The Landmaster is a unique 12-wheeled amphibious

articulated vehicle An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent pivot joint In animal anatomy, a pivot joint (trochoid joint, rotary joint or lateral ginglymus) is a type of synovial joint whose movement axis is parallel to the lo ...

constructed by

Dean Jeffries Edward Dean Jeffries (February 25, 1933 – May 5, 2013) 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. Early life ...

at Jeffries Automotive in

Universal City, California Universal City is an unincorporated area within the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Approximately 415 acres (1.7 km) within and around the surrounding area is the property of Universal Picture ...

, for the 1977

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

film ''

Damnation Alley ''Damnation Alley'' is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Roger Zelazny, based on a novella published in 1967. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1977. Plot introduction The story opens in a post-apocalyptic Southern Ca ...

''. Despite the appearance of two Landmasters in the film (achieved with

process photography Rear projection (background projection, process photography, etc.) is one of many in-camera effects cinematic techniques in film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. It was widely used for many years in d ...

and models), only one was built, at a cost of $350,000 in 1976.

History

A staple of

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

car culture for many years, the Landmaster was parked in full view next to

' automotive shop on

Cahuenga Boulevard Cahuenga Boulevard () is a major boulevard of northern Los Angeles, California, US. The “Cahuenga” name is a Spanish, phonetic derivative with no actual Spanish language meaning that is attributed to the Tongva village of Kawengna, meaning "p ...

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North H ...

from 1977 to 2005. 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. In 2007 it was featured at the ''San Francisco Rod & Custom Show'' at the

Cow Palace The Cow Palace (originally the California State Livestock Pavilion) is an indoor arena located in Daly City, California, situated on the city's northern border with neighboring San Francisco. Because the border passes through the property, a por ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

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 Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was in ...

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 Sierra Highway or El Camino Sierra is a road in Southern California, United States. El Camino Sierra refers to the full length of a trail formed in the 19th century, rebuilt as highways in the early 20th century, that ran from Los Angeles to Lake ...

between

Rosamond, California Rosamond is a unincorporated community in Kern County, California, US, near the Los Angeles county line. Rosamond is part of Greater Los Angeles and is located in the Mojave Desert just north of Lancaster and Palmdale, two of the largest cities ...

and

Mojave, California Mojave (formerly Mohave) is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Kern County, California, United States. Mojave is located east of Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield, and north of Los Angeles, at an elevation of . The town is ...

. A 2019 Google Maps image capture shows it can be seen from the road. Gene Winfield's website offers classes but makes no mention of visiting. Damnation Alley Landmaster

Construction

Popular Science ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...

'' described the Landmaster: 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 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. The vehicle was steered not by turning the front wheels, but by bending the middle section with

hydraulic Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counter ...

rams to effect a turn, similar to large construction equipment. The Landmaster's bodywork was made with -inch (1 cm) steel plate, which helped it tip the scales at over 10 tons. The design's strength allowed it to survive a jump during testing with no damage.

Gallery

File:2014-3-28-Landmaster-09.JPG, Front view, just prior to loading on trailer. File:2014-3-28-Landmaster-02.JPG, Gantry/entry into cockpit. Raises/lowers via a motor driven cable system. File:2014-3-28-Landmaster-04.JPG, Close-up of trinary wheel system. File:2014-3-28-Landmaster-15.JPG, Closeup of section pivot and drive system Campbell, California Campbell is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Campbell's population is 43,959. Campbell is home to the Pruneyard Shopping Center, a sprawling open-air retail complex which was in ...

History

Construction

Gallery

Other appearances

See also

Sources

External links