Dobbertin Surface Orbiter

The Dobbertin Surface Orbiter was built by American hot-rod builder Rick Dobbertin. He set out to circle the globe over land and water in one continuous trip, without a support vessel. It took about four and a half years and more than 14,000 hours to convert a 1959 Heil stainless-steel milk tanker into a self-contained amphibious home on wheels.

Design

The double-walled tanker body, insulated with Styrofoam, is about 32 ft (9.75 m) long and 7 ft wide. It sits on a frame built from 910 pieces of 304 stainless steel. The drivetrain combined a 6.5-litre intercooled turbo-diesel V8 of about 250 hp, marinised by Peninsular, with a four-speed automatic gearbox and a part-time four-wheel-drive transfer case. It used Dana axles and other one-ton GMC truck components. Afloat, a single 22-inch four-blade propeller drove the vehicle at up to about 8 knots. On the road it could reach 70 to 75 mph. There were separate steering wheels for land and sea, a bow thruster, winches, radar, GPS and long-range radio. Inside were a control cabin, an engine room with sleeping area, and a small galley. For registration purposes it counted as a 'custom house on wheels' on land and as the motor yacht Perseverance at sea.

Earth Trek

Dobbertin and his wife left the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse in December 1993. Over the next two and a half years they travelled through the Caribbean islands, Venezuela, Colombia and Central America to Mexico and back to the United States, crossing 27 or 28 countries and 38 US states. The longest sea crossing was about 350 miles and took three days. On 21-23 February 1995 the Orbiter made the first amphibious transit of the Panama Canal. Money ran out and the trip ended in June 1996 after some 27,300 land miles and 3,000 ocean miles. The vehicle appeared in Car and Driver in April 1994 and in many other magazines and television programmes. After the couple's divorce it was held up in a lengthy ownership dispute, until a court order in June 2000 let Dobbertin move it to a Syracuse car dealership to be offered for sale.