Possible hurdle for amphibious vehicles

This is going to make it harder to certify amphibious vehicles for civilian use. It doesn't matter that Ducks are surplus military equipment.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/critics-duck-boats-dangerous-city-streets-34058685

 

Interesting.

Though I've been thinking off and on about "large amphibious vehicle" to avoid slip fees rather than for military use....

 

Yes .that is my motive to build a SUV size amphibious vehicle. there are some safe well built units out there. In Canada it is fairly easy to certify home built vehicles under kit car application from government. I have built/modified a few vintage trucks since 1974. DOT has checked me over once, at side of road at a stall/breakdown.

 

My ambitions, I should admit, would be not quite so grand as including rolling down the roads at highway speeds even if I were to try to build an amphibian. A vehicle going down the road experiences different stresses than a boat does, which on average is much more evenly and much less jarringly supported. A partial amphibian, one designed to crawl into and out of the water and slowly traverse (possibly very slowly) occasionally soggy to rocky beaches riverine use satisfies the motivation I cited above. Of course also crawling up past core of engineers land into the yard/carport.

Of course, as a consequence it wouldn't be a true amphibian ... more seal than otter. But that would still be enough to hopefully get around the few real obstacles to navigating the Trinity River from where I live (mainly the dam at Lake Livingston). Might facilitate crawling on and off a flatbed for professional road transport.

Negatives: well, not really an amphibian the way most people think of them.

Advantages: not so limited in beam or, almost certainly less important for me, length.

 

Rurudyne: the hull plating was added onto a tube frame and hull framing,stringers ETC. something like a unibody auto ftamework( like engine stringers ,but full length. the suspension and drive lines are all connected to this )

 

Possible hurdle for anphibious vehicles

Now here is a good idea for someone to follow up on it does perhaps not appeal to some but would be robust and simple to build, and you could of course modify the idea to suit.It could be quite cheap relative to some designs and you have a guarantee it would work.

 

I took a ride on a duck about 30 years ago and vowed to never ride on one again, I also avoided them when I saw them on the road.

 

Incidentally, Ducks are relatively rare so accidents which may have nothing to do with them actually being a particular design -- one ordinary bus could collide with another or a barge could ram and sink any ordinary boat as well as a Duck -- can be easily said to skew the statistitistics compares to incidents in a more common design, making it look like they are inherently less able to be safely operated.

Being on land and water, opening them up to being in more places to be in an accident, is not the same as being in any given accident.

As for their (road) crash worthiness: I hope the owners of any old car, van or bus takes notice of the arguments being employed.

 

Axle failure may have been the cause of the accident in Seattle. http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/27/us/seattle-duck-boat-bus-fatal-crash-ntsb/index.html

 

You could easily tell from a single ride in one that they are cumbersome, heavy, loud, crude in general, vibrate and don't feel stable at anything more than low speeds. It didn't feel safe when I rode in it and it even seemed odd to me at the time that it would be legal on the roads.

The weight makes it the winner in most collisions with cars, it even did a number on that bus.

 

I think that this type of accident is what ends up in regulations driven by panic.

 

Politician's Logic

Something needs to be done;
This is something;
Therefore we must do it!

 

With these vehicles I don't think it's regulation driven by panic, I just don't think they belong on roads like the one where this accident happend.

 

I agree they don't handle the road well. That may be added to tour operators trying to make good time.

 

I'd like to see a mash-up of an OptionOne and a SeaLegs.

OptionOne size and RV style living, and economical and even trailer-able and container-able itself for long hauls.

Maybe all electric hybrid drive at least for the wheels, to make AWD easier and to eliminate Through-Hulls.

I guess if your going to have Hybrid on board you may as well use it for propeller(s) too. Might help you get into lots of Environmentally Sensitive waters.

Might help it be street-legal with all the dumb local politicians wanting to show they are helping reduce CO2 because a guy has a 4 ton car that seats 4 and gets under 10mpg....but its a HYBRID.


Is it just me or is there a high accident rate for these regular tour buses?

Bus load of excited foreign exchange students, cut rate operator hires the cheapest driver they can semi-legally use.