Amphibious mobile home

Hi everybody, my project is/shall be, an amphibious ,self sufficient(power wise) mobile home, i have some designs in mind, but i really have some questions about the boating/water part. Like what kinds of bearings would fit my needs better, ways of strengthening points of the hull or chassis etc. all help is wellcome

 

Maybe something like this?


-Will

 

Hi Armi .
What are you interested in ? There are some old amphibians you can compare with your ideas.

 

Your main problem is weight. A normal mobile home will not float unless it has a large hull under it. The weight of it will be over 51,000lbs (23 metric tons) That means that you need 23 cubic meters just to barely float. Add at least 50% for safety. That video shows a bus running with a fully submerged engine and transmission. It will have a very short life. Also, the water is perfectly flat. It is not a practical idea.

 

Some sort of ex-military amphibious vehicle like a DUKW might be a good starting point.
Apparently the Dutch produced an amphibious bus that was seaworthy enough to cope with Rotterdam harbour (Europe's busiest), but it seems not to have been a commercial success! Amfibus - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amfibus

 

It's possible but, do not forget the regulations on the water. In Rotterdam (The Netherlands) there is a commercial bus for a ride on the water.
YouTube link.
editaha dubbel entry.)

 

What's the problem gonzo, the weight comes with a corresponding area, it's exactly the same as any flat bottom barge. A 14'x70' single wide needs less then a foot of draft to float 51,000lbs. Of course you must make the bottom part of the mobile home completely waterproof (including doors) just like the bus in the video. It's engine and transmission sit dry inside the hull, just like in a boat. All driveshafts pass trough stuffing boxes, and the radiator is probably mounted on the roof.
I would be more concerned about stability and weight distribution then waterproofing the bearings, that's easy enough. Brakes I would just move inboard into the dry space, it's not a novel concept.

 

Hi again, everybody. thanks for the fast reply's. i was thinking more on the lines of a small rv, on 26" mtb double wall wheels. like 400-500 kilos at most
like 3 metres long, 1-1.2-1.3 metres wide. tallest point , mesured on the road 1.6-1.7 metres on water we substract 25 cm from any measurement cause that would be my road clearence. i'll upload a crude sketch like profile and from behind.

 

i wouldn't be worried abt the brakes, as they would be mtb disk brakes... can go exposed

 

Say you have one foot draft (no reserve buoyancy) from the bottom of the floor. You can't start lower and keep the legal ground clearance. That will submerge the engine and transmission. Stability is a major concern too. This idea keeps on coming up and nobody has a practical solution. There are amphibious military or special application vehicles that are very expensive and have a high maintenance schedule. The legal issues alone would prevent most people from being able to road certify a home built vehicle.

 

oh and would ideally be capable of carrying 2 people... if only one then , one more confortably. the water "drive system" would remain the same as on land just to change the rear wheels to , paddle wheels, like changing the rear couple of 26" wheels to , maybe 22" plus paddle wheels
powering it would be solar panels on top + extending roof to accomodate more panels or to be like a make shift deck. untill now i own 4 pcs 36/42 volt 15.6 amp batteries , 2 pcs 36/42 volt 10.5 amp batteries. mid drive engine tonsheng 350w(hoping to acquire a 750w version for the boat home. and pedals and said mid drive motor would power a 30-50 kg flywheel , from said axle i would power an e-scooter motor to use as a generator probably a 2400w or 2800w one if my math ain't wrong and if i would be capapble to recover at least a quarter of that then i'm good. so that's 700w. and the wheight of that'those flywheels would power an axle thru a clutch . an axle exiting both sides of the craft, to power the pedal puley/axle part of two rear halves of mtb's so i retain the suspension part

 

hi and, i would just build it and go for it to see where it takes me and how far, given that it is still a pedal powereed small craft, so velo mobile, shouldn't pose any trouble in most countries around the world, and thought about registerring it to some country around the world, forgot to mention, once it's buit, i plan to go around the world in it, probably going to take a ship for the greater water trips ... no biggie

 

by one foot draft do you mean that i have a one foot something, in my case wheels, hanging lower than the hull?

 

Sorry, but the plan makes no sense. What you propose, if it manages to float, will have a very high drag. 750W will not be close to enough. The batteries are inadequate to run engines for any reasonable amount of time. Pedalling a heavy flywheel only increases the losses. A person in good physical condition can sustain about 130Watts for a prolonged time. However, the mechanical and charge/discharge losses will give you maybe 90 Watts useable. A heavy flywheel makes the vehicle heavier and more inefficient. As far as most countries being OK with a home made vehicle, you are unfortunately wrong.

 

No. It means that you need a hull that is the footprint of the vehicle and at least one foot from the bottom up. You need to subtract the engine, transmission, chassis, etc. from the volume and added to the total needed for the vehicle to float. Then you add at least 50% for safety.