What is it?

[jambo101]

This picture of a van with a strange contraption on the side has come up in a car forum i subscribe to,seems to have everybody stumped.Any one know?

http://forum.miata.net/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=58637

 

[HFWR]

The mother of all bongs...

 

[travelover]

Tailgaters beware.

 

[bssc]

Some sort of detector. Maybe for chasing tornados?

 

[bbbamI]

It looks like a tv with a gas powered antenna.

 

[73ss454]

That's a four sided hammer head shackle remover.

 

[cantlogin]

Remote data reader.

 

[Marquette]

Assisted lift. You open the door, press a button and the arm swings forward to assist with something.

Paint ball cannon.

Portable hydralic log splitter (would only make sense if he's a yooper though and the car is too nice to be a yooper car)

 

[CuppaJoe]

Propane-fueled movie camera?

 

[yakers]

ion phased array spectrometer, of course.

 

[Nords]

Media vehicle.

Looks like a transmitter/receiver line-of-sight antenna on a retracted hoist. The box probably holds the telescoping hardware and the motor/hydraulics.

I don't suppose they got close enough to see labels or other equipment inside the vehicle? Or does that license plate correspond to some commercial/govt numbering system?

 

[Notmuchlonger]

The worlds solution to our energy problems. That my friends is an air dialaplitator which turns air into energy!

 

[W2R]

I think it's an antenna, too.

 

[Purron]

Photon torpedo.

 

[jambo101]

Media vehicle.

Looks like a transmitter/receiver line-of-sight antenna on a retracted hoist. The box probably holds the telescoping hardware and the motor/hydraulics.

I don't suppose they got close enough to see labels or other equipment inside the vehicle? Or does that license plate correspond to some commercial/govt numbering system?

It was a Pennsylvania Govmt vehicle.And it does look like some kind of high tech antenna.

 

[Eyerishgold]

It's a geiger counter so the driver knows when to step on the gas and get back to the bunker he built in his back yard.

 

[jIMOh]

Is that a nitrous tank? To give more HP to engine?

 

[Nords]

After a few minutes of googling, maybe these digital TV antennae are inside those radomes:

MadeInChina

http://www.szhjx.net/UploadProductPic/20069494529710.jpg

 

[TickTock]

Single-shot Heavy Rocket with a +1 Targetting Computer.

 

[TromboneAl]

It's interesting that anything with text in it can be googled and figured out instantly. But an image -- there's no way to "enter" it.

I did google images for News antenna on car, automobile radar, tornado detector, tornado chasing car, etc. Didn't find anything that looked like that.

 

[cantlogin]

Remember that TV show in the 1950s "What In The World"

 

[twaddle]

Was he parked next to this guy?

 

[Htown Harry]

I don't know what the gadget is, but I recognize the location: Fry's Electronics, U.S. 59 at W. Bellfort, Stafford TX (southwest side of Houston)

 

[NotSoonEnough]

Looks like a sniffer to me, the apparent compressed gas tank may be a clue. That kind of instrument must be periodically reset with a baseline like 02 or CO2...but I'm doing a WAG.

<snort>

 

[megacorp-firee]

Don't know, but I'd think twice before I whipped that guy the bird.