Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

[cjforumadmin]

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Epic-eBay-Find-A-Modern-DUKW-Made-From-Either-an-H1-H2-or-Mercedes-G55.html

[Matt Cramer]

Re: Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

Usually I'm not a fan of rebodying a car to look like something else. But turning it into a functional amphibious truck is a completely different deal from making it just look like a DUKW. Sure, not too many people have asked "How can I make my H2 into a boat," but sometimes if you come up with a cool enough answer, who cares?

[67pete300]

Re: Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

Love the spare tire cover..."Life Jackets are Good" ;)

[Ermott]

Re: Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

the bow extension is there to improve navigation at "high speed".

It seems much more likely that the bow extension is there to help keep the nose up at anything over a crawl. Without it I'll be this tub would try to plow it's way straight to the bottom. At the very least, the water would push up against the windshield in a wave. An inherently flawed design, due to the weight of the motor up front, the photo shows four people seem to be needed to make it float level. What they really need to do to fix this situation, is to extend the front end by a foot or more, to provide the additional flotation needed. Of course then the vehicle wouldn't look as cool. Have a look at the massive nose on a real dukw, and you'll see what I mean.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

Thanks for joining up Ermott, and that's good info.

It would be kind of funny to see one of the conversions head for Davey Jones' locker...abandon truck ship!



Brian

[67pete300]

Re: Epic eBay Find: A Modern DUKW Made From Either an H1, H2, or Mercedes G55!

A good observation about floating on its lines (level) with four people in the back. By definition, the center of buoyancy will adjust until in line with the center of gravity (the ship/truck will trim by the bow or stern until the geometric center of the submerged watertight portion is in line longitudinally with the center of gravity.) So if those people got out (center of gravity shifts forward), you'd expect the ship/truck to trim by the bow. This is for a purely displacement hull which I'd suspect is the case here.

But that bow extension does not provide (hardly) any buoyancy, and probably has significant weight, so it is only making the situation (if it exists) worse. If the thing were really moving through the water it could provide some dynamic lift which would help trim the bow up. This will help keep the waves off the foredeck (ha!) and away from the snorkel and windshield. This is more for a semi-planing or planing hull. They didn't give any details on the four cylinder diesel or prop, but I'm initially skeptical about how fast this thing will go.

It must move pretty good through the water for that bow extension to be effective. Would like to see it in action!