1929: Fordson snow machine concept.

[Frenchfarmer]

http://www.wimp.com/snowmachine/
Hmm........Frontera....Hmm..... boulders .......maybe not.

[Drift]

I saw a contraption like that in the early to mid 80's at a military base, it was in a warehouse corner, it looked like an alvis stalwart http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvis_Stalwart_%28FV620%29

Better not sat any more, I still think the official secrets act has me in its claws

[gregster]

On of my mates down here has got a stolley....good fun when its not busting wheel stations and bevel boxes, hasnt caught fire yet either, stolleys are pretty good at that...its got all the swim gear too, but he doesnt take it swimming...Matts old man took one accross the swale a few years back and they forgot to put the bung in....luckily the bilge pump nearly kept up with the water coming in so they all had wet feet but made it to the beach the other side....

as for the archimedes screw contraption...didnt someone take a much more modern version of this across the north/south pole of something fairly recently...seem to remember seeing something on the discovery channel not so long ago...

[Drift]

Mst likely the one I saw

The stawarts never had centre diff just like the Frontera, saw one once letting the wind up out on an A road and the three kerbside wheels threw a massive amount of gravel and crud up into the air, only spun about 5 revolutions, frightening

[Retro Pedro]

That takes me back to my early teenage days (late 60s, early 70s) - used to have a weekend/evening job on a smaller scale farm that had 4 of them old TVO tractors. Each one had a specific job and the attachment necessary was left on the tractor all year round (mowing, spraying, pea planting machine etc.)
Them old girls didn't have batteries or key starts, used to have a small tank for petrol, crank it on the handle (making sure the handle was in the palm of your hand with your thumb wrap over the top, so if it kicked back, it didn't break your thumb) - would start on petrol, then used to have to put your hand on the manifold and judge when it was hot enough was to switch it onto parafin (which was alot cheaper in them days). You knew it was hot enough cause it used to burn the palm of your hand.
I think the TVO stood for Tractor Vaporising Oil, but not sure.

[Mark_D]

How they hell was that put into common use, that's cool! lol

[gregster]

[Drift]

Yes, the lines indicate how much wind up they have and when its time to find some sand