WITH all the recreational vehicle acronyms, there’s yet a new one: the undisputed utility terrain vehicle – UUTV.
And the world’s UUTV title-holder has to be Tail End Charlie, the first Chamberlain Champion tractor produced in 1955 in Australia.
At 7,300 pounds and sporting a 60-h.p. Perkins engine, Tail End Charlie will be running westward across 19 US states during the next 10 weeks with Australian Dick Garnett at the wheel.
As part of the Transworld Tractor Trek across America entourage, Charlie and Garnett, of Gnowangerup, Western Australia, will likely roll more than 6,000 US miles.
The restored Tail End Charlie logged more than 47,000 road-running miles on numerous treks across Australia. Retooled for road-running, this tractor can roll at 50 mph.
When this journey is over, Garnett will head back to his 10,000-acre farm in the southwestern corner of Australia.