Amphibious ATV Fitted With Front And Rear Floats

Amphibious ATV Fitted With Front And Rear Floats ATV'S ATV'S 24-2-2 Michael Dick of Humboldt, Iowa, can drive his ATV right across deep rivers and lakes. That's because he equipped it to float on front and rear-mounted pontoons. He welded two pairs of 17-gal. steel drums together and mounted them on front and back of his Honda 450. "I came up with the idea because I live on one side of a river and wanted to go trail riding on the other side," says Dick. He made a steel mounting bracket for the front drum which U-bolts to the ATV's front bumper. On back he bolted steel mounting brackets to the ATV's rear axle and welded other brackets to the luggage rack. A length of steel pipe clamped onto the exhaust muffler on back serves as a "snorkel". Muffler tubing was used to make another "snorkel" for the air intake (not shown). "Even when I don't have the pontoons on, the snorkels allow me to still go in fairly deep water," says Dick. "It makes quite a sight because when I go in deep water all you can see of the ATV is the handlebars. With the engine below the water line I can't even hear the engine running, but I can feel it vibrating on the handlebars. I only go about 1 mph. The deeper the tread on the tires, the faster you will go. The front wheels are still used to steer. "The bracket that supports the drum on front has a series of holes in it, so that by pulling a pin I can adjust the height of the drums. I can also raise or lower the rear-mounted drums. Whenever I'm on land I raise the drums so they don't catch on tree stumps, rocks, etc. To keep from æbottoming out' when approaching the water's edge I simply pick out a spot that's not too steep so I can go in gradually. If I ever do get stuck I can use an electric winch on front of the ATV to pull myself out. And the front-mounted drums can be swung out of the way by simply pulling a pin. "The drums stick out about 6 inches on each side of the ATV, which makes it a little harder to get between trees. I think hunters in the wilderness could haul the drums on a cart behind the ATV and mount them whenever they have to cross deep water. Once they're across they could leave the drums there until they come back." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Mike Dick, 1998 215th St., Humboldt, Iowa 50548 (ph 515 332-3550; fax 3770).

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