Sandcrawler / Legends Sandcrawlers were large , slow , treaded vehicles , used as self propelled bases for mining squads . Most notable example of usage of these vessels , later adapted by Jawas for their mobile homes , was on Tatooine , where bulky sandcrawlers climbing the dunes were a common sight . History on Tatooine . Miners . Millennia before the Battle of Yavin , Tatooine seemed a good place to start a mining operation . But it appeared that the ore was of very poor quality , corroding very fast . The planet ' s climate and Tusken Raider attacks were even worse for miners . As a result , companies left the planet , beaten by nature , without enough funds to take their heavy equipment with them . Many sandcrawlers – bulky , yet very sturdy vehicles able to travel even in the most harsh of desert conditions – met this fate . As several different companies made the same mistake of thinking of Tatooine as a great font of resources , this happened several times . The first sandcrawlers were used and left behind on Tatooine by Czerka Corporation , before and during the era of the Sith Wars . Others , brought to the planet on the same purpose by Corellia Mining Corporation , were also abandoned some time later . Jawas . The vehicles gained new life thanks to the Jawas , who took to the abandoned vessels as if they were made especially for them . A little - known fact is that Tusken Raiders actually sold some of the vehicles to the Jawas , putting aside their differences for a short time , in the pursuit of monetary profit . This might be the reason why Tuskens from time to time succeeded in raiding a Jawa sandcrawler . Equipped with magnetic cranes , energy furnaces , workshops and lots of living and / or storage space , sandcrawlers were perfect as mobile headquarters , shops , and homes for the diminutive junk scavengers . Soon , the vessels started to play large roles in Jawa society . One of the most important days for most Jawas was the annual meeting of all sandcrawlers . They were also key in Jawa defense doctrine : the vehicle ' s armor was strong enough to sustain attack of Sand People or even a Krayt dragon . However , it proved to be too weak to survive an attack provided with effective weaponry . One particular sandcrawler was destroyed by a squad of Imperial sandtroopers , supported by an Imperial Flying Fortress , which easily pinpointed and destroyed the weak spots of the desert vessel , immobilizing it and slaughtering all the Jawas . Behind the scenes . Only the bottom part of the sandcrawler was built for close - up scenes in the Tatooine desert for . In these large vessels appeared on matte paintings . George Lucas took many pictures of the treads of NASA ' s space rocket carrier ( known as a crawler ) as inspiration for the sandcrawler . According to " " , the sandcrawler models were made with powerful engines used in scale models of Tiger tanks , and were so powerful that the sandcrawler could be made to pop a wheelie . For filming , however , they were made to lumber slowly across the desert . While George Lucas was filming on location in Tunisia , the Libyan government became worried about a massive military vehicle parked near the Libyan border . Consequently , the Tunisian government , receiving threats of military mobilization , politely asked Lucas to move his Jawa sandcrawler farther away from the border .