This is a Fat Truck, it’s an amphibious all-terrain vehicle developed and built in Canada by Zeal Motor Inc. which was established in 2018. It’s powered by a compact turbodiesel engine, and it can climb or descend 70% inclines in both forward and reverse.
Given Canada’s remote northern regions, the country has always been a world leader in the design and development of vehicles destined for life in the wilderness. One of the most famous Canadian inventors in this field was Joseph-Armand Bombardier, founder of Bombardier and the designer of many early snow mobiles and larger snow vehicles.
Fast Facts – The Fat Truck
- The Fat Truck, developed by Zeal Motor Inc in Canada, is an amphibious all-terrain vehicle powered by a compact turbodiesel engine. It can handle 70% inclines, travel on water, and traverse tough terrain like snow, mud, and sand, making it ideal for remote, rugged environments.
- Designed for simplicity and reliability, the Fat Truck features a watertight hull, Hardox steel lower half, and large pneumatic tires. It uses a joystick steering system, allowing for tank-like movement, including 360º turns on the spot. This ensures versatility in diverse and challenging conditions.
- With a seating capacity of eight or a cargo capacity of 2,200 lbs, the Fat Truck comes equipped with air conditioning, a heater, backup cameras, a roll cage, and an onboard tire inflation system. It’s also possible to make the vehicle road-legal in some jurisdictions despite its top speed of 25 mph.
- Fat Trucks are used across Canada, the U.S., and internationally in fields like pipelines, oil exploration, wind farms, and search and rescue. Despite being relatively new, they have proven effective in various environments due to their capability and adaptability.
The Fat Truck
The team of engineers and designers that developed the Fat Truck set out to create the simplest possible vehicle that would be capable of traversing the broadest range of terrain. This simplicity was key, less complication means there are fewer things to go wrong when you’re hundreds of miles from the nearest mechanic.
Above Video: This is the official review of the Fat Truck from Autocar. It gives a great breadth of detail into what the vehicle is and what it does, and it includes footage of it driving on land and crossing water.
Each Fat Truck starts out as a watertight hull with a tough Hardox steel lower half, and a lightweight aluminum alloy top half and roof. The engine is mounted amidships and as low as possible, to help keep the center of gravity low and improve stability.
The vehicle floats on water thanks to the water displacement hull, and the large pneumatic tires. The underside of the Fat Truck is smooth, allowing it to slide across deep mud, snow, deep sand, and whatever else it might encounter.
Since the model was introduced in 2018, it’s been powered by an inline-four cylinder turbodiesel engine, of 2.0 to 2.2+ liters in displacement, mated to a hydrostatic transmission which sends power to all four wheels.
Unusually, the Fat Truck employs a joystick steering system. The front wheels don’t turn left and right as with a conventional vehicle, instead the wheels on the inside of the turn are slowed while the wheels on the outside of the turn remain constant – this tank-like steering system allows it to turn a full 360º on the spot if needed.
The control joystick is located in the front middle, between the two seats, allowing either person to control the vehicle, or to hand over control instantly if needed. There is seating capacity for up to eight people inside, or up to 2,200 lbs of cargo, and it apparently is possible to get the Fat Truck road legal in some jurisdictions.
It would only be usable on the road for short periods of time due to the paddle-tires, and the fact that it has a top speed of 25 mph. The top speed on water is 3 mph, with propulsion provided by the tires spinning in the water.
Between the front two seats you’ll find the joystick. This controls forward and reverse as well as steering, so there are no pedals, steering wheels, or anything else to worry about. It makes driving the Fat Truck surprisingly intuitive and easy to learn.
Though you may expect the vehicle to be utilitarian it actually comes with an air conditioning system, a heater/defroster, a back-up camera, a four-way camera system, locking doors, and more. It has a full external roll cage for safety, LED lighting, a fire extinguisher, bilge pump, roof hatch, roof rack, and four sliding side windows.
The tires on the Fat Truck are gargantuan, coming in at 1.5 meters tall and 60 cm wide. They can be inflated and deflated using an onboard system from inside the cabin, and in normal use they exert just 1.6 PSI of force on the ground as they move – that’s five times less than a standard human foot. This is important as it means that it causes minimal environmental damage.
Despite how new they are, Fat Trucks are already in use across Canada, the United States, and further afield in various use cases including pipelines, utilities, wind farms, oil and gas exploration, mining, hunting, and search and rescue.
The Fat Truck Shown Here
The Fat Truck you see here is a 2020 model powered by a 1.95 liter, 74 bhp Hatz turbodiesel inline four-cylinder engine which is rated at 180 lb ft of torque. Hatz is a highly-regarded German diesel engine manufacturer that specializes in smaller, industrial engines that most people don’t encounter all that often.
Despite its compact look, the Fat Truck can accommodate up to eight people or up to 2,200 lbs of cargo – and carry it over land or water.
This Fat Truck has a red and black exterior, seating for eight, air conditioning, and all the other modern conveniences listed above. It has a height of 101 inches, a length of 146 inches, a width of 100 inches, a 20.7 inch ground clearance, and a shipping weight of 5,440 lbs. For ease of transportation, it comes with an included tandem axle trailer.
It’s due to roll across the auction block with Mecum in mid-January and it’s being offered with no reserve. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Mecum
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
