Do you have an inflatable boat which is not used in winter season?
What if I say, that an usual boat in winter can replace a snowmobile, a motorsled or any
other kind of winter transport?
Now we are going to turn it into a real winter beast with this special air kit.
It takes just few minutes to install the kit on your boat.
And you meantime make some tea and get comfortable my friends, cause everything is ready now,
its time to move, lets go!
Hi there as usually its me just a voice over you are watching review machines and here
my friends and me are going to show you another exciting piece of machinery.
As you may have already seen today we have for a review a versatile air kit, that can
be installed ob boats and sleds.
As a result we can make a real Air Boat or Air sled with this kit.
Air sled it is a winter transport, but Air boat is more versatile and it can be used
in any season.
Today we are going to find out, what actually these machines can do, what are their pros
and cons.
We will review the construction and make some practical test.
And first of all lets look how it is made.
As I said our kit is suitable almost for any big inflatable boat for 3 or 4 people equipped
with a transom for an engine.
The only thing we have to do – its to make a special plastic armor for bottom.
This is how it looks.
The Air kit is mounted on a transom like a regular engine.
The weight of the kit is about 80 kilos, so it requires at least two people to install
it.
After we mounted it, we have to adjust the propeller and the tilt.
Lets look closer at the kit.
It has the simplest construction and can be even homemade.
We took an usual Chinese engine from a lawnmower 20 hp power.
It drives the propeller with a belt.
This is a gear to adjust a belt tension.
Diameter of the propeller should be from 1200 to 1500 mm.
All the maneuvers are done like on a regular motor boat.
There is just a throttle on the handle that’s all.
Then we have an electric starter.
Well my friends frankly speaking I’ve never tried to ride on an Airboat before, and I
am looking forward to try it now!
Lets go!
You know, the first impressions are quite peculiar.
Generally speaking the impressions are very similar to those when I tried to drive a hoverboat.
First of all you notice a huge inertia.
It takes some time to start moving, but when you gain acceleration the performance is really
impressive.
But you should always remember of an inertia, especially when you have to stop.
Actually there are no any brakes at all.
To stop moving you should turn around the boat.
But when you get the feel of the machine you start enjoying the process.
And the process really can provide you a lot of fun.
It is like to move on a motorboat at a high speed not on water but on snow!
By the way, as we can remember the Air kit is suitable not only for boats, but also for
sleds.
We took a regular sled for a snowmobile, but it can be any other including a homemade one.
The kit is absolutely the same, but it is mounted hard to the sleds with a special frame.
Besides there is a drivers seat and a steering handle.
All the maneuvers are done here with a special air rudder and a lever next to the drivers
seat.
As we can see the whole construction is also the simplest.
And now I want to show you a certain example of using these machines.
You know this winter we have a lot of snow.
And as we can see it is too deep even for a light motorsled, it is getting stuck all
the way here.
And in these conditions the air boat looks amazing.
It is no matter how deep the snow is.
The sled also looks pretty decently here despite it has less support area than the boat.
In this way we’ve demonstrated you now one of the advantages of this machines – it
is possibility to move on the deepest snow.
I should say that possibility to move in deep snow its not the only advantage of these machines.
In fact Air boat is an all seasonal transport.
But in summer we can move only on water, it can’t move on a ground without snow.
But it easily goes on any kind of snow and water, no matter how deep it is.
Besides we can move on any ice, no matter how thin it is.
Another advantage – it is easy to transport any air boat, you don’t need to have a trailer
for that.
A folded boat and air kit can fit into a trunk of a crossover.
Now lets try to check the maximum speed.
But you should know, that the maximum speed significantly depends on the ground conditions.
In loose snow it is minimal, on hard snow and ice it can maximum.
We have today quite a loose snow, besides it isn’t absolutely flat, there are some
roughnesses and snowbanks.
For all that we manage to achieve pretty impressive speed 47 kmh.
Speaking about maneuverability.
As we can remember at a high speed it has a significant inertia and maneuverability
is poor.
But at a low speed the air boat is really maneuverable as we can see, it can turn around
on the spot.
Now lets see how the air sled performs in these conditions.
The air sled also is able to move in deep snow but it is obvious that it moves here
much harder and slower.
The supporting area of the sled is less than of the air boat, so it is much more difficult
to go through the deep snow.
Our sled is cut out for hard snow, and frankly speaking I liked the air boat variant much
more.
But we should know, that the airboat also has some drawbacks.
It is a good transport for huge flat areas, like fields and lakes and rivers.
But it is not suitable for hills.
As we can see any hill may be a serious obstacle for the airboat and you should move at a high
speed to get it over.
Besides the air boat doesn’t like heavy cargoes.
It is all right for two people, we tried with three people onboard the boat, and that was
a hard task for it.
And the final but significant drawback is a noise.
It is really noisy…approximately like a light airplane.
Despite all these drawbacks these machines can be really useful.
It is a versatile all seasonal transport extremely effective for huge flat surfaces.
It is possible to move on thin ice, and ice holes.
So few other vehicles can do that.
In this way it would be so useful for fishermen who love to go fishing on thin spring ice.
As we can see it moves here fast and easily, the only other machines that can show us similar
results it’s a hoverboat.
But any hoverboat is much more expensive.
And speaking about the prices.
I should say its quite cheap.
The air kit no matter for boat or sled costs about 1500 dollars.
Lets call it a day now, please post your comments guys what you think of this air kit.
Are you able to built it yourself?
Thanks for watching consider subscribing the channel if you liked this video.
Stay with us, there will be many more interesting materials, good bye!