Amphibious HEMTT

[MattS]

So when they did this, do they drive the truck till the tires are warm? I set this up.



After I took this pic, I moved the jack stand up till it just scraped the dirt off the tire. There was a “out of round“ of about 1/8”. Would that be considered terrible? That was on the pax side. On the drivers, it was not as bad except for a flat spot. I’m thinking the flat spot was from parking over night.

Any home made tire shavers?

That sounds like a lot. But I have only seen this done twice. One of the super fast guys we raced with also did it to all his new race tires. There are a ton of home made setups on youtube. I would want to make sure the tires were warm and don't have flat spots from sitting before I started cutting for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tire+truing

 

[WaterH]

So getho it is.

Two drawer slides and some wood.

The grinding wheel was not that great. Shaved the tire, but spit out hot molten rubber that sticks to everything.

The answer is a saw blade.

Still makes lots of dust, but it doesn’t stick to shit. Didn’t have time to finish a tire. Had some other pressing work to do.

 

[bdkw1]

Make a drive for the slide with 3 nuts, some all thread and a bearing.

Then put the whole thing on jack stands and start it up. Drill in low range to feed it. Automation at it's finest.

 

[Dumptruck.the.wookie]

nah, some string, pulleys, and a bucket of something flammable...

 

[arse_sidewards]

for rubber I like to use this.

Harbor Freight Tools – Quality Tools at Discount Prices Since 1977

Harbor Freight buys their top quality tools from the same factories that supply our competitors. We cut out the middleman and pass the savings to you!

www.harborfreight.com

Your saw blade is probably faster. Zip tie a shop vac hose so most of the chips go into it.

Adjust your guard so that there's little space between it and the tire, that should control the chips better too.

 

[MattS]

That's awesome. I really hope that helps the drivability. Still got all your fingers?

 

[arse_sidewards]

That's awesome. I really hope that helps the drivability. Still got all your fingers?

Floridamen who make those kinds of rookie mistakes don't live to his age.

 

[WaterH]

That's awesome. I really hope that helps the drivability. Still got all your fingers?

Floridamen who make those kinds of rookie mistakes don't live to his age.

Would I lose all respect if I told you my original thought involved a chainsaw?

 

[arse_sidewards]

Would I lose all respect if I told you my original thought involved a chainsaw?

Everyone tries the chainsaw at first.

But then they find out it's really not that great at cutting rubber.

 

[CDA 455 II]

nOOB questions and opinions on the tires:

1) Is shaving the tires as posted for drive-comfort or balance?
2) If so; why would it matter on this type of vehicle?
Proper weight-amount of balance-beads in the tire should take care of balance issue.
Comfort; is the rig going to be driven on freeways for more than an hour?
3) Being that the chassis set up weighs less than 5tons; to have a proper tread contact patch, minimal PSI is needed.
As such; IMHnOOBO, out-of-round shouldn't matter.

 

[WaterH]

nOOB questions and opinions on the tires:

1) Is shaving the tires as posted for drive-comfort or balance?
2) If so; why would it matter on this type of vehicle?
Proper weight-amount of balance-beads in the tire should take care of balance issue.
Comfort; is the rig going to be driven on freeways for more than an hour?
3) Being that the chassis set up weighs less than 5tons; to have a proper tread contact patch, minimal PSI is needed.
As such; IMHnOOBO, out-of-round shouldn't matter.

1. drive comfort
2. I want it comfortable. It has proper beads in it, but it appears that they have not made it past the bead locks. I have already driven it more than an hour on the freeway multiple times. (Answer is yes)
3. You maybe right.

 

[WaterH]

So I changed the steering orbital to a non-reactive one. I love it. It is so much easier to drive. I never even notice the lack of “return to center”. My only complaint now is vibration. When driving at ne’er 60, it has a mild “death wobble”. It’s not real death wobble as I have experienced that on a different truck. My wife says the truck is a “boob shaker” lol. I have to get it better balanced.

In other news, had my first cop run my plates. He followed me for 1/2 mile till I stopped.

He was like “there is no way that’s a Bronco”. His next response was “I want one”.

 

[arse_sidewards]

My wife says the truck is a “boob shaker” lol. I have to get it better balanced.

We're gonna need video proof of that.

 

[WaterH]

So awhile back I complained about belt squeal When the alternator was under heavy load. My fix was to put a bigger pulley on the alt. The squeal was gone, but now it wouldnt keep up 14 volts at an idle with a load. Well, as you might have seen in my other thread, I got a 6BT for a good deal. I was looking at the belt routing and I think it is better than what I had. Here is the pics.

This is my old routing. You can see the tensioner is right after the first idler after the crank.

I don’t have a pic of the 4BT with the new setup, but it is the same configuration as this.

Notice the tensioner is the last thing before the crank. Because of my aftermarket alternator, I couldn’t use the stock brackets for the tensioner, but was able to make a bracket that locates it almost the same place. I was able to install the old smaller pulley on the alternator and it works flawless. Of course I needed a new belt. ($$) I’ve got quite a collection of expensive belts now.

 

[GLTHFJ60]

Fwiw, I have that accessory setup on my 4bt (high mount alt, low mount Ac) but I'm using an electric fan, so I eliminated the idler pulley above the crank. I don't have a ton of wrap on the water pump, but it hasn't been an issue in the 5 years I've ran that config.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

So awhile back I complained about belt squeal When the alternator was under heavy load. My fix was to put a bigger pulley on the alt. The squeal was gone, but now it wouldnt keep up 14 volts at an idle with a load. Well, as you might have seen in my other thread, I got a 6BT for a good deal. I was looking at the belt routing and I think it is better than what I had. Here is the pics.

This is my old routing. You can see the tensioner is right after the first idler after the crank.

I don’t have a pic of the 4BT with the new setup, but it is the same configuration as this.

Notice the tensioner is the last thing before the crank. Because of my aftermarket alternator, I couldn’t use the stock brackets for the tensioner, but was able to make a bracket that locates it almost the same place. I was able to install the old smaller pulley on the alternator and it works flawless. Of course I needed a new belt. ($$) I’ve got quite a collection of expensive belts now.

That should certainly fix it. Not a wrap issue but any loading is slacking the belt tension with it the other way.

 

[WaterH]

Driving update. Got a few thousand miles on it now. (Still no real off-road)

Tire balance. I have now inserted Dyna beads in the valve stems. I forgot there are double bed locks which means the Dynamic beads are stuck between the bed lock and the inner wheel. There are some 1/2” holes in the bed locks that I hoped would eventually let the beads into the tires. But I guess not cause there doesn’t seem to be an improvement.

So I ordered some Centramic balances. They bolt on inside your wheels. Put them on and I can’t really tell a difference.

Next, I finally found a place that could spin balance tires this size. They had very nice equipment that also tells them how out of round the tires are. They balanced all four tires. They told me the back two tires were .050” out of round. They said that .030” is considered out of spec. So I will have to shave them. The front two tires were within spec. It was about an hour drive home and it was better, but it’s still un expectable for cross country driving. My wife said she will require a boob lift by the time we get to Comifornia.

Steering. Ever since I switched the steering box, I love the steering. I learned something with this truck about my other trucks. I’ve had two Scouts and two Broncos. All of them had oversized tires. All of them would be scary when I hit a big puddle on just one side. The drag of the puddle would try to turn the whole truck into the ditch. If I countersteered, often I would correen into the other side of the roadway when the puddle ended. I always thought the drag of the puddle pulled the truck that direction.
I was wrong. The drag of the puddle pulled the wheel to that side. (Not the truck) You might think it’s the same difference. But now that I have full hydro and the puddle can’t turn the wheel, the truck doesn’t pull at all. I can dive into deep puddles at high speed and the truck stay right on track.

This is fun because all the splash is behind me. Nothing goes up on my windshield like in my Bronco. I can’t say it’s great for the other cars on the road. But you know what they say about people that can’t take a joke.

Speaking of puddles, ive driven it in an absolute down pour. I’ve got a couple leaks at the windshield. The wipers work great. My windows didn’t fog up, but it was hot so maybe the AC kept them clear.

Transmission. A few posts back I had installed a new band in my tranny in an unconventional way. (Did it through the pan) It appears to be working fine, but it’s probably too early to tell. I’m really getting use to shifting the full manual valve body and I really like it. I don’t use it much to down shift. I learned quickly that you don’t down shift into first unless you are going pretty slow. It will stop the back tires.

I towed my first trailer today.

The trailer and cargo was only about 3000 lbs. It towed it fine and stopped fine with just the truck brakes.

I got to use the back up camera to hook up the ball. It was great for that. I backed straight up to it and only got out once to check how close I was. (I get out 4-5 times hooking my Bronco up)

Although backing to the trailer is easy with this truck, trying to back the trailer is impossible. I can’t see it at all in my side view mirrors. I pride myself in backing a trailer in the Bronco. In this thing, my wife might as well be driving and she can’t back a trailer to save her life.

One other item. I was able to fly the helicopter on and off the trailer without unhooking the truck. I was afraid the tarp might tear off the snaps with the wind, but they all stayed tight. Woohoo.

 

[Scott Cee aka 2drx4]

Safari?

They're smaller than a B47, eh?

 

[WaterH]

Safari?

They're smaller than a B47, eh?

Yes, and yes.

 

[chaplinfj60]

so there is guy here in 3 miles from my house, old timer who restores old cars, i met him at Walmart when i was getting food for a off roading trip and i had the buggy. any way ... he has the tire machine your talking about that shave tires, i guess that was how you balanced old old tires before we had lead weights. a tire lathe basically but he cant do big tires i asked....

 

[Wendle]

Awesome.

Side profile looks like the side profile of a giant fist. A giant fist towing a helicopter.

I wonder if the shallow backspace in the wheels is contributing to your balance issues?
Any imbalance is quite a ways out to the side of the wheel mounting surface, quite a bit of leverage...

 

[CDA 455 II]

Driving update. Got a few thousand miles on it now. (Still no real off-road)

Tire balance. I have now inserted Dyna beads in the valve stems. I forgot there are double bed locks which means the Dynamic beads are stuck between the bed lock and the inner wheel. There are some 1/2” holes in the bed locks that I hoped would eventually let the beads into the tires. But I guess not cause there doesn’t seem to be an improvement.

So I ordered some Centramic balances. They bolt on inside your wheels. Put them on and I can’t really tell a difference.

Next, I finally found a place that could spin balance tires this size. They had very nice equipment that also tells them how out of round the tires are. They balanced all four tires. They told me the back two tires were .050” out of round. They said that .030” is considered out of spec. So I will have to shave them. The front two tires were within spec. It was about an hour drive home and it was better, but it’s still un expectable for cross country driving. My wife said she will require a boob lift by the time we get to Comifornia.

Steering. Ever since I switched the steering box, I love the steering. I learned something with this truck about my other trucks. I’ve had two Scouts and two Broncos. All of them had oversized tires. All of them would be scary when I hit a big puddle on just one side. The drag of the puddle would try to turn the whole truck into the ditch. If I countersteered, often I would correen into the other side of the roadway when the puddle ended. I always thought the drag of the puddle pulled the truck that direction.
I was wrong. The drag of the puddle pulled the wheel to that side. (Not the truck) You might think it’s the same difference. But now that I have full hydro and the puddle can’t turn the wheel, the truck doesn’t pull at all. I can dive into deep puddles at high speed and the truck stay right on track.

This is fun because all the splash is behind me. Nothing goes up on my windshield like in my Bronco. I can’t say it’s great for the other cars on the road. But you know what they say about people that can’t take a joke.

Speaking of puddles, ive driven it in an absolute down pour. I’ve got a couple leaks at the windshield. The wipers work great. My windows didn’t fog up, but it was hot so maybe the AC kept them clear.

Transmission. A few posts back I had installed a new band in my tranny in an unconventional way. (Did it through the pan) It appears to be working fine, but it’s probably too early to tell. I’m really getting use to shifting the full manual valve body and I really like it. I don’t use it much to down shift. I learned quickly that you don’t down shift into first unless you are going pretty slow. It will stop the back tires.

I towed my first trailer today.

The trailer and cargo was only about 3000 lbs. It towed it fine and stopped fine with just the truck brakes.

I got to use the back up camera to hook up the ball. It was great for that. I backed straight up to it and only got out once to check how close I was. (I get out 4-5 times hooking my Bronco up)

Although backing to the trailer is easy with this truck, trying to back the trailer is impossible. I can’t see it at all in my side view mirrors. I pride myself in backing a trailer in the Bronco. In this thing, my wife might as well be driving and she can’t back a trailer to save her life.

One other item. I was able to fly the helicopter on and off the trailer without unhooking the truck. I was afraid the tarp might tear off the snaps with the wind, but they all stayed tight. Woohoo.

SA-WEET!

 

[WaterH]

so there is guy here in 3 miles from my house, old timer who restores old cars, i met him at Walmart when i was getting food for a off roading trip and i had the buggy. any way ... he has the tire machine your talking about that shave tires, i guess that was how you balanced old old tires before we had lead weights. a tire lathe basically but he cant do big tires i asked....

I found a outfit in Montgomery (about 3 hours) that can shave and balance the tires right on the truck. But the guy told me I must remove the Dyna beads before bringing it to him. That is a tall order I don’t feel like doing right now.

Awesome.

Side profile looks like the side profile of a giant fist. A giant fist towing a helicopter.

I wonder if the shallow backspace in the wheels is contributing to your balance issues?
Any imbalance is quite a ways out to the side of the wheel mounting surface, quite a bit of leverage...

Certainly a possibility. Wouldn’t portal axles be worse?

SA-WEET!

Thanks, it is fun driving around town. Most people think it’s a army truck. ive had three guys come up to me and say “that’s not a us army truck”. When I say “you’re right” . They come back and “Russian, right?” I’m very surprised how many women like it. Best offer is trade for a new $70,000 truck.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

There isn't enough money in the world that could get me to go up in that death trap helicopter you have there. It looks like it's made from an old carnival ride and an Erector set. WTF


Truck is looking awesome, you did real good Waterhead.

 

[subybaja]

Best offer is trade for a new $70,000 truck.

I'm tellin ya- simplify the design for production, and you could sell a ton!

Did you try dismounting/remounting a tire and check runout? Maybe they've just got some slop in assembly?

Fly off and on the trailer?!? Cool!

 

[Scott Cee aka 2drx4]

I’m very surprised how many women like it.

So you're literally driving it around towing your helicopter and trolling for poon?



Yeah, you're a fucking pilot, through and through.




I gotta give it to you though, talk about a scratch build from nothing that actually worked out to produce a functioning vehicle. It's not very often that happens.

 

[arse_sidewards]

There isn't enough money in the world that could get me to go up in that death trap helicopter you have there. It looks like it's made from an old carnival ride and an Erector set. WTF

He survived until retirement. I'd ride with him.

 

[WaterH]

I'm tellin ya- simplify the design for production, and you could sell a ton!

Did you try dismounting/remounting a tire and check runout? Maybe they've just got some slop in assembly?

Fly off and on the trailer?!? Cool!

The wheels are hub-centric, meaning they fit the hub real tight. Early on I put a dial indicator on them and checked for run out. (They we’re good)

Back in my air show days, I would land on the back of a pickup truck. (Deck built on the bed rails) It’s not really that hard with a small helicopter. When we landed two large helicopters on the same oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, it was more dicey. The first guy would land right next to the edge in a corner with the tail off the edge. Stop and turn the blades to give the most room on the other corner. So the second guy could either hit the blades and cause millions in damage or fall off the edge a hundred feet to the water. Good times!

 

[WaterH]

I gotta give it to you though, talk about a scratch build from nothing that actually worked out to produce a functioning vehicle. It's not very often that happens.

It’s great for around town and very fun to drive, but I can’t call it functional till I can drive it down the highway for several hundred miles. I thought I got a great deal buying these tires for a grand. Now I have about $600 in balancing and they still aren’t right.

 

[subybaja]

The wheels are hub-centric, meaning they fit the hub real tight. Early on I put a dial indicator on them and checked for run out. (They we’re good)

No, I meant the tire-in-wheel fit. You mentioned that they're dual beadlocks...