AmphiCat
All these posts about big outdoor GPS robots has me thinking about various chassis designs. I'll bet many of the "kids" here (born 1970 or later) have never seen the 6x6 amphibious Amphicat (circa 1972), let alone an AmphiCar!
Amphicar: The front wheels act as rudders!
Amphicar: The front wheels act as rudders!
Comments
...is the ramp at Tega Cay Marina. I own Tega Cay Animal Hospital, so you could say it was filmed in my "back yard" on Lake Wylie.
I don't know these guys but when I was growing up I mowed grass in the summers for a retired couple that had one exactly like that in their garage. Always hoped to take it out. Never got the chance.
Thanks for sharing!
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/porsche-stuck-wet-cement-proves-karma-exists-210302568.html
Looking on eBay I came across another http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1969-Amphicat-6x6-Amphibious-ATV-Boat-Custom-Paint-COOL-/121047224454?pt=ATVs&hash=item1c2efa1086#ht_500wt_1023 device that floats and drives.
Maybe we should throw a bid on it - would be a useful contraption for Nick and Kevin to carry their quadcopters to the runway about a quarter mile from the office. There's mud and a creek on the way.
Ken Gracey
I don't know if they were Amphicats or not but when I was in my early twenties we used to see a few amphibious cars every summer at Wasaga beach (Georgian Bay, Ontario). Even got a ride once in a while.
Maybe a better design? This one seems to work just fine, for over half a century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DUKW
http://www.dellsducks.com/ducks.html
Might be overkill for your creek, you might need to find a river.
http://ruk.ca/content/half-safe-across-atlantic-jeep
Chrysler - River Utility Craft RUC (1969)
Disappointing results in the Marsh Screw tests did not end ambitions for screw-type mobility systems.
In 1969 Chrysler produced the Riverine Utility Craft (RUC) for the Navy. The RUC travelled on two aluminium rotors, 39 inches in diameter.
Engine: twin Chrysler 440-cubic-inch auto-mobile
Length: 7000 width: width: 4750 height: 3900 mm
Weight 5900 kg
Speed land: 50 km/h water: 28 km/h (WES test program in south Louisiana)
Speeds on firm soils proved disappointing, 23 km/h maximum and only 6.5 km/h in MUCK.
Screw vehicles failed big time compared with the more conventional wheeled and tracked vehicles.
We were assured the vehicle was amphibious and periodically we were shown a film of a crew prepping and swimming the 'Goat. However, we were never required to do this and I never met anyone who actually did. If you asked any of the crews, the response was always something like "Are you f*****g kidding?!".
On dry land tho', it was a blast to drive. There were few places you couldn't take a 'Goat and on field problems we took every opportunity to go boonie-truckin' in the little beast. ("Follow the tank trail? But Sarge, it's much closer cross-country!")
see also tightwalking robot just before that, and lots of other cool stuff in there.
I would have never guessed the cameras were in the holes in the roof rack. The image on the screen looks decent for a sensor that small. I wonder where the IR illuminators were hidden. If those are light amplification cameras they'd be worth quite a bit more than the van.
My guess is they wouldn't want IR illumination to give them away, in case someone had the tech. In twenty years we get this trickle down, what do you do with, it other than scare your neighbor.
They seem to take it a little too serious though.
Also over crowding is dangerous, and limits the ability to just have fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mr_pCrhTkk&t
Amphibious cars are made just down the road from me.