This is probably the slowest vehicle we have ever featured on the electronic pages of BangShift.com, but it is also one of the baddest. We present, for your eBay bidding pleasure, an Oshkosh U-30 Tow Tractor, packing Caterpillar diesel power, and a front winch rated for 40 tons!
Oshkosh designed and engineered the U-30 after winning the government contract to build the tow vehicle for the C5 line of aircraft. So how much can it pull? Our research shows that a C5 Galaxy weighs about 500,000 pounds (give or take) empty and can weigh up to 700,000 pounds loaded. Holy freaking crap.
The truck/tractor has selectable four-wheel steering, full time four wheel drive, and a four speed automatic transmission. All by itself it weighs 120,000 pounds! This is one of 45 of these tow trucks produced by Oshkosh, but other companies have produced the U-30 design since the originals were built in the late 1960s.
Power comes from a beefy Caterpillar D346 engine which makes somewhere between 550 and 600 hp. We’re not sure about the torque rating, but taking all that grunt and putting it through what we can only assume are astronomically high (numerically speaking) gear ratios, this big boy could move an entire town in one grunt pull.
Sure we’re weirdos, but you have to admit that you want to drive it.
Source — eBayMotors — Oshkosh U30 Tow Tractor
