Toyo-bus 6x6 amphibious motorhome

The Toyo-bus is a six-wheel-drive amphibious motorhome designed and built over many years by a private engineer in the English Midlands. When it was offered for sale it could already drive and swim, but its interior was unfinished.

Design

The vehicle is 8.6 m long, 2.35 m wide and 2.9 m high - sized to fit a 40 ft high-cube container - and weighed about 3,000 kg as it stood, 4,000 kg when equipped, with a gross weight of 7,500 kg. The scratch-built hull is welded from the outside in 2 mm high-tensile steel, designed to be hot-dip galvanised, with aluminium walls and a roof of GRP and aluminium deck plate.

Power comes from a Toyota Land Cruiser 4.2-litre turbo-diesel with a five-speed gearbox and high/low range, modified with a power take-off for the propeller, which can be driven in any gear with the wheels turning or not. All three axles use Land Cruiser differentials with locks. Unlike the DUKW and similar trucks with beam axles hanging in the water, the running gear is mounted inboard, leaving only independent drive shafts and suspension struts outside for a smoother underside. A large four-bladed bronze propeller (an earlier version had three blades) is lowered or raised by an electric actuator on trailing wishbones and swivels to steer, working against the power-assisted front wheels. Special vents feed water to the propeller when the hull is grounded, allowing propulsion in very shallow water. The builder claimed about 113 km/h (70 mph) on land and 6 knots (11 km/h) afloat.

The forward-control layout was planned with six forward seats, eight berths and full motorhome facilities, an upper deck with a second set of controls for steering on the water, and a rear swim deck. Parts included coach windscreens and Volvo V50 headlights.