German Screw Drive tractor

[sapper740]

The original screw propulsion vehicle was designed in 1944, by Johannes Raedel, a member of the German Army and veteran of the Eastern Front. He noticed how tanks would dig out the snow under the tracks and the bottom of the tank became high centered. Raedel convinced Berlin to allow him to build a prototype of a machine that wouldn't get stuck in snow and still be able to tow a substantial load. At that time, Austria was annexed to Germany so Raedel was sent to the Austrian Alpine vehicle test centre at St. Johann in Tyrol. Using only materials at hand he worked from Feb. 10 to April 28, 1944 building his prototype. It was tested extensively and although it was very slow it would pull 2,000 lbs and had good climbing capabilities. I don't know if it ever saw use operationally but it spawned similar designs after the war.

CHIMO! Derek.

[George McKenzie]

I have the working modle of the first anfibeous army tank , that was used to get a patent in 1918 It has two screws and a chain under neath in the center to move it when the screws wouldn't .This modle is about 30 inches long George

[Snowy]

Very interesting indeed, but the Archimedean screw vehicle was not unknown to the Allies during the war. Post-war the most well-known ASV was the Chrysler Marsh Screw Amphibian which was prototyped in the mid-late 60's for potential use in Vietnam.

Here is a frame grab from the OSS film on the T-15 Weasel, from the fabulous RealMilitaryFlix website showing an ASV being trialled in the USA. It looks like a converted tractor. Given that this design was trialled and found wanting (as part of Operation Plough, which lead to the development of the Weasel itself) I would hazard a guess as to it being 1942 perhaps.



References:
http://www.realmilitaryflix.com/public/441.cfm?sd=61
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffre...eration_Plough

Steve.

[George McKenzie]

I will get a picture of my 1918 modle and try to post it . All so I was up in the Youkon and saw a machine that was made to go on the water to look for gold .That would have been made in 1898 The screw was made of wood .It was about 3 ft high and 10 ft long A great bit of engineering and craftsman ship It's in a museum in Atlan BC. George

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by George McKenzie

I will get a picture of my 1918 modle and try to post it . All so I was up in the Youkon and saw a machine that was made to go on the water to look for gold .That would have been made in 1898 The screw was made of wood .It was about 3 ft high and 10 ft long A great bit of engineering and craftsman ship It's in a museum in Atlan BC. George

Please do George, I'd love to see any pictures you have of your model. Your reply to this thread goes to show that there isn't much new in the world when you come to think about it.


CHIMO! Derek.

[George McKenzie]

This is the screw that is in ths town of Atlin .Made in 1898 george

[George McKenzie]

This is a picture of my model tank 1918 .More to come when we get this system figured out . George

[George McKenzie]

This is the wood screw that was used in the Klondike gold rush about 1898

[George McKenzie]

This is another picture of the model that was used to apply for a patent for an anphibious army tank .It is about 30 inches long. It had two screws and a chain in the center . The neibour kids took a screw off of it and cut out some of the windows .A fellow by the name of Sam Cody invented it .He was a Canadian working in a munition plant in Detroit in 1917 .The American army was not interested in it because they wouldn't use a foreign patent in their army . The guns were to be put on after they got it working . The model had a wind up motor to drive the screws . George

[sapper740]

Originally Posted by George McKenzie

Attachment 21534

This is a picture of my model tank 1918 .More to come when we get this system figured out . George

Looks like something from Jules Verne George.



CHIMO! Derek.

[Snowy]

G'day George,
That is a very interesting model. Are you saying that the other screw has been lost? It looks like it's made from galvanised tin with the blade soldered to it, so perhaps a replica could be made. But then again - there's so many other things (like vehicle restoration) that could be done instead, and not enough hours in the day

Steve.

[George McKenzie]

Steve: You are right when you said no time . I put 350 machines in a museum .Mostly farm machines I am now restoring 13 military vehicles .and that's a slow process ,but most of them are close to the paint gun . This model is made of galvaize tin and solderd up The bottom is aluminum where the bearings go and the chain is like a byckle chain but the links are different .The windows are magnifying glass and I'm not sure how to fix them as they cut the holes bigger and to fix them with out painting it would be hard .Tow little boys that wanted some things that they didn't need George

[gjamo]

Great video of this concept.
Graeme

http://www.flixxy.com/snow-vehicle-concept.htm

[George McKenzie]

I have seen this vidio before .It sure looks like a good idea .wonder why it didn't take off? George

[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Can't see it mentioned above, there was a modern version (designed and driven by Adrian ?, Hadrian? from the UK) that was the first amphibious vehicle to drive across the Bering Straight. Amazing what you can learn from Scrapyard Challenge.....
Rich.

[Marc Montgomery]

Wow that's a pretty amazing video of the Fordson snow motor.... esp towing the two big wagons of logs....seems to be highly manouverable as well...

As George says, wonder why it didn't take off? would have been good in the north and seems a better option than say the Bombardiers that came after in terms of tractive power and certainly manoueverability... although the Bombariders offered protection from the cold