Aquarian amphibious motorhome

The Aquarian is a 1990 four-wheel-drive amphibious motorhome, a fully self-contained camper with a moulded fibreglass and steel body that could drive off-road and straight into a lake. It was offered for sale twice on eBay Motors in January and February 2001 from Modesto, California, where the seller advertised it as "the only motorhome in the lake".

History

According to the listing, the Alferg Company made the moulds and fibreglass sections and assembled the first shell for testing. In 1989 the project was bought by Amphibious Engineering, which completed this prototype and tested it with a view to marketing the design. The seller claimed that two companies had spent nearly ten years and over $250,000 developing it. The vehicle was dual-registered in California as both a boat and a motorhome, with the same number serving as VIN and hull number, and had been used many times on lakes in northern California.

Design

The Aquarian is about 7.2 m long, 2.4 m wide and 3.3 m high, with a dry weight of roughly 5 tonnes. Instead of sitting on a separate chassis, its frame of two longitudinal steel box members is built into the hull. Power comes from a rebuilt Chevrolet 350 petrol engine with a GM 400 Turbo Hydra-Matic gearbox, a two-speed transfer case and Dodge military axles with locking hubs, on large Mickey Thompson Baja tyres. In the water a hydraulic propulsion system drives it at about 8 km/h (5 mph), while a pneumatic system seals the brake drums.

Inside it sleeps four, with a rear bedroom, a galley with refrigerator, stove and microwave, a bathroom with shower, four swivelling captain's chairs, a catalytic heater and propane water heater. The glass side panels slide back to open the cabin, and an electrically lowered swim platform at the rear could be used for fishing. Marine safety equipment included bilge blowers and pumps, a fume detector and an automatic engine-room fire extinguisher. The seller reported taking it into choppy water about 0.6 m high without shipping water, and carrying up to 12 people on short trips.