AMPhibian gets a new skin and goes for a swim

The 40 year old ABS plastic was hittin the "crack" pipe way too hard and needed an intervention so I put the old AMPhibian in for some major rehab. Stripped it, flipped it, and hit it with 24 grit to rough up the surface for epoxy resin and fiberglass cloth. Glued up the cracks with some SEM epoxy bumper repair goo and some two part methacrylate glue, both seemed to work fairly well as long as I "V'd" out the cracks really well, then applied the cloth and epoxy laminating resin. Feels pretty tough so far but I haven't beaten on it with a hammer or anything, I'll wait and see what happens naturally during use. I had planned to put a HDPE skid plate over that but it didn't exactly come out the way I had hoped. I had a space heater, heat lamp, heat gun, and a small propane torch with a flame spreader but could not apply enough heat over a large enough area to get smooth compound bends. I ended up with warping and lumps and probably a ruined 4x6 piece of HDPE. So for now I'll just see how the fiberglass holds up alone.

I also retarded the motor timing back to neutral for greater torque. Since I'm not running higher voltage the advancement wasn't necessary, though I did lower my top speed by about 4 mph. Not much of a concern for my purposes.

Since the cracks were finally fixed I took it for a dip. A little heavy in the back end but it does float.

The project vehicle

I want an EV. I like the idea of an electric powered vehicle, for many reasons, but for this project the main reasons are I'd like to drive around the woods and haul firewood without a lot of noise and without driving in a cloud of smoke. My situation also called for water crossing capabilities, good traction for climbing hills, and low end power for hauling wood. After considering 4 wheelers and not feeling they were up to my needs I remembered 6x6's such as Max, Argo, and Attex, also known as AATV's and 6 Wheelers. After searching around I found this baby.
Behold, the Attex!


It's a 6 wheel drive, amphibious vehicle, probably mid 1970's vintage, skid steer, 2 stroke powered, and lots of fun! However, because of the 2 stroke it's loud, smelly, polluting, and has a narrow powerband that doesn't come into play until you rev the motor up and get the ramp clutches going. That's fine for steady high speed but not great for low end torque and slow speed maneuvering, which is what I need.

Here is the solution.
A 7.5 inch Yale forklift motor modified by Jim Husted of HiTorqueElectric.com



An electric motor fits the bill perfectly. No noise and smoke, full torque from 1 rpm, no gas to buy, no spark plugs or oil to change, and I can charge it up for pennies, even fewer pennies if I put a timer on it and charge it at the night rate, which I will do. Interestingly Attex actually made an electric version of the 6x6 back in the early 70's, so I'm not really doing anything new. They ran theirs with 6 12 volt batteries at 36 volts, I'll be running mine with 4 12 volts at 48 volts. I'll have a lighter vehicle with more power but a shorter run time, which will be fine for my situation. Someday if Lithium batteries get cheaper I can increase both power and range while reducing the weight as well.
At this stage I've pulled the old motor and gas tank and have started designing the new motor mounts and battery brackets.
Costs so far:
Attex $1100.00
7.5 inch Yale motor from HiTorqueElectric $550.00 (inc. shipping)
Alltrax AXE 4845 Controller (Used) From evdrives.com $320.00 (inc. shipping)

Still to come:
4 AGM batteries, probably around $720.00
Charger $280.00
Contactor $65.00
Chain and sprockets around $70.00
Throttle, cable, diode, resistor, etc. $35.00
Battery cables and terminals? $50.00
Projected total so far $3190.00 (Updated cost)
Sold old motor for $150.00 -
Total $3040.00

I'm sure it will increase but it should stay under $3500.00 when finished, which is about what I was looking at for a good used 4x4, which couldn't float.
Still a lot to do but I can't wait to drive this thing as an EV!

John