R.G. LeTourneau and His Wild and Wonderful Machines

Robert Gilmour LeTourneau was a man with a vision. A big vision. A vision that was his and his alone. He designed and built earth-moving machines that sculpted and re-shaped vast sections of the world. Most, if not all of his designs were years or decades ahead of their time.
Believing that he was doing God's work,  he didn't have many moments of doubt that he was going to be successful in whatever wild creation or huge contract he took on.

The Wikipedia page for RG LeTourneau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._LeTourneau

Here's a tour of some of RG's machines and ideas.

The Tournalayer...a machine that builds a house in one pass. Click on the video icon

The LeTourneau house subdivision...click the link

LeTourneau houses 

More LeTourneau machines

An early version of a dirt scraper machine, which became the basic idea for every scraper that any other company has built since. This was in the years before WWII.



Here is a video of an older model LeTourneau scraper at work

In WWII, 70% of all the earth moving machines used were built in LeTourneau factories. All of the U.S. aircraft carriers and airfields used LeTourneau cranes to remove damaged planes from flight decks and runways












Here's a few photos sent by a reader of mine. A LeTourneau Picker rig at am auction in California


This larger crane was capable of lifting an entire bomber and carry it off the runway.
When the bombers got too big to pick up, then he built a six  wheel electric drive machine that simply pushed the wrecked planes from the runway.
This double box earth mover with electric drive wheels, used only one operator and produced more work in less time.
 Never one to shy away from a challenge, the company also built some of the very first off shore oil rigs.


Here is the link to a previous post that featured LeTourneau electric drive log skidders.
  http://adventuresinmikeslife.blogspot.ca/2012/12/letourneau-dieselelectric-log-skidder.html

The amazing all terrain truck trains

And a spiffy version of a push cat that uses rubber tires instead of steel tracks..the TournaDozer

Here's a video clip from Skadill, of an old derelict LeTourneau log skidder that he found in the forest

A monster front end loader for mega-mining operations ...a LeTourneau machine from recent years