Talk:Crawler-transporter

Wt/Len/Wd
This is all intersting but how come no weight, length, o width is metioned

Amiga computer game
I remember hearing about an old Amiga computer game that was about finishing a good shuttle mission. One part of this "realistic" simulation was a real-time sequence with the Crawler-Transporter, taking some monotonous eight hours to play, with only few things to do ("drive forward"). Does anyone know which game I mean? --Abdull 08:29, 17 August 2005 (UTC)


 * If you like that kind of game, you should try 50K Racewalker. --18.252.5.9 08:02, 3 July 2006 (UTC)

Bagger 288 vs Crawler-Transporter?
As we can see in the Krup's Bagger 288 page [Bagger288:] More specifically, it is a mobile strip mining machine. When its construction was completed in 1978, Bagger 288 superseded NASA's Crawler-Transporter, used to carry the Space Shuttle and Apollo missions, as the largest tracked vehicle in the world at 13,500 tons. It is the heaviest land vehicle. However, Bagger is powered from an external source and is more correctly described as a mining machine which can be moved, while the crawler-transporter was built as a self-powered, load-carrying vehicle.

So, the question is: what machine is the biggest one?

TV and other informative appearances
The crawler was recently on an episode of Dirty Jobs. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.190.222.115 (talk) 04:27, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Contrdiction
The tacked-on statement in the references section contradicts the main article. What are the nick names for the transporters, and will they be retired or upgraded? Adam850 08:20, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Crawler-transporter
Shouldn't it be Crawler-Transporter, with a capitalized "T"? --DavidDCM (talk) 12:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

What did they do before Apollo?
The article says these were built for Apollo. How did they move the Mercury and Gemini rockets to the launch pads? Or did they just assemble them right on the pad? It would be interesting to add this bit of history to the article. -- RoySmith (talk) 23:14, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Post Shuttle
The article says the crawler-transporter will be used for Ares I & V. How would cancellation of constellation change this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.177.217.121 (talk) 19:13, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Why do you gringos always fall for your own propaganda?
"When they were built, they were the largest tracked vehicles in the world, a title later taken by the German Bagger 288 excavator." - Incorrect, the crawlers were never the biggest somethings. See http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_255 I mean, you´re welcome to believe your own b/s, but please save the rest of the world from your whining, when you end up in a Mercedes-Benz commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yZK5xLhxxY  best regards, --212.23.103.40 (talk) 05:17, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap  if somebody can find a suitable way of linking it into the article, or wants to make a reasonable map of the system from it. —Sladen (talk) 17:22, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

"Hans and Franz" nicknames
A previous version purported that the two crawler-transporters were dubbed "Hans and Franz" in 1965, owing to the famous Saturday Night Live skit. However, SNL would not debut until 1965 and that skit aired in the 1990s. Apparently, they may have been named after one of the German scientist's dogs. Does anyone have any authoritative source on this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.19.115.116 (talk) 13:17, 24 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I continue to search through my sources. As an avid Apollo fan (I watched it all live) I have read many books regarding the program.
 * The crawler names were actually named after a 1960's comic strip "Katzenjammer Kids" then popular in newspapers. Hanz and Fritz were two cantankerous problem causing kids. The newly built crawlers were initially problematic, and earned the nicknames for the similarities.
 * At no time was SNL involved in naming crawlers built five decades earlier.
 * The nicknaming was indeed published in one of the many books on the Apollo program and I have yet to locate the passage for precise reference, but it is out there.
 * The Hanz and Franz reference should be deleted as its "proof" points to a simple web page where someone wrote it as an arbitrary comment lacking facts to support it.
 * I've exhausted my book collection for it, so I think it is time to hit the Library and get rid of SNL reference altogether.
 * VR4ever (talk) 04:01, 23 July 2023 (UTC)

What is the rationale?
Russia uses a diesel locomotive and a multiple railway track wide waggon to bring its assembled space rocketry to the launch pad. USA uses road vehicles for the same purpose. I think railway sounds more logical and less burdensome with regards to logistics (less peope and maintenance needed). Why did USA choose the crawler-transporters? Maybe it has something to do with the preferences of W. von Braun? (His prior employers, the nazis had a comparable sized mega-tank project called the Ratte a.k.a. the P-1500.) 79.120.166.231 (talk) 20:50, 19 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Ah, there it is - the n-word. Keep up the good work, shoa-business needs you. 46.115.36.25 (talk) 06:36, 11 December 2013 (UTC)
 * It is an interesting question. my guess (a) the 5% grade (b) sparks  (c) cool. Greglocock (talk) 03:47, 13 March 2014 (UTC)

False precision of mass
The source given for the mass of a crawler-transporter lists its mass as "2,721 metric tons (6 million pounds)." The article has rewritten this as "2,721,000 kilograms (5,999,000 lb)." This looks like false precision to me. 6,000,000 pounds even is slightly greater than 2,721,000 kilograms, but to round down by a thousand pounds only serves to introduce error. Is it just done like this so the article doesn't directly quote the source? 66.44.41.91 (talk) 20:57, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * , thanks for pointing this out. No reason for it other than the Convert template automatically assigned the precision in pounds based on the four significant digits in kilograms. I've fixed this in the article. — Huntster (t @ c) 21:40, 7 January 2016 (UTC)


 * Oh cool, I didn't even know we had a template like that. Thanks! 66.44.41.91 (talk) 03:32, 8 January 2016 (UTC)


 * I've retrieved the original, and in a few edits added an archiveurl plus explicit quote of what the source actually states. This will, I hope, discourage future introduction of false precision beyond what the source states.  By looking at the original source we can deduce is is quite likely the metric tonneage is itself a reverse conversion from the suspiciously round 6e10 lb figure, hence we shouldn't be pretending that there is more precision or accuracy than what is stated.  The conversion is only there to aid readability, for readability having a row of 999s doesn't help. —Sladen (talk) 19:45, 8 January 2016 (UTC)  Perhaps to put things into perspective, the weight is 30,000–40,000 humans and the ≈500 kilogram-precision that is being sought is the weight of just half-a-dozen people, who might step on and off.  Fuel weight also fluctuates, and ≈500 kilograms is about ~3% of the capacity of the fuel tanks, enough to move it one mile based on the quoted numbers in the article.

"Crawler"?
The article uses the term "crawler(s)" in several places to refer to the crawler-transporter(s). Is this a normal usage in published sources, or just enthusiasts' jargon? If the latter, these terms should probably be changed to "crawler-transporter(s)"; if the former, then "crawler" should be added to the lead paragraph per MOS:LEADALT. —Sangdeboeuf (talk) 03:25, 11 August 2018 (UTC)

Toilet on board!
Is there any evidence if the crawler has a toilet on board? As the travelling time from the VAB to the start platforms is around 8 hours, there is definitively a demand for it. - Another Question: Which crawler is Hans and which wone is Franz? Bullenwächter (talk) 19:18, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

The C-T was also used to move the Mobile Service Structure
Kennedy_Space_Center_Launch_Complex_39 says the C-T was also used to move the Mobile Service Structure between pads 39A and 39B and its parking location near 39A. - Rod57 (talk) 10:40, 12 October 2022 (UTC)