'Amphibious Demons' - Ford GPA Amphibious Vehicles II

[@ignaciorufas5688]

An excellent graphic document. I like it so much.

[@hastequick1618]

Hope they have been efficient in action. During the tests, they seemed to perform well.

[@Narrowgaugefilms]

They didn't live up to what the Army hoped they would be. They came in 900 Lbs. overweight and sat too low in the water, so they weren't very seaworthy. What's interesting is when it came down to crossing a shallow river, a conventional Jeep actually did much better too: a regular Jeep's wheels dug into the riverbed and it resisted the push of the current. The amphibians tended to lose contact because of the buoyancy of the hull and then got swept downstream. Only when the the water got deep enough to swamp a regular Jeep did the amphibian start to come into it's own. On land, they were basically a Jeep forced to wear a boat hull: a little awkward for getting in and out. They were a compromise: neither a good boat or a good Jeep! I think there were something like 250,000 conventional Jeeps and 13,000 of these: that in of itself says a lot! The amphibious truck (DKW), which inspired these, did much better.

[@山内拓-b3n]

Gpa has a screw.