Sandcrawlers
Sandcrawlers, sometimes written as SandCrawlers, were enormous, sluggish, tracked vehicles that served as mobile bases for mining teams. These vehicles were most famously employed on Tatooine, where the sight of these large sandcrawlers traversing the dunes was commonplace. Later, the Jawas adapted them to be their mobile dwellings.
Thousands of years prior to the Battle of Yavin, Tatooine was initially considered a promising location for mining operations. However, the ore proved to be of inferior quality, rapidly corroding. The planet's harsh environment and the frequent assaults by Tusken Raiders further exacerbated the challenges faced by the miners. Consequently, the mining companies were forced to abandon their operations, unable to afford the cost of transporting their substantial equipment.
Many sandcrawlers – robust vehicles designed to withstand the rigors of desert travel – experienced this fate. Several companies made the same error, assuming Tatooine was a treasure trove of resources, leading to repeated abandonment of these vehicles. The Czerka Corporation was the first to utilize and then abandon sandcrawlers on Tatooine, both before and during the Old Sith Wars. Subsequently, the Corellia Mining Corporation also left behind sandcrawlers after using them for the same purpose.
The Jawas breathed new life into these abandoned vehicles, embracing them as if they were specifically designed for their needs. Interestingly, the Tusken Raiders occasionally sold these vehicles to the Jawas, momentarily setting aside their differences for financial gain. This may explain why Tuskens occasionally managed to raid Jawa sandcrawlers. Equipped with magnetic cranes, energy furnaces, workshops, and ample living and storage space, sandcrawlers were ideally suited as mobile headquarters, shops, and residences for the diminutive junk dealers. These vehicles soon became integral to Jawa society. The annual gathering of all sandcrawlers was a significant event for most Jawas. They also played a crucial role in Jawa defense strategies: the vehicles' armor was capable of withstanding attacks from Sand People or even a Krayt dragon. However, the armor proved insufficient against more advanced weaponry. In one instance, a squad of Imperial sandtroopers, supported by an Imperial Flying Fortress, destroyed a sandcrawler by targeting its weak points, immobilizing the vehicle and killing all the Jawas inside.
For close-up shots in the Tatooine desert featured in Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, only the lower section of the sandcrawler was constructed. In Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones, these massive vehicles were depicted in matte paintings. George Lucas drew inspiration for the sandcrawler's design from photographs he took of the treads of NASA's space rocket carrier, also known as a crawler.
According to From Star Wars to Indiana Jones: The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives, the sandcrawler models were equipped with powerful engines similar to those used in scale models of Tiger tanks, enabling them to perform wheelies. However, for filming purposes, they were deliberately made to move slowly across the desert.