Weird Wheels

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Welcome to Weird Wheels, the home of the weird, wacky and the wondrously stupid awful ideas the automotive industry has thought up.

From Motorcycles, Tricycles, Unicycles, One Wheel, Two Wheels or a Monowheel. Ugly, fugly, weird or the endeared! The confusing, cruising or even the amusing.

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[CUSTOM, 1939] The Poochmobile, Third in the 'Powered by Animals Series' (infosec.pub)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by scottwood@lemmy.world to c/weirdwheels@lemmy.world

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Info:

The Poochmobile, a bizarre yet earnest experiment in alternative transportation, was built in 1939 by 80-year-old Z. Wiggs, a dog trainer and former railroad worker from Denton, Texas.

The contraption featured a large central “squirrel-cage” wheel powered by a single dog walking inside it, transmitting motion via a belt-and-pulley system to the rear wheels.

Wiggs envisioned it as a fuel-free solution to modern transport—a Depression-era glimpse at “green” mobility. Despite its ingenuity, the Poochmobile was widely viewed as charmingly impractical and never made it past the prototype stage.

Links: https://thehydrant.wordpress.com/tag/popular-mechanics/#%3A%7E%3Atext=DOG%2520power%2520drives%2520an%2520odd%2Ccontrols%2520by%2520a%2520%E2%80%9Cgearshift%E2%80%9D%2520lever

https://dentonlibrary.wordpress.com/2018/07/21/z-wiggs-reinvents-the-wheel/

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[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Dog: "yah...wow... so badass..."

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That seems a bit much for a dog, but I have seen lightweight "doggy chariots" that harness two dogs. I suspect that my husky would love it, and the malinois would just be happy to be running. Admittedly, the two of them weigh about 160 lbs, so that's a fair amount of dog.

I don't know where the heck I would get a full legionaries weapon set.