Mike Pearson's Adventures on a Pale Blue Dot

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 LeT...

I just found this on Vimeo. There used to be one or two of these monsters on Vic Walters property in Porpoise Bay at the old mill site. Here is a photo of my dad having a close look at one, back in the 60's. Seems to me that the LeTourneau machines were used in the early 50's around the Coast. Likely one of those times when the idea was too far ahead of it's time. It used electric motors on each wheel  and the electricity came from the front mounted diesel motor Link to video is below ( no sound ) http://vimeo.com/35343215 He re is another video of the same technology being used as a log loader http://vimeo.com/18327246   Again...same idea is now a large all purpose transporter ( I have no clue as to why the editor chose that particular music ) http://vimeo.com/18605197   From the "go big or go home" files...the Tourno-train   http://vimeo.com/16138691 The huge and b izarre "Tree Crusher"...looks like something that just makes a big me...