The Land Yacht

[Joe Monstermaker]

Somehow it came up in a bike thread that I'd built a Land Yacht and people would like to see it, so I figured I'd put that here.
See, all you gotta do is bolt some wheels onto your boat...

Ok actually there's a whole lot of other minor details to sort out, but it can be done.

It's a 1974 Reined 24 footer. It's got an '88 Olds Quad-4 engine with a front-drive transaxle and suspension mounted in the rear, where the engine compartment originally was. That gives it rear steering, so it turns like a boat.
The front suspension is leaf springs, mounted on transverse steel square tube, cut from the boat's original trailer.
You drive up front. The steering box is an old Subaru differential, with shafts going to the rear. I used bicycle parts in it... I cut some bottom brackets out of old bikes, cut off the cranks, welded U-joints on and used them as carrier bearings. There's a sprocket on the end of the steering shaft at the rear, with a bike chain on it that goes to another bike sprocket on the cut-down original steering column to make the steering work. The gas pedal is a bike brake lever. There's all sorts of other stuff...

 

[Greg M]

Sweet! The perfect platform to go fishing for land-sharks.

 

[LukeTheJoker]

That is crazy!

Luke.

 

[jadewombat]

Nice, can't wait to see it out there on the playa.

 

[motu]

Tht is awesome! How fast does it go?

 

[Joe Monstermaker]

It's a "mutant vehicle" for Burning Man, you only roll at idle speed. That's why it can have an almost tricycle layout with rear steering.
It theoretically could go as fast as a normal car, but you'd wreck.

 

[Big Ape]

Cool...very cool!! Now my speedboat - gasser (Toronado drive unit in the rear, straight axle up front) idea doesn't seem so far fetched!

 

[Loki182]

Haha, that is awesome! I have an irrational desire to own something like this but capable of cruising at interstate speeds. I can just imagine the looks that I would get driving it to work.

There is definitely something wrong with me.

 

[Joe Monstermaker]

That would require a totally different build, this is only suitable for very low speed flat level desert.
The problem with designing what you are talking about, to me, is the style compromise. You'd need the front wheels sticking outside of the boat hull, and front steering. Then it would look like a boat hull stuck on top of a car chassis.