The Bizarre Soviet TET-1000 Transforming Tractor 

Calum is simultaneously getting me my fix for mechanical draftsmanship, and bizarre tracked vehicles, all in one video. Brilliant

A quick google shows someone has made a working model of this from lego....remarkable.

Showing yourself drawing this bizzare tractor really improved this video considering otherwise it would be only 4 repeating photos. Nice drawing BTW :D

Loving these obscure vehicle videos. Maybe make a quick fire round video where you talk about the vehicles that you didn't feel warranted a full video?

It really is incredible to consider the fact that we've settled on the ideal design for every specialized type of vehicle, but there are very few vehicles that successfully combine these designs. Need to go fast on ice and snow? Use a snowmobile. Need to go fast on water? Get a jetski. A jetski can't do the job of a snowmobile, but while a snowmobile can do the job of a jetski in a pinch, it can only stay afloat at full throttle. A tractor can have multiple towing attachments for a farm, but it's not going to be very good on a construction site. A hydraulic excavator can have multiple attachments for a demolition or construction site, but its not going to be much use on a farm.

Yep that's a pretty oblique solution. But definitely an interesting one.

*Transformers, robots in disguise!* I love this thing. Would have been a nightmare to maintain but damn would have been fun haha

What an awesome Frankentractor. I'd love to see what you have to say about the TDT-55A Logging Tractor. The cool thing about those is that they were based upon German RSO tractors, which were themselves based upon Soviet STZ-5 gun tractors. TDT-55A are unstoppable - I've seen video of one running through a a swampy forest pool with only the intake / exhaust / cab windows above the sludge and it was mechanically quite happy - even if the driver was chest high in fetid muck inside.

Normally we are used to the Soviet's simple, yet ngenious solutions for a challenging problem. Best known example: The USA are said to have developed a ballpen working in zero gravity for 1 million Dollars - the Soviets took a pencil. But this time the Soviets just went too far to get a tracked vehicle roadbound. Amazing design, but too complex. Caterpillar achieved the same by developing the rubber tracked ag tractor. Yes, those tracks you were sitting on, very similar!

I love that you also draw pictures of your subjects. My drawing skills are rubbish but I very much appreciate those who do have the talent.

Another fantastic video about obscure vehicles, keep them coming.

What this reminds me of most is the original version of the Trackmobile road-transferable switching (shunting) locomotive. Like this machine, it used road wheels perpendicular to its other propulsion, in that case rail wheels, which allowed it to move from one track to another in confined spaces. Newer versions have the road and rail wheels in line with each other, which makes them simpler to operate and simpler mechanically, but does mean they take more space to move between tracks on their road wheels.

Thanks for all your great research and videmo making efforts.

This is awesome I love the weird vehicles the Soviets came up with. Brilliant video love the videos lately, especially those about vehicles like this and the snow cruiser etc. 👍🏼

I'm betting that Laurie's Mechanical Marvels would love to get his hands on this!

Great quality video once again. Very interesting tractor

That thing is wacky! You're quite the artist my friend

Having binged rewatched some Calum vehicle documentaries it was kinda baffling coming into this one and having it end when in my mind I was thinking I had just made it past the introduction.

The bizarre vehicles and inventions of RG Letourneau were basically made for this channel

love those strange looking vehicles and the history behind. very nice

Love you’re videos mate. I can’t find a reasonably priced copy of that book! Fancy lending me it? Haha Keep up the fantastic work though.

That's doubly weird when you consider that the Soviets were well aware of the Christie convertible suspension, originally developed in the 1920s for use on tanks, which enabled a normally-tracked vehicle to drive on its wheels for greater speed, longer range, and less road damage in out-of-combat highway marches. Admittedly, the conversion back to tracked operation wasn't automated, but it was also considerably less... bizarre. On the other hand, the fact that they had a Tractor Research Institute in the first place is the most Soviet thing ever.

The Soviets came up with several ideas that could have been successful if only they had the chance to keep working on them. This one reminds me of the original Trackmobile, which had its rail wheels and couplers at 90 degrees to its road wheels (and the cab was fixed in the orientation for road driving). This is different from what Trackmobile makes in more modern times, but if you go to the About Us:History part of their web site, you can see a couple of photos of the original design. You can also see a couple of the original units (one unfortunately badly damaged from an accident, but the other looks potentially operable) if you go to the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museum in northwestern Massachusetts.

3:46 you okay? Lol. Also, fantastic drawings.

I'm so happy I found this channel...so holesome

Also another soviet vehicle for you to look at is the EKIP. It's really interesting, but unfortunately as is with a lot of things the funding for it was severely limited after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Also there is a good old Concordski and sukhoi t-4 (supersonic strategic jet bomber but there is one small thing about it. You can't see out of it while it is supersonic. There is a periscope but it is not adequate for anything)

Always love to see the drawings at the end. :-)

The Vespa 150 TAP - A scooter carrying a 75mm anti-tank recoilless rifle, used by French paratroopers in the late 1950's.

Thank you Calum

You make great content.

Erm… that’s actually a good idea. Stability looks ace. I could see it being a good logging all rounder :o) *that’s where the kettencrad started*

What an out of the box design !

Check out PZL M-15 Belphegor. It's agricultural biplane jet. And my favourite plane ever.

Love the illustration, hope that you're considering selling prints of it.

Do you have a grab for your mini digger? Definitely makes clear rhody's that bit easier. Brilliant video as usual, keep up the good work!

✌Thanks for the introduction to this vehicle👍from England 🇬🇧

Funny you mention "Letourneau". A lot of those machines are still in use. Diesel electric log loaders. They're absolutely huge, mammoth sized machines.

Hi. Great video. Vehicles with tracks don't usually have steering wheel, they are controlled by levers, I would imagine you could turn the seat 90 degrees and control tracks with levers. There are a lot of tractors with scoops or other equipment on back and you just turn seat 180 degrees to access controls.

'Soviet Tractor Research Institute' of course the USSR would have that...

The book is "mover of men and mountains" if you wanted to know

And today we have NEXAT, engineers of that time would be happy to meet you

I feel like the Soviets already solved this issue with the removable track design of the BT-7 tank. I wonder why they didn't go for a similar design.

I wonder why didn't they just have the tracks parallel to the tires. That way the driver could stay in one position.

Who decided all these bizarre soviet era vehicles should even be built. One look at that drawing and most people would ask, “Really? That’s the best thing our engineers could come up with?”

I have read somewhere that sniffing too much Rhodondendron makes people halucinate about all sorts of strange vehicles.

Well it does seem a good idea!

I've read, regarding tanks, that there's some quite small sweet-spot compromise between stability and maneuverable regarding the length-width ratio of the tracks. Indeed, most if not all, tanks and tracked machines seem to longer than their width. This thing, on the other hand, looks quite wide, and it may that it can't be much narrower (in the track sense) without making wheeled vehicle too short to be driveable, and it also might be that it would be too difficult to make a longer folding track mechanism. So, perhaps it was too tricky to drive?

nice video! btw what kind of model is the tractor you're sitting on?

Interesting, I have seen the same "problem" tackled at the Arizona/California/Mexico border for lettuce, but they simply put the tractor on a trailer.

most likely the cost vs reality set in and they went back to small light tractors.

Hi Calum! Thank you for your amazing videos and hello from Russia! If you need some help with Russian sources or translation from the language, please let me know! By the way, I am wondering could you make a video about "Tsar Tank"?

Calum, you're holding out on us. Make a film about that awesome looking mini excavator you've got

Theres those rhododendrons again....

Nice.

What is the name of this inventor you mention in the second part? Luciano? LeCherno? Captions are no help.

RG Letourneau was a awesome inventor and entrepreneur lol neat tractor but don't really see a practical purpose for it

TET-1000. Can see that chasing down an Anrold Schwarzenegger.

Yes. More vehicle. More big

That explains that.

Mr Le Teurnean was no fruit cake as you put it: He would draw his plans on the ground and then go build them. He never studied at any university: He had a brilliant mind. And if you read that book you had in your hands you would have known that, and legacy he left to his country: and the world:

Farm Simulator could bring this back to life.

There MIGHT be more than one! Enable translate and watch this video. At 3:21 the narrator says (through the translate program)"...and in total there was built two copies and this single copy is still is in this institute where the condition was tested." (the Soviet Tractor Research Institute) He continues: "Of course not perfect but it exists and may someday restore it and transport it a museum so that subsequent generations and ours, too, could live contemplate this ingenious and inherently insane machine." If this is the case, I too would love to see it restored, especially if we could get access to the mechanical specs for this bizarre creation. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jA1N-_f9wpc.html

sounds like a Terminator

probably the most well spend four minutes & 20 seconds of my life.

Quite a clever concept,this bizarre machine....trust the soviets! With a bit more development,this could have become more popular,imho.....

Foldable things are so much less robust, i can't see that contraption being very reliable. Probably the same conclusion they reached.

Popular soviet-era joke in the USSR: An announcement from the Soviet Information Bureau. Yesterday at four o'clock in the morning, in the valley of the Amur river, the Chinese side, consisting of 4 infantry divisions, supported by tanks and artillery, crossed the Soviet-Chinese border and attacked a peaceful Soviet tractor. The tractor repulsed the perfidious attack with a heavy barrage of machine-gun missile fire, in the process shooting down 8 airplanes, destroying 30 tanks and up to 1000 enemy troops. After that it launched the main rocket engine and disappeared into near-Earth space. The tractor driver feels well, the flight is going nominal. The chairman of the collective farm Colonel-General D.F. Ustinov has stated that should the incident reoccur, the seed sowers, threshers and a combine harvester with vertical take-off and landing are going to be deployed in the field as well.

Mükemmel 💪💪👍👍👍

Please make more interesting vehicle videos

So I heard that you were interested in early Antarctic explorer history. Have you come across any interesting books about Germany's expeditions leading up to the second world war?

Why do the pictures from the 1980's look like the 1880's?

peaceful soviet tractor. you must see it.

Calum, for more bizarre Soviet tech. consider this: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zveno_project

has anyone said "TET Talk" yet? :V

Cool bud nice vid! You would like John Pope designs ! Google him for some incredible machine's!

Have to give them that it was an amazing creative solution. Have to wonder how it would have done if not for the political upheaval when it first came into production.

Similar- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sd.Kfz._254

If this was cancelled because of the fall of the Soviet Union, why are the pictures in black and white?

People back then really doing something great n try to change the world for good. Our generation doing something different. Ur Innovation mostly is digital as it seems. We now do studies just to get a good job n earn money. That's not a life. It's a waste

This is so random but the video is 4:20 minutes long

Looks a bit like a Steyr 8320 Geräteträger

Your digger looks hella stollen. Time to check the serial number. Very odd to have the markings scraped off like they are....

The Soviets did a lot of things brilliantly, others not so much. But I guess they knew when to abandon a deadend idea, at least sometimes. There are always difficulties with implementing a design. Communism is a great idea, but the implementation is difficult. Hopefully we can work that out so that Americans and others can access universal healthcare, and people around the world can have employment that provides them with all of their needs, and in the best of all worlds, no one ever becomes a millionaire or especially a billionaire, because no one ever needs hat much money.

Russian would do just anything and design the craziest vehicles, only so they don't need to actually build proper roads...