The Landmaster was sold to a private owner in 2005 and was restored to its original condition as featured in Damnation Alley. The Landmaster was then on the show car circuit for several years.[2] In 2007 it was featured at the San Francisco Rod & Custom Show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco[3] as part of special exhibit with other notable movie and TV cars.
Sometime in the late 2000s, the Landmaster was vandalized while in storage. The damage was relatively minor, but repair and restoration were required again. In March 2014, Landmaster was moved from its storage location in Campbell, California to a new maintenance and storage facility in central California (see photos and gallery).
In 2016, the Landmaster was moved to Gene Winfield's Custom Shop on Sierra Highway between Rosamond, California and Mojave, California. A 2019 Google Maps image capture shows it can be seen from the road.[4] Gene Winfield's website[5] offers classes but makes no mention of visiting.
Three independent drive sources running from a gasoline power plant. Uses semi truck parts in the drive train. Can operate with the front or rear wheel trinary out of commission. Side and top hatches on the main unit and rear and top on the after section. Full running lights and brake lights for urban street use. External video camera is mounted on the forward pylon located just behind the front top hatch. Could also house the antenna. All pylons are hardened and armored. Can operate in water and will remain sealed when fully submerged. Can float while half full of water.[6]
While the film is fiction, the Landmaster vehicle is real. In the story, the Landmaster was designed to use as many standard truck parts as possible, so that any junkyard would have whatever was needed for repairs. The real Landmaster is powered by a 390-cubic-inch (6.4L) Ford engine, and uses the rear-ends of two commercial trucks and an Allison automatic truck transmission. It features a fully functional, custom-built "tri-star" wheel arrangement, which could actually help it crawl over boulders. All 12 wheels are driven, but only eight are normally in contact with the road surface at any one time.[7]
The vehicle was steered not by turning the front wheels, but by bending the middle section with hydraulic rams to effect a turn, similar to large construction equipment. The Landmaster's bodywork was made with 3⁄8-inch (1cm) steel plate, which helped it tip the scales at over 10 tons. The design's strength allowed it to survive a 25-foot (7.6m) jump during testing with no damage.
Gallery
Landmaster features
Front view, just prior to loading on trailer.
Gantry/entry into cockpit. Raises/lowers via a motor driven cable system.
Close-up of trinary wheel system.
Closeup of section pivot and drive system
Loading and move from Campbell, California to its new facility in central California (March 28, 2014)
Landmaster was driven under its own power onto trailer shown.
Landmaster just after driving onto trailer
Loaded onto a heavy duty trailer for transport
Rear view, loaded onto a heavy duty trailer for transport
Other appearances
Amoco "the Road Worrier" (1980s) commercial with a Mad Max type character.[8]
The Volkswagen Schwimmwagen is a light four-wheel drive amphibious car, used extensively by German ground forces during the Second World War. With over 15,000 units built, the Schwimmwagen is the most-produced amphibious car in history.
An amphibious vehicle is a vehicle that is a means of transport viable on land as well as on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious bicycles, ATVs, cars, buses, trucks, railway vehicles, combat vehicles and hovercraft.
Steering is the control of the direction of locomotion or the components that enable its control. Steering is achieved through various arrangements, among them ailerons for airplanes, rudders for boats, tilting rotors for helicopters, and many more.
A trailer is an unpowered vehicle towed by a powered vehicle. It is commonly used for the transport of goods and materials.
A truggy is a type of high performance off-road racing vehicle that combines features from two older existing categories of off-road racing vehicles, trucks and buggies. The first truggies were built for racing in the SCORE and BITD off-road desert racing series, held in Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona.
A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials for construction as well as coal. A typical dump truck is equipped with an open-box bed, which is hinged at the rear and equipped with hydraulic rams to lift the front, allowing the material in the bed to be deposited ("dumped") on the ground behind the truck at the site of delivery. In the UK, Australia, South Africa and India the term applies to off-road construction plants only and the road vehicle is known as a tip lorry, tipper lorry, tipper truck, tip truck, tip trailer or tipper trailer or simply a tipper.
A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been altered to either improve its performance, change its aesthetics, or a combination of both. A desire among some automotive enthusiasts in the United States is to push "styling and performance a step beyond the showroom floor - to truly craft an automobile of one's own." A custom car in British according to Collins English Dictionary is built to the buyer's own specifications.
The International Extreme Truck Series is a range of pickup trucks produced by Navistar International from 2004 to 2008. The first International-brand vehicle marketed for non-commercial sale since 1980, the XT line also marked the return of the company to pickup truck production since the final generation of the (smaller) Light Line pickup trucks in 1975.
The tri-star is a novel wheel design—originally by Robert and John Forsyth, assigned to Lockheed in 1967—in which three wheels are arranged in an upright triangle with two on the ground and one above them. If either of the wheels in contact with the ground gets stuck, the whole system rotates over the obstruction.
The Truck, Utility, ¼-Ton, 4×4, M151 or simply M151 was the successor to the Korean War M38 and M38A1 Jeep Light Utility Vehicles. The M151 had an integrated body design which offered a little more space than prior jeeps, and featured all-around independent suspension with coil springs. It has since been replaced by the larger AM General HMMWV in most utility roles in frontline use. With some M151A2 units still in U.S. military service in 1999, the M151 series achieved a longer run of service than that of the World War II/Korean War-era MB/GPW, M38, and M38A1 series combined.
The Landmaster is a unique military vehicle featured in the 1977 film Damnation Alley.
Damnation Alley is a 1977 American post-apocalyptic film directed by Jack Smight, loosely based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Roger Zelazny. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith, and the cinematography was by Harry Stradling Jr. Poorly received with critics and audience, it has since achieved a cult following.
A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. The combination of a semi-trailer and a tractor truck is called a semi-trailer truck.
The M39 series 5-ton 6×6 truck (G744) was a family of heavy tactical trucks built for the United States Armed Forces. The basic cargo version was designed to transport a 5-ton (4,500 kg), 14 ft (4.3 m) long load over all terrain in all weather. In on-road service the load weight was doubled.
Edward Dean Jeffries was an American custom car designer and fabricator, as well as stuntman and stunt coordinator for motion pictures and television programs based in Los Angeles, California.
Dick Dean, born Richard Dean Sawitskas [Sa-WITS-kas], was an American automobile designer and builder of custom cars. Father of Keith Dean.
Gene Winfield is an American automotive customizer and fabricator. In the mid-1960s, his designs caught the attention of the film community, resulting in a large body of his work appearing on screen, including in the iconic 1982 film Blade Runner.
Hollywood actor James Dean was killed at age 24 in an auto accident on September 30, 1955, near Cholame, California. He had previously competed in several auto racing events, and was traveling to a sports car racing competition when he was involved in a car crash at the junction of U.S. Route 466 and SR 41.
The Honda Ridgeline (YK1) is the first generation of pickup truck manufactured by Honda for North America. According to some automotive journalists, the first generation Ridgeline has some noteworthy designs, including:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
