Sandcrawlers are huge treaded fortresses used by Jawas as transportation and shelter. The sand-pitted vehicles, many meters in height, are equipped with a magnetic suction tubes for sucking droids and scrap into their cargo chambers.
The interior of a Sandcrawler is a convoluted warren that befits the Jawas' rodent origins. Much of it has been gutted and refitted to meet the scavengers' needs. The front side of the 'crawler opens up to form an immense loading ramp. Deep inside the craft burns a smelting reactor designed to melt processed ore into saleable ingots. These immense steam-powered constructs were first brought to Tatooine by Corellian prospectors looking to mine the sands for valuable ore. When Tatooine metal proved to have unwanted metallurgic properties, the mines were shut down and the miners abandoned most of their equipment. Much to the remaining colonists' surprise, the native Jawas reclaimed the crawler vehicles, turning them into an important part of their culture. If needed, an entire Jawa clan, numbering in the hundreds of individuals, can live inside a Sandcrawler. Their custom, though, is for half the clan to reside within rock-walled fortresses out in the desert while the other half forms the scavenging sandcrawler crew.