Built by the Corellia Mining Corporation as massive mobile mining and smelting facilities, sandcrawlers appeared to be treaded boxes that towered some 20 meters above the surrounding landscape. They possessed a triangular front that held the cockpit. Corellian Mining intended the vehicles to serve as semi-autonomous mining operations in rough frontier worlds. Their primitive but reliable nuclear fusion steam reactors and multiple treads ensure they seldom break down, and their weight and armor means they can survive the harshest environments.

Sandcrawlers were robust and customizable enough that they could be found all across the galaxy and were put to uses they were not originally designed for. For example, on the desert planet of Tatooine, many sandcrawlers had been left behind by various mining consortiums over the years, only to be salvaged and repurposed by nomadic Jawa clans. The Jawas roamed the wastes of Tatooine looking for scraps to sell and trade to moisture farmers and nomads. Sandcrawlers had large cargo holds, scrap-processing facilities, and enough space for quarters for an entire Jawa clan.

For the Jawas, sandcrawlers functioned as transportation as well as shelter from the harsh desert environment. They were commonly used as part of scavenging operations and contained large cargo holds capable of holding 1,500 droids at a time. Magnetic suction tubes allowed the Jawas to quickly suck droids and pieces of scrap into the holds. Inside the sandcrawler, Jawas typically utilized the reactor to melt down scrap metal and droids.