Swamp buggy

[levisjohnson]

Hey everyone.  I thought I would share a little project my friend and I have been working on.  We took this deuce and transformed it into something special.  Let me know what you think.  It has a 350 engine out of a 91 stock Chevy half ton and a TH400 out of a van.  We left the divorced t-case and fabricated a short drive shaft from the tranny.  We calculated the final ratio but I forgot.  I will have to look in the book Friday to see what it is.  We have about 4k in actual out of pocket money in it because we did some trading for parts we needed.  Enjoy.













If I can find the video, I will post it.

[beastie_3]

Thats sweet! Yes, find that video!

[levisjohnson]

It is short but here it is.

[4x4Cowgirl]

Whoa! Nice! That is one bad ride right there! Love it!  

[team39763]

That's cool.  Have you taken it in mud yet?

[oldyeller]

Very cool.

[levisjohnson]

That's cool.  Have you taken it in mud yet?

It has been too cold, but we used it to pull a mud truck out of some water.  He broke his input shaft off his transfer case.  I wish I had video of that.

[Blue 82]

That's one heavy duty Buggy
Great job on the cooling and exhaust system

A few suggestions.
 
If you find another spare wheel/tire, put them on the front axle (duals in the front), this reduces the changes of having to ever change a tire out in the woods.


I did not see shocks on the front axle, might keep you from breaking a spring (I can get you some used shocks from the Trains I work on, they are in good shape but we have to change them every xxx miles, they are free to you, but you pay for the ride from Miami)

I would mount one or two 12V flourescent lights under the rear seats ($12.99 from Bass Pro) to light the deck. Minimal glare to the passengers/driver. I put one under the Poling Platform of my flats boat, and under the gunnels of the big boat, very handy for not killing your night vision.

At least two more batteries, with one of those boat selector switches. And a big dry box wired with 12V power for keeping cell phones charged etc,,,,


And you need a 4" to 6" round convex Mirror mounted on the frame, handy for shaving or getting the remnants of mud out of your eyes.

An Hour Meter

I would re-route the gas filler neck to make it more 5 gallon jug filling friendly

You guys did a really great job, I hope you get thousands of hours of enjoyment out of it! The Kids will never forget stuff like this.

ps, do something with the Air Cleaner, it looks so.....Fragile....I'm thinking snorkle of some sort.

[VileZambonie]

ps, do something with the Air Cleaner, it looks so.....Fragile....I'm thinking snorkle of some sort.

This was the first thing I thought of... and the gas tank I would do something else with. How about a raft too and a nice winch? Very cool project though. Make a nice party barge!

[jaredts]

I feel kind of stupid for asking, but what's it good for?  Nice fab. work, I just don't understand its intended purpose or why the passengers are 12 feet in the air.  If the mechanical components were up higher and a snorkel air breather I could see a literal swamp application???

[levisjohnson]

If you find another spare wheel/tire, put them on the front axle (duals in the front), this reduces the changes of having to ever change a tire out in the woods.

We just left the frame and drive pretty much as is.  I don't think my buddy would go for that but I will pass it along.

I did not see shocks on the front axle, might keep you from breaking a spring (I can get you some used shocks from the Trains I work on, they are in good shape but we have to change them every xxx miles, they are free to you, but you pay for the ride from Miami)

I did not notice he took them off until you said something.  He got some from a guy who buys ans sells old military vehicles.

I would mount one or two 12V fluorescent lights under the rear seats ($12.99 from Bass Pro) to light the deck.

We built in housings for courtesy light under the seats, but we did not have them in yet.  That is in the works.

At least two more batteries, with one of those boat selector switches. And a big dry box wired with 12V power for keeping cell phones charged etc,,,,

Still working on "accessories" like that.  It is far from complete.

And you need a 4" to 6" round convex Mirror mounted on the frame, handy for shaving or getting the remnants of mud out of your eyes.

Ha Ha, I don't think we will be shaving when out on it, but good suggestion.

An Hour Meter

It has one, I just didn't mention it.

I would re-route the gas filler neck to make it more 5 gallon jug filling friendly

We normally fill up at the farm gas tank we have.  We did fill it up once at the gas station and we stopped just short of $80.  We may rethink it down the road.  We are keeping the back portion open for camping supplies, dog box, etc, if we need it.

ps, do something with the Air Cleaner, it looks so.....Fragile....I'm thinking snorkle of some sort.

This was the first thing I thought of... and the gas tank I would do something else with. How about a raft too and a nice winch? Very cool project though. Make a nice party barge!

This is what we had at the time.  It is a work in progress.

I feel kind of stupid for asking, but what's it good for?  Nice fab. work, I just don't understand its intended purpose or why the passengers are 12 feet in the air.  If the mechanical components were up higher and a snorkel air breather I could see a literal swamp application???

There is a huge mud bog in Perry every year in November.  We just missed getting it done in time for that.  It is basically a party barge for the bogs that last all weekend.  I guess I used the work "Swamp" loosely and should have said "Mud"

My buddy runs his own welding shop and work was slow so we worked on this instead.

[three8six]

Yea, I live about an hour from there. They were doing some pretty big ones over there in lake city, past I-75.

[bobcooter]

You know the fastest way to tell that machine is from Florida and not Louisiana? No beer cooler right behind the driver's seat and no Bar-B-Q pit welded to the handrails in back! Really though, that is a great looking machine. I know you must be very proud of it. I would be.

[Blue 82]

You know the fastest way to tell that machine is from Florida and not Louisiana? No beer cooler right behind the driver's seat and no Bar-B-Q pit welded to the handrails in back! Really though, that is a great looking machine. I know you must be very proud of it. I would be.

I was visiting friends during the early 80's Oil Boom in Louisana and every welding truck had a Bar-B-Q pit on the back bumper, I tought it was a novelty at first, but after seeing the remote locations and conditions those guys were working in, it was a necessity if you wanted a hot meal.

You know how you can tell it's a Central Florida buggy and not one from South Florida? No Bimini Top.