ideas needed for amphibious mower

im trying to make my mower amphibious so that it can float and i wanted to know if anyone had any ideas on how i should do it.

Get one of those small aluminum boats and cut a hole in the floor to allow the tires (and probably the bottom of your transaxle) to poke through. THen just bolt it up on the bottom of your frame.

Thats my idea anyways. Not really any other way to do it unless you drop some serious cash.

im not to worried about the cash.. id really just like to know everyones ideas.

If I had the money, I would fashion up a chassis similar to the 6x6 amphibious vehicles, where the wheels are outside the tub.

LOTS OF FIBERGLASS! if i were to make it on no budget i would use fiberglass and make a body around the frame of the tractor etc. then put really good seals in the transaxle, etc. and probably change the rear tires over to some off an argo, etc. i think it would look funny though

Probably not what your thinking but its funny lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Ynbhi3uJk

What about one of the big Otter sleds for a bellypan and build up from there. The sleds are pretty common around here for ice fishing, and generic versions are fairly cheap. The only thing that would concern me is stock tractors would be pretty narrow, it would be more like a canoe. You may need outriggers in deeper water to keep the seat pointed skyward!!

I dont have anything drawn up yet but I been thinking of a good way of doing this for quite sometime. When I get something that looks workable I'm going to do a build, but that could be awhile.

If money isn't the problem,

I'd lock the front end.

Build a thin plywood tub to fit closelty around the axles, with about 1/4" clearance. You will have to seal around the front axle allowing for steering arc on the tires you intend to use.

Study up on displacerment in regards to boats and ships do determine how much boyant area you need to float your stuff for anticipated weight..

make the tub big enuff to handle it.

Cheap way, apply fibreglass and resin to seal the tub,

For axle seals. Use rubber sheet with a hole punched smaller than the axle diameter, epoxy the sheet to the outside of the ply wood. The rubber sheet must be put on the shaft from the out board end.

If you slide it on and pull it back, the seal will fail.

If you got tons of cash and time, you could build a nice fancy super light super strong tub using thin sheet plywood, and carbon graphite and epoxy. Marine epoxy is pricey, The last stuff I bought was 150 bucks a gallon, some 15 years ago.

Remember to brace for stresses.

A bilge pump would be handy. If you can pump it out faster than it comes in it will float.

The shaft must be smooth. A good waterproof grease on the shaft where the rubber sits will hep.

Get big tires and fill them with hydrogen

Thunderdivine wrote:

Get big tires and fill them with hydrogen

That works if you want to run explosive tires. Helium is lighter than air hydrogen just goes boom.

make yourself a pontoon style raft with some rollers at the back attached to a prop and you use the mowers motor as the boat motor ive saw cars set up similar on youtube somewhere then the whole mower is removable or you cold do the a-b foam route and make big bumpers like the monster garage bus pontoon thing get some paddle tires and a rudder but it starts to limit the use of it if you plan on wheeling it

Chopperhed wrote:

Thunderdivine wrote:

Get big tires and fill them with hydrogen

That works if you want to run explosive tires. Helium is lighter than air hydrogen just goes boom.

That's true, I really ment helium.

i found a vid of a bronco that had pontoons that dropped to the sides via i assume hydraulic cylinders the were "stored" above the cab of the truck until he wanted to get into the water and then lowered them and got in it had a prop on the back seems feesable on a mower could use a couple 55 gallon on each side a small compressor and a couple air cylinders and make the whole contraption removable [flash(425,350)]https://www.youtube.com/v/X2SJ5IkBHVI[/flash]

have u started on her yet?

No, not yet im trying to find some old water heater tanks to use as pontoons but it will be super heavy and slow. I was looking pvc pipe that would be big enough to float my mower about halfway out of the water but with how much my mower weighs plus my weight it is hard to find any big enough. I have alot of projects and this one was kind of set aside.

Use 55 gallon drums i built a pontoon boat with three of them and im thinking about mounting some to a tractor. I got a ton of them for free from the local bio-diesel plant just ask around