Some time ago, I found an electronic water detector/alarm that works
great with Amphicars. They are battery powered and last a whole
season on a set of batteries. Installation simply requires mounting
the unit and the pickup with double stick tape. That's it, five
minutes and you're done. I put them on Ebay a couple of times but only
sold a few of them, so I figured not too many people were interested.
They only cost about $20 and seem like very cheap insurance. I have
them on both my Amphicars. I still have some in stock so let me know
if you want one.
John Friese (jfriese at mindspring.com)
Red 67
White 67
--- In amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com, nelson625@a... wrote:
> Ed-(with the 67 Rust Guppy)
> I hope to never have to remove my engine, but your description,
> especially your worthwhile and elementary suggestion to raise the
front of the car.
> I'll file thie information and it will be very useful should I ever
require it.
> On an unrelated subject, but still Amphi related: I recently
watched, as
> many of you folks likely did, about a half hour film on TV (I do not
remember
> which channel right now, though I did record it) about the sinking
of the DUKW
> in Louisiana on May 1, 1999 at which time 13 of 21 souls perished.
Something
> thing that I noted in particular, as far as application to our craft
was that
> the vehicle was behaving very sluggishly and the operator had no
idea why, as
> the stern became lower until the water rushed in over the transom.
Had they
> had an alarm to alert the operator to the presence of the water, he
at least
> would have known much earlier that something serious was amiss. It
all happened
> in about 7 minutes, I believe, from the time he entered the water to
the time
> of sinking and the actual sinking only took about 30 seconds once
the transom
> went under. I have 2 bilge pumps, though they have not been needed
at all in
> over 3 years and only get used IF I test them by putting water in
with a hose on
> land.. One pump, however, is automatic with a pilot light that is
wired to
> come on if the pump comes on, so that IF I see that it has come on,
I can switch
> on the 2nd pump. I also have the discharge tubes pointed up at an
angle which
> is visable in my rear view mirror - again IF I were to be watching!
However,
> a worthwhile addition would be a water alarm - i.e. a horn or buzzer
to alert
> me to the ingress of an unacceptable level of water before it made its
> presence known by the engine stalling or the vessel actually
starting to go under. I
> have some recollection of one of our members at Celina 3 or 4 years
ago, I
> believe, having some sort of device, purchased I think at Radio
Shack, though I
> am not certain. He had converted it to serve this very purpose. If
this is so,
> or if someone has a straight forward suggestion of how to accomplish
this, I
> think it would be well to share it. My principal plan at the moment
is to use
> a normal float switch intended for a bilge pump or a sump pump to
activate
> such an alarm, but, as I said, I think one of our members had come
up with a
> nifty device which did the trick easily and very nicely. I only
joined the
> Amphicar Lovers this past spring, and perhaps this subject has been
discussed or
> covered previously. If so, would someone please direct me to the
information or if
> simple enough e-mail me the info on or off line.
> Victor "Splash" Nelson with the 1967 Aqua "Split
Personality"
> near Daytona
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
