Prototype Amphibious Sports car

[thehildi25]

Hi! I am new to this forum. Over the past 7 years I have been developing a new amphibian model based off of an old kit car, known as a Sterling or Nova. The bodystyle has been completely redone but still has some of the original features. My preliminary mode of propelation was using two weed wackers to drive trolling motor props, didn't work as good as I had hoped. Although the car did move upon throttle. I was controlling them both off of the same cable but that made the car go straight, basically no steering. Now I have independant throttle control.
I was reading up on the weed wacker conversion post and realized that I didn't do a good prop selection. I don't really want to use this setup but I figured that if I could go 5 mph I would be able to fnd a manufacturer interested in supplying a future propulsion system.
Is it possible to make small jet drives that I could adapt to weed wackers for right now?
I dont know how to link a you tube video but if you search "guy drives sports car into lake on purpose" the video should be there, if you want to see its first actual drive into the water.

Rob

[EuroCanal]

Here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eUObcKIm9I

[mydauphin]

Your going to need something with more power to get this moving. What engine you have now in car/boat. Consider splitting something out of engine.

[anthony goodson]

During WW2 the German VW Schwimmwagen had a propellor gearbox which simply lowered and engaged with a dog on the crankshaft .

[wardd]

couldnt the rear wheels have a paddle spoke arrangement?

[thehildi25]

Totally open to all ideas. Right now I am running a VW aircooled motor I'm pretty sure the rotation is counter clockwise rotation. I consider the weedwackers to be something to get some modelling started.

[tinhorn]

Originally Posted by wardd

couldnt the rear wheels have a paddle spoke arrangement?

Might make road travel kinda harsh. The Sterling (I'm told) could hit 100 mph.

With the V-belt just inches inside the rear panels, there's gotta be SOME way to easily connect a drive to a prop.

[Ramius41]

Here is a link to a working vehicle .... http://www.industrialobject.com/sth.html .... sterndrive for propulsion in the water and tires on land!

[wardd]

Mile marker makes a wench powered by the power steering pump, maybe something like that could be used to power the props

[anthony goodson]

"A wench powered by a power steering pump" ,now there's an interesting concept.

[thehildi25]

I did a test with both tires off the ground to see if both tires would move forward at te same time and the passenger side tire has power to it (conventional rear end setup). Paddle tires may be out of the question.

I've heard something about hydraulic water pumps but I dont really know what to do, plus the one that I found was like 1100 dollars. I had recently thought about attatching sprockets and chain to the two prop locations and crank shaft. Maybe a bit off the deep end.

I am curious about the SchwimWagen's setup Is there any info on how that worked?

[Submarine Tom]

I would go with a power take off to a spring loading folding prop for sure.

You could screw around with other options but the chance of success is small.

-Tom

[anthony goodson]

The Schwimmwagen was the amphibious version of the Kubelwagen which was Germany's answer to the jeep .It had the same horizontally opposed air cooled engine and transaxle as the beetle ,except that the early ones were only 1131cc A hinged "outdrive leg" for want of a better description was lowered over a dog on the crankshaft for aquatic use . Google it ,there is lots of information there, you may even find one in a museum near you.

[rambat]

I have been in final testing of my new Amphibious flood rescue vehicle named the 829. It is already the fastest non-retracting wheel amphibian in the world as far as I know at 12 knots or 22.2 Kph on water. Its due to the use of a "Thrustor" ducted prop, I would advise staying away from waterjets or anything hydraulically powered due to the losses unless you have 250+ hp. My design has 130 hp, single engine with a PTO shaft powered Mercury Alpha outdrive. The drive gives it steering, trim and commonly available parts. You might consider using a lower leg of a scrapped outboard to pivot behind the bumper with a friction pulley on top that presses on an engine belt or rubber edged pulley. If you do it like I imagine, it could be steered as long as the drive pulley on top was in line with the down shaft. These amphibs are a joy to drive (55+ mph on land) and I hope to press mine to its limits in the coming weeks.

[Submarine Tom]

WOW!

-Tom