We’ve All Been Sleeping On Orchard Sprayers As The Coolest, Most Sci-Fi Looking Agricultural Vehicles Out There

You know where I’m clearly not spending enough time? Orchards. I bet many of us can say the same. The reason I’m saying this is not because I have an unquenchable appetite for pears, especially Bosc pears, which I like to hold sideways and eat like it was a chicken leg, though that would be a pretty good guess. But, again, that’s not why I’m all into orchards now. The reason why is that I just found out about self-propelled orchard spraying vehicles, which look remarkably like sci-fi movie vehicles.

How have I never heard of these before? I mean, other than my near-total lack of any association with orchards or, let’s be honest, almost any organized agriculture at all beyond growing various molds and funguses in my non-running car interiors. But I feel like as someone interested in both vehicles, real-world space travel, and fictionalized interpretations of the intersections of both of those things, I should have been aware of these self-propelled orchard spraying vehicles.

I say this because these machines have such an incredible sci-fi look about them, with their low bodies, large wheels, heavily angled front ends, and rear-mounted sprayer equipment that could easily pass for, say, a fusion reactor in the right context. I mean, just look at this video of an Atom 2000:

It’s got four-wheel steering, a dramatic, low-slung forward cab, and the whole thing just feels like some plans for a future lunar or Mars rover. For example, look at this NASA concept vehicle for a possible future Mars rover:

I mean, the orchard sprayer really doesn’t look that much less futuristic or advanced than that rover, does it? And compare this Tifone Cobra Interceptor 2000 self-propelled orchard sprayer to this 2019 Toyota lunar rover concept done for JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency:

…and to drive the point home just a bit more, here’s the Cobra Interceptor in action in a video:

I’m just really taken by these things right now. Let’s see how this Andreoli Engineering Atom 2000 looks in the context of a lunar base:

Look at that; it fits right in! What do these things remind me of – oh, right! The M577 Armored Personel Carrier from the 1986 Ridley Scott movie Aliens:

Even the interiors look pleasingly sci-fi:

Look at that aircraft-style joystick there! I think that was used to control the sprayer system. It does feel pleasingly spaceshippy in there.

I suppose what’s especially weird here is the sort of convergent evolution we’re seeing at play here. Why should the peculiar and very specific requirements and demands of something made to spray rows of trees in an orchard have anything at all to do with the demands of ground travel on other celestial bodies, even if, so far, all of that is still mostly speculative if not entirely fictional?

I suppose these need to be low enough to get under the low-hanging branches of trees, yet still have enough volume to carry all the fluid, a combination that would sort of dictate the low, long body design, and the tight turns that such a vehicle would need to navigate would likely require the four-wheel steering. It seems tow-behind sprayers are more common, but these self-propelled ones just seem so much cooler.

Now, the real question that is very likely bouncing around in all of our heads is how possible would it be to find a used one of these and convert it into everyday street use? I’m sure it’s possible, but I suspect it wouldn’t be cheap, as these things go for hundreds of thousands of dollars new and can still sell for around 100 grand used. Maybe if you found one where the whole spraying mechanism had failed? Think what an amazing little camper one of these would make! They kind of feel like modern Brubaker Boxes. [Ed note: Fittingly, a Brubaker Box was one of the coolest sci-fi vehicles of the pre-Star Wars era. Configured as T-top and dubbed the Roamer, it deployed from the titular Ark of Ark II, a forgotten relic or early-70s live-action kid-vid. – Pete]

The world of motor vehicles is so vast and wonderful and it’s a good reminder that there’s always some strange gems lurking around where you least expect it, like in between apple trees, spraying poisons.

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