This is the way to go if you wanted an amphib with tracks and suspension.
This is the way to go if you wanted an amphib with tracks and suspension.
Problem with that system is you can't just pull the tracks off and run tires for a day of fast pace riding at the dunes. It becomes a dedicated track machine more or less. A springer with easily removable tracks if it would work would be very versatile I would think.
Keith.
kghills
If a track suspension system could be designed so that it wouldn't throw the tracks off at high speed, why would Howe and Howe , who designs tracks for extreme off road conditions and at high speed, chose this suspension system for a tracked vehicle instead of a suspension system like the one that Whipper designed?
Last edited by mudbug3; 08-21-2013 at 09:45 PM.
Dedicated tracked vehicle again Dave. And a fast one. But the amount of power required to turn that type of system is generally much greater that that required to turn a simple wheel and tire whether with or without a suspension. Also I think the cost of any high speed track system would be three times at least what any springer kit would cost and the tub would need to sit on top of it.
Keith
All very good points.
Joe, your father is a 6x6 legend in my book. I also am amazed he went that distance on balloons with no tire failures. And still I agree. Springers are cool.
WFO, I have never met you but I think I like you or at least the way you think. I think what you said sort of rings true, I think I feel myself reaching for my wallet.
Keith.
Last edited by kghills; 08-22-2013 at 08:56 AM.
This is a 670 CC amphibious tracked amphib that also uses a torsion arm suspension with bogie wheels. This machine moves pretty darn good too. No one on the forum yet has thought up a way to keep the tracks on a springer kit like Whipper has designed. I,m sure this is why you don't that style of suspension on an amphib that has tracks.
That machine looks awesome Dave! Great video...sounds like it could use a little more motor, but super cool!
tim
That's interesting Dave but looks like a boat with tracks to me. I think Tim is right with the 6x6 getting a lot of floatation from its tires is a big advantage. The tracked boat thing makes the springers look small and a springer makes a standard 6x6 look narrow so your examples are sort of on the large size and would probably need to be to displace enough water to float plus they would always be a dedicated tracked vehicle so you would make a small market even smaller by not allowing the ability to take off the tracks. Now that is assumming a springer would take tracks which is back on track with the question Rock Doctor posted earlier. (I think I just made a funny)
Keith
Did you catch the track breakage at 0:15, watch the wad of moss on the top of the rt tract just as the camera guy yells. Just me, but I'm not a big fan of all the ripsaw type suspensions. Don't get me wrong I think they are really cool, but the lurching, bouncy ride that they all seem to give just doesn't qualify as what I would call a "smooth, cushy ride". What I've seen on every one of them resembles what a rodeo bull rider experiences, but just way slower.
I've thought a lot about the springer tracks, and I have some ideas, but first I have a question. Keith, are you really wanting to know if tracks can be run on a springer, if someone figures out how to make it happen are you going to spring your machine? Or, are you just hunting faults with a fantastic feat of frog engineering? I read the other thread and you didn't seem to be a big fan of springers, so, I'm just a little suspicious...
DESTRUCTION is just a couple of vowels down the street from DISTRACTION