Sandcrawler

A Sandcrawler is a fictional land utility vehicle featured in the Star Wars film franchise. Also known as a Jawa Sandcrawler, they were first seen in the original 1977 film Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

History
Sandcrawlers were immense treadwell transport machines originally designed for the purposes of hauling ore across rough terrain. Some 4,200 years prior to the Battle of Yavin, human settlers colonized tatooine and established the mining outpost known as Anchorhead. Companies such as the Czerka Corporation attempted to develop facilities at Anchorhead, but often abandoned the planet due to the high cost of transporting heavy machinery and the poor quality of the ore they had found. It was not uncommon for such companies to leave a great deal of equipment behind. Scavenger races like the Ghorfa and the Jawas would often salvage abandoned equipment for a variety of uses. In fact, it was the presence of these early settlers that provoked societal change in the Ghorfan culture, prompting them to evolve into the modern day Tusken Raiders. The Jawas, more timid and meek than their Ghorfan brethren, also possessed greater mechanical aptitude and were able to repurpose old equipment for their personal needs such as the Sandcrawler mining squad vehicles.

In 0 BBY, a clan of Jawas were traveling across the Dune Sea when they came upon two seemingly abandoned droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. They captured the droids and brought them inside the immense cargo basin of the Sandcrawler, which had since been used for housing merchandise and any mechanical cast-offs the scavengers would come across. The Jawas journeyed across the Dune Sea to the Great Chott Salt Flat where they set up shop outside the Lars moisture farm. The owner of the farm, Owen Lars, purchased the droids and the Jawas went on their way.

A few nights later, a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers known as Zeta Squadron tracked the droids down and learned that they had been sold by the Jawas. They found the Sandcrawler and slaughtered all of the Jawas present. The troopers then fired random blaster shots, pitting the side of the Sandcrawler to make it look as if the massacre had been committed by Tusken Raiders.