Hauk Designs’ ‘Hell on Wheels’ Is Bad-to-the-Bone

FourWheeler dishes out more details on the Easter Jeep Safari standout.

Hauk Designs has developed quite a rep for cooking up some pretty amazing custom Jeeps.
One of the Pennsylvania-based team’s latest creations, “Hell on Wheels,” is verified proof of that.

Needless to say, we’d love to land some seat time in this custom beast.

JK Forum first got a glimpse of the behemoth, steam-powered 6×6 Wrangler at this year’s Easter Jeep Safari. When we first saw the Jeep in Moab, we weren’t able to gather any info on the vehicle. Now that we have, it’s clear that the Jeep is even more menacing than we initially thought.

According to FourWheeler, the Hauk Designs’ Wrangler weighs in at a monstrous six tons or just around 12,000 pounds. To put that in perspective, a stock Wrangler Unlimited weighs in at roughly 4,521 pounds.

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The 6×6 Jeep is powered by a 100ci V-4 single steam engine, originally built sometime around 1960 for the Keen Steamliner 2 automobile. Dubbed the “Loco Hauk,” the custom Wrangler’s standard fuel tank has been modified so that it can run on kerosene, which is burned to heat the boiler. The Hauk Jeep is also equipped with a 55-gallon water tank. Horsepower for the JK-based beast is only rated at 130 to 140 hp. But it does pack about 2,500 ft.-lbs. of torque. Top speed?  About 60 mph.

Sure, it might take the six-ton Jeep a little longer to get to its destination than a standard Wrangler Unlimited, even if we were lucky enough to land a test drive. Still, we’re betting we’d have a pretty clear path ahead once people caught a glimpse of the Loco Hauk in their rearview blowing off all that steam.