This Caterpillar Challenger Tractor And Special Trailer Designed For Beach Launching Life Boats Are Totally Awesome


This Caterpillar Challenger Tractor And Special Trailer Designed For Beach Launching Life Boats Are Totally Awesome

Right now I am doing a slow, dramatic clap for the guys and girls that work for the Habbeke Shipyard in the Netherlands. Why? Basically because they have developed one of the coolest specialized tractors I have ever seen. Starting with a popular, huge, and powerful Caterpillar Challenger, the team at the shipyard completely modifies the thing so that it will be happy driving into the ocean to launch boats into the surf. In the event that rescue vessels need to be set off quickly or where there isn’t a launch per se these tractors can do the job and not by itself. The tractor has a fantastic trailer that cradles the boat and then drops away so it can sail off. On the opposite end of the trip the the pilot of the boat simply beaches the craft and the tractor back in, lifts it up, and carries it off.

According to the video and some stuff we have read, this is a pretty significant program that the tractors are put on before being turned loose in the surf. The whole thing is basically torn down and the lower portion of the machine is enclosed in a watertight hull. This protects the majority of the mechanical components from the corrosive nature of salt water. The exhaust is made from stainless, the cab is thoroughly sealed and the rear window is replaced with some sort of really strong material that can handle both the pounding surf AND the jets from the boat engines blasting it as the boat drives away from the cradle.

Weighing in at 42,000lbs, these are heavyweights of the highest order and without tracks we’re thinking that these big boys would run the risk of digging themselves into the sand. We have seen other kinds of tractor launches but these is about the biggest boat we have seen hauled into the surf.

The driver has ship to shore communications with the boat and he is also the guy that controls the actions of the trailer when launching and picking up.

Humans are problem solvers and the methods we use to solve those problems range from stuff as simple as a hammer to magnificent pieces of strength and innovation like this. Awesome!

Press play below to see the modified Challenger tractor and its trailer launch a boat


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