Page 341 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong
P. 341

 When you look at these machines, they look like they rolled off an assembly line and that’s the way they were always meant to look.
– Tim Thomas, South Pole Traverse operations manager; current project manager, Peterson Power
   The Peterson team executed several other designs from Bolton’s wish list. “We did a lot of things differently than the original design tractors be- cause we had a different vision,” says Frati. Like the new roof racks designed for storage. Each operator is outfitted with mandatory survival gear in case of a whiteout or if a machine falls into a crevasse. On the first-generation machines, all that gear was stored inside the cab or on the back. Now it goes on top in a special heavy-duty storage rack with attached headlights. The name of each machine is proudly stamped into a metal plate on the front of the rack—another addition that pleased the cus- tomer. Hero, Southern Cross, Floyd Bennett, Wyatt Earp, Northwind, Resolution, Burton Island, James Caird and City of New York are all names of ships that sailed to Antarctica as part of its exploration. Each has a story, further imbuing their modern namesakes with the significance these current ma- chines have to the Traverse mission.
For everyone working on the project there was a deep sense of satisfaction and pride—even fun— during the long hours and mad rush to the finish. “We tested the crap out of each machine before it left,” says Frati. “We actually tried to overheat Hero out here in the yard. The maintenance guy came running out, yelling at us because of all the dust we were kicking up. It was pretty funny. But we just wanted to make sure everything was dialed in right.”
Top to bottom: Twin Otter ski plane brings doctor to traverse crew somewhere on the Antarctic plateau, with Challengers parked around traverse living quarters; Hero’s travels to the South Pole
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