To extend the portion of the lunar soil to be explored by the Surveyor Block II missions, NASA had decided to include small roving vehicles commanded from the ground with the landers. Many proposals were scrutinized, of which the most unusual came from Space General Corp, which proposed a 60 kg mass rover having a small camera and a tiny manipulator, powered by a movable solar panel and traveling on three pairs of legs providing a top speed of about 3 km/h.

In the end, the finalists were Bendix Corp., proposing a robot mounted on four tracks, and General Motors, proposing a rover made of three hinged sections, each of which carried a couple of large wheels. As the exact mechanical characteristics of the terrain at the landing site were unknown, the two robots, each with a mass of 50 kg, were put through a series of extreme test to demonstrate their ability to travel over very fine dust and solid lava. The General Motors design proved to be generally superior.
However, as no Surveyor Block II ever flew, no rover was carried on the Moon.

As late as 1970 JPL studied a mission reusing Surveyor technology to land a large long range rover on the Moon. The rover was to be braked by the same retrorocket as the Surveyors and was then to land on its four wheels.
 

The Surveyor-based self landed lunar rover under study at JPL in 1970. This probe design would have experienced large Center of Gravity shifts during landing. (NASA/JPL/Caltech image) JPL image no. 352-5010A

Bibliography
Burke, J. D.: Past US Studies and Developments for Planetary Rovers. In: Missions, Technologies et Conception des Vehicules Mobiles Planetaires; Toulouse, Cépaduès
Corliss, W. R.: Space Probes and Planetary Exploration; Princeton, Van Nostrand
Roving Lunar Surface Vehicles Studied, Aviation Week & Space Technology, 2 october 1961, pp. 52-69

Related Links
Surveyor Rover @ Encyclopedia Astronautica

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