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Amphibious vehicle

a technology for amphibious vehicles and watercraft, applied in the field of amphibious vehicles, can solve the problems of limited on-land capability of amphibious vehicles, personal watercraft, pwc,

Inactive Publication Date: 2008-07-24
GIBBS TECH
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides an amphibious vehicle that can be easily adapted from a personal watercraft (PWC) to a vehicle that can be driven on land and water. The vehicle has a seat, planing hull, and wheels that can be moved between an extended land mode and a retracted water mode. The engine is connected to the wheels to drive them and the vehicle can be propelled on water through marine propulsion means. The vehicle can also have a removable deck for easy access to the engine. The invention allows for easy customization and versatility in an amphibious vehicle."

Problems solved by technology

The result is an amphibious vehicle having poor performance in one mode of operation or the other.
The problem identified by the inventor in this document, was to provide his personal watercraft (PWC) with limited on land capability in order that it was at least partially mobile when going ashore.
GRZECH is limited in that it is only suitable for travel on well made up roads when operating in a land mode.
This is because the vehicle has only three wheels and these are connected to the remainder of the vehicle by a suspension arrangement which is adapted to cope only with smooth road surfaces and does not have the suspension travel suitable for off-road use of the vehicle.
This dictates against off-road land use since the heat exchanger could easily be damaged in such a use.

Method used

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Examples

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Embodiment Construction

[0063]Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, there can be seen an amphibious vehicle 10 having a forward bow end 12 and a rear stem end 14.

[0064]The vehicle 10 has four road wheels 50,51,52,53 which are connected to the remainder of the vehicle by a wheel suspension system which includes a wheel retraction mechanism for moving the wheels 50,51,52,53 between a lowered state for road use and a raised state for marine use. The front wheels 50 and 53 are steerable and handlebars 54 enable steering of these wheels. The rear wheels 51,52 are driven to propel the vehicle on land. A jet drive unit 55 (see FIG. 2) provides propulsion in marine use.

[0065]The structure of the amphibious vehicle 10 comprises an upper deck section 30 and a lower hull section 40. The upper deck structure 30 is sealed to the lower hull section 40 around a peripheral planar edge which is above the water line when the amphibious vehicle 10 is displaced in water—(as can best be seen in FIGS. 5 and FIGS. 8). The complete upp...

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PUM

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Abstract

A sit-astride amphibious vehicle configuration which supports a high performance envelope both on land as well as in water. The vehicle has a planing hull and four retractable wheels. Handlebars provide for directional control in both modes of operation. Each road wheel is retractable by pivoting through at least 45° so as to maximize ground clearance when in the land mode of operation and to minimize drag at substantial lean angles when in the marine mode of operation. While a jet drive may remain directly connected to the engine at all times, the driven wheels are only connected during land mode via a speed-change transmission. The entire power train is supported by a frame that is separable from the hull which in turn has a detachable top deck portion, whereby such configuration simplifies the construction, repair and servicing of the vehicle.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims priority from Great Britain Application Serial Nos. 0423463.9, 0423470.4, 0423474.6, 0423483.7 and 0423517.2, all filed Oct. 22, 2004.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to an amphibious vehicle and in particular, to a sit-astride amphibious vehicle having all-terrain vehicle (ATV) capability on land.[0003]Amphibious vehicles are now well known in the art. However, the present applicant has identified a need for an amphibious vehicle having ATV capability on land and which performs as a high speed personal watercraft on water. A number of prior art proposals have proceeded to prototype. However, such vehicles have opted to either optimise operation in the marine mode or, alternatively, operation in the land mode. The result is an amphibious vehicle having poor performance in one mode of operation or the other.[0004]Sit astride amphibious vehicles have previously been described such as in...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): B60F3/00
CPCB60F3/0069B60F2301/04B62K13/00B62K9/00B60Y2200/124B60F3/00
Inventor LONGDILL, SIMON JAMESWEEKERS, HANSBRIGGS, STEPHEN JOHNGIBBS, ALAN TIMOTHYJENKINS, NEIL GRAHAM
Owner GIBBS TECH
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