Custom made volkswagon powered 8x8 with sea doo pump

[chris davison]

Safe decent water travel is partially what I designed it for with 24" of verticle side I have done the calcs. for bouyancy and it comes out to 6000lbs to sink it to the lip. 1300 lbs should put it at 4.3 " into the water again I dont know what the tires will add in either direction. but at least the pump will be submerged. I want to build a hood over the front bow maby 12ga. aluminum to cover it and improve the looks hinging with a couple spring shocks to help keep water off legs in the front.

[chris davison]

Wow with the engine installed I still have a good 20 inches from the rear pully to the sea doo pump housing. Bored a hole for the pump drive shaft thru the rear of the hull and installed the shaft its to long and will have to be shortened. Fabbed a dash board and will install the stock VW speedometer and my fish finder need to buy some more metal and bolts though. Any questions? any suggestions?

[chris davison]

Here is a good pic of the engine install

[mudbug3]

chris davison

I was surprized at how much room you still have with the VW motor in it.

[chris davison]

I was also happily supprised , Didnt remember that it is only 14.5 inches long still have to add a timming belt pully to the fan pully then go to clutch and shaft then to the pump drive thats the shaft you see from the rear towards the engine.

[mudbug3]

chris davison

Looks like you,re heading down the home stretch now.

[Bw6]

Chris, that looks real good, I can hear it running. Very nice arrangement.

[6X6]

Looks nice. I commented on the photo you posted on the VW motor thread, but I see you have been quite busy. Very nice work.

[chris davison]

That means alot comming from someone as experienced as you Ray

[chris davison]

Can you Imagine sitting around the campfire around the lake late at night and suddnly you hear a volkswagon bug out on the water putting around with 4 big head lights.

[chris davison]

Just purchased a solid aluminum fan pully to bolt a 1.5 in timing belt pully to and found on ebay 5 1.5 in. pullys 4.75 in dia. for $78.00 just what I needed to power the Sea doo pump. Hopeing for the big test this summer.

[chris davison]

Well iv'e bolted the winch on the front revised some support bars. My exhaust sys. has arrived and will need modification. Just waiting for some cash to do some machine work on all the parts. I have also recieved some 1/8 Delrin to go under the axle chains so they dont rub the bottom of the hull so now I can install all the chains on the axles and start to devise chain tentioners.

[chris davison]

Wow what drag I have so many parts and so much I could do and Im stuck working 7 days a week on graveyard some days 10 hrs. thankfully I finished Hydraulic school. Hey Ray I have an Idea on your props
in the water if you cant lower them below the hull can you weld in a 6 in diameter aluminum tube thru the hull from front to rear ending dead center of the props? or even start them some where in the bottom
tilting up to the props? this would make reverse effective also. But they would be really effective if the prop was inside the tube.

[Bw6]

Wow what drag I have so many parts and so much I could do and Im stuck working 7 days a week on graveyard some days 10 hrs. thankfully I finished Hydraulic school. Hey Ray I have an Idea on your props
in the water if you cant lower them below the hull can you weld in a 6 in diameter aluminum tube thru the hull from front to rear ending dead center of the props? or even start them some where in the bottom
tilting up to the props? this would make reverse effective also. But they would be really effective if the prop was inside the tube.

Hi Chris, I've been just sitting back and enjoying your progress. Regarding the duct idea for the props, I considered that approach back in my Hoot days, as the Hoot has a square support member (duct) running down the middle intergrated into the floor. Also this is the method Hydratrek uses to supply water to it's dual prop setup. It works fine. But my problem was more related to prop rpm, gearing up from the axle doesn't give you enough rpm to do it justice, no matter what pitch the prop is. The Hydratrek doesn't have that problem because they use a hydraulic motor, and use large fine pitch props.

I think you have a much better chance to get some decent water speed using a jet pump, you should do a little better than the Chinese Argo guy that uses a similar setup, because of your hull design. I do have a swing down prop design, but it adds more complexity and didn't pass the cost/benefit analysis. IMO, the only way to get "real water speed", is to raise the tires out of the water, and design for a semi or planing hull. Chris your half-way there. Put that hydraulic course to use, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

[chris davison]

Like I said in another post If I had it to do over again I would use trailing arm suspension with wheel motors( Hyd of course) that way i could rotate the suspension right up out of the water. Ive never seen a hydrotraxx or coot or hustler or anything but an Argo conquest and thats when I decided to make my own. I dont think there is anything out there like what I want.