a rig of that size.  As long as you have enough ground clearance, the coach weight on the rear duals is plenty for traction to take you anywhere that you reasonably might want to go.  I took it into and out of some horrible places for working, and half the time of course it was completely unloaded.  It got about 10-11 mpg loaded or empty which isn't bad for a large rig.

Alas, life took different turns and I ended up trading it off ....   

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

I wanna know more about "automatic tire chains"

[Harold Tuttle]

The Onspot Automatic Tire chain offers the traction of a single set of conventional snow chains at the flip of a switch, without having to stop the vehicle.

An electric switch mounted in the cab provides 12 volts to an air solenoid mounted on the vehicle's frame rail. Compressed air to the solenoid is supplied from either the vehicle's onboard air system or a 12-volt compressed air kit.

When the dashboard switch is activated, the solenoid opens allowing compressed air to enter the air chamber and lower the chainwheel so it contacts the inside of the tire. The friction between the tire and the rubber-covered chainwheel causes the chainwheel to rotate, creating enough centrifugal force to flail the chains out in front of the tire. (The principle of the system is similar to a small generator driven by a bicycle tire to operate a headlight.)

Six lengths of chain spaced at 60-degree intervals on the chainwheel ensure that there are always two (2) chains between the tire and road surface whether you are accelerating, braking or are in a wheel lockup condition. The traction from the chainwheel is obtained in forward OR reverse.

When the dashboard switch is turned off, the solenoid exhausts the air provided to the chain units and return springs in the air chambers bring the chainwheels back to their resting position.

[AJ Dual]

Short version: weed whacker disk with lengths of chain on it that throws them under the tires in time with their rotation.

Nifty, but looks kind of fragile to me in circumstances when you actually need the chains.

[TechMan]

I bet I could buy an over the top tricked out Unimog and trailer and be more mobile and still have a buncha $$$ left over.

You would have a lot left over.


 

Now, nearly four years later, it is almost, sorta, kinda finished, and while Ferren won’t divulge the exact budget of the truck, he grants that its total cost is in the millions.

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/worlds-biggest-rv/

[charby]

Short version: weed whacker disk with lengths of chain on it that throws them under the tires in time with their rotation.

Nifty, but looks kind of fragile to me in circumstances when you actually need the chains.

[KD5NRH]

Nifty, but looks kind of fragile to me in circumstances when you actually need the chains.

IIRC, these have been in use on the ice roads for a while now.  Looks like a pretty good investment for a truck that regularly finds itself in such situations, too.

[Tallpine]

IIRC, these have been in use on the ice roads for a while now.  Looks like a pretty good investment for a truck that regularly finds itself in such situations, too.

I dunno what they use these days, but log truck drivers back in my working days got pretty good at putting chains on and taking them off sometimes several times a day.

The rutted roads that I've seen would rip that "onspot traction" device right off the frame 

[AJ Dual]

IIRC, these have been in use on the ice roads for a while now.  Looks like a pretty good investment for a truck that regularly finds itself in such situations, too.

Yes, on roads...

Overland, or on really poor roads, I see them getting ripped right off. Not the chains, but the armature and hydraulic positioner itself.

[Hawkmoon]

The rearmost wheels ride on an air-suspension, and are powered by a hydraulic drive system that can turn the entire vehicle into a 6x6 at speeds under 25 mph. With an overall range of 2,000 miles between fill-ups, that’s a lot of rock crawling.

And at maybe 5 miles per gallon (being optimistic), that 2000 miles will use up about 400 gallons of diesel (low-sulpher, of course, because we have to be good earth stewards). So that fill-sup will cost about $1,700.

Ouch!

[Boomhauer]

The onspot/instant chains, I've dealt with them before on firetrucks.

They work in a pinch but dedicated chains are better.

[Hawkmoon]

IIRC, these have been in use on the ice roads for a while now.  Looks like a pretty good investment for a truck that regularly finds itself in such situations, too.

I see a lot of school buses driving around with lengths of tire chain hanging off the rear axle. Since these days many (dare I say "most"?) school buses are driven by women, I made the chauvinistic assumption that it was some kind of automatic deployment mechanism. I could never figure out how a device could actually wrap the chains around the tires. I guess they don't have to.

Neat.

[vaskidmark]

I see a lot of school buses driving around with lengths of tire chain hanging off the rear axle. Since these days many (dare I say "most"?) school buses are driven by women, I made the chauvinistic assumption that it was some kind of automatic deployment mechanism. I could never figure out how a device could actually wrap the chains around the tires. I guess they don't have to.

Neat.

More likely anti-static.  (Actually, static discharge.)

Just like they have on the gasoline tankers plying the highways and byways.

stay safe.

[KD5NRH]

They work in a pinch but dedicated chains are better.

Assuming you're in a situation where you can just leave them on.  Some areas are way too picky about them, especially on non-emergency vehicles.

And there's a lot to be said for the ability to "chain up" while you still have a bit of momentum.

[charby]

The onspot/instant chains, I've dealt with them before on firetrucks.

They work in a pinch but dedicated chains are better.

School bus getting through a snow drift or an emergency vehicle over a snow plow windrow are perfect examples of the usage for the automatic chains.

I'm pretty sure that an emergency vehicle in a rural environment during a blizzard will chain up with dedicated chains.