Winch Mounts & Sheet Metal - Tracked Amphibious Vehicle Build Ep. 14

This time I'm fabricating mounts for the 12 V winches and finally start the sheet metal work on the tracked amphibious vehicle. To achieve the rigidness and structural soundness of the winch mounts I'll have to support the mount plates from various angles with rectangular steel tubing. Yes, I'm welding on more steel and it is waaayyy tooo heeaavyy for some people but I'll bet it'll float like a boat when it's finished. :) That's some backyard engineering right there - hardly no math ever used and eyeballing things most of the time. That has to make a real engineer's skin crawl. And that shows we're in a right place - a place that is playful and interesting. This steel frame, or chassis, is now almost finished to the point where I can slap on the rest of the sheet metal which is thinner, thus lighter than the 2 mm sheet I used for the bottom and the leftovers turned into the rear corners of the tub in this video. I'm welding on two winch mounts which means I'm gonna install two winches too. You know these times when you think you're going to pin your ATV straight through a mud hole and it doesn't happen... Instead you're stuck, you can get out one way and instead you're pointing the other way. Thus a rear mounted winch would be helpful. At the same time I really hope I don't have to ever use it. The front one on the other hand will serve most of the time as a snow plow lift in the winter time. Can't wait till the vehicle is finished and for the first test rides (and break downs). I bet you can't too. I'm gonna continue the build next week and new video on next Friday! Stay tuned!

#donndiy #homemade #trackedvehicle

This video is part of a series of videos, check out the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNDiAHNykoY&list=PLkmF7FAZBzkWdzAxcrnz-WJbzSRyqrSBt
Check out my other videos on my channel page: https://www.youtube.com/c/DonnDIY

Soundtrack:
Pomade - Silent Partner (YouTube Audio Library)

Welding equipment borrowed from Spetselektroodi AS, Estonia:
Fronius TransSteel 2700 welder
Optrel Crystal 2.0 Welding Helmet
Hypertherm Powermax 45 XP plasma cutter