Homemade Amphibious side by side (aatv)

[1886]

Looks like it will turn just fine.

[Albertadiver]

This thread deserves its own forum.

A labour of love but the thought and skill behind all of this just blows my mind.

I wish the stuff I knew was this cool.

[Renegade J]

There is a lot of steel there my friend… I really like a lot of your design concepts and have been watching and following this build from the beginning. I like your approach angles, near vertical in front and rear. Where do you plan to mount the winches? I’m sure you already know that nearest axle centreline is best. A good rule of thumb for winch size has been 1.5 times overall vehicle weight, so I agree that 4000lb might be a bit underpowered especially with the holes you could dig with the big tires. How about 1 winch of larger capacity that could be moved from front to rear receiver with quick connect wiring? Drivetrain has been kept simple for reliability and effectiveness. My personal preference would have been to use as much aluminum or even plastic puck board where you could in place of steel sheeting to keep weight down. Also I’m a big fan of body panels being bolted on as opposed to welded to keep the option of being removed (for service/repairs) or more easily replaced if damaged. Aluminum and plastic doesn’t need to be painted/raptor lined either. Did the front rack support have to be so extensive (adding weight)??? A big concept with any off road vehicle is and has always been minimal weight. Honda does it with their ATVs. Argos with plastic bodies and chain drive. Polaris rzrs using a lot of plastic. Light weight has huge overall benefits: fuel efficiency, better flotation on soft terrain, easier to get moving and stop, less load on brakes and drivetrain, tires. Never ending benefits to light weight assuming it is strong enough for the task. No need to overbuild and add excessive weight that will only take away from overall performance. A failure of a mudd ox vs an agro is overall weight/complexity and expense of the hydraulic drivetrain… Don’t underestimate the value of keeping unnecessary weight to a minimum. I personally would add tow locations for shackles 2 front and rear for when you plan to use your winch with a snatch block. Where do you plan to locate headlights? I would avoid the roof itself to keep them from getting damaged when driving under logs/trees overhanging the trail. Does the steer system require a hydraulic tank and if so where will it be mounted? I love what I see, just trying to offer some constructive criticism.

[Positrac]

There's a bit of steel there for sure, but not as much as one would think. I looked at building the body with a lot of different materials and while they are all lighter than steel you lose some strength and rigidity when using them. At 70lbs a 4x8' sheet for 16ga there is less than 350lbs in the whole buggy for plate. The deciding factor for me was the guy who imported the tires for me has the same tires under a 5000# Jeep TJ and his rig does phenomenal in the Skeg and floats across water with about 1/3 of the tire showing. My buggy will come in around 3,500lbs so it shouldn't be an issue. The pictures are deceiving but the unit is only 12' long in total. So when looking at strength and cost to build steel was the choice.

As for the front rack, it needed to be heavy duty enough to hold at least one quartered moose. The difference between it being questionable or the way I built it was only a few pounds in tube so I went on the heavy side. I also built it so that it won't be easily damaged when mowing down small willows on overgrown cut lines.

As for winches a lot of the buggies run in Russia on the same tires just carry a come-a-long. They seldom get stuck and when they do it doesn't take much of a pull to get them going again. Very few of them run axle lockers and with them they would cut down on getting stuck considerably. The tires don't dig a hole at all and they will float in water so considering it will be primarily used in Skeg I think I'll be fine with the two 4500# winches and a couple snatch blocks. I can use a snatch block to double the pulling power, it will just be slower. One winch is mounted up front right above the axle and the other is removable and can be plugged in front or rear in the receiver hitches. They are light in comparison to a big winch and I think they will work fine.

As for lights, I have a couple 24" LED light bars to do on top of the front rack just behind the railing. I'll look at what else is needed for LED's once it is all up and going. Wire can be run through the tubes so it will all look clean and protected when done.

[58thecat]

Dam if that thingy gets stuck your in for some work

Will be awesome to see the finished product.