How a 2012 Toyota Tundra Towed an Icon - MotorTrend Magazine
For most of the way from LAX to the California Science Center, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was going to ride on a modified version of a NASA overland transporter. For this Shuttle’s journey, the transporter would be driven by four robotic vehicles. There was one problem, though: the weight of the four robotic vehicles plus the Endeavour, approximately 650,000 pounds, was going to be too heavy to cross the Manchester Bridge. The Tundra in question was a bone-stock CrewMax with a 6. 5-foot bed and the 381-horsepower, 5. 7-liter V-8, rolling off the same line in San Antonio, Texas, as all Toyota Tundras do. This Tundra used the company’s A-TRAC system and four-wheel... of course, the Toyota came equipped with the tow package. Toyota had done tests ahead of time with a higher amount of weight than the Shuttle/transporter combo, and it did well there. Sitting on Manchester Boulevard, ready to roll, there was still plenty of prep work to complete before the tow began. By the time press and VIPs arrived, the Shuttle had been disconnected from the robotic dollys and waited for its connection to the back of the Tundra, where it would be towed not with a gooseneck or fifth-wheel, but with a regular-size steel hitch. Source: wot.motortrend.com
