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Graham had a problem with the Stalwart in the lagoon with the fact he could swim it directly out of the lagoon to the river, while the smaller GPA amphibious jeeps could.
I swum the lagoon earlier that day and found the mouth of it about 5 ft deep and the bottom covered in very soft leaf litter and two large long ruts where Graham had tried to drive / swim though earlier.
Graham tried again while I was on board.
he had problems with steering and lack of thrust from the water jets at times.
One jet may work and the other not work causing a lost of steering control.
He never made it all the way though.
What was happening was spinning the wheels in the soft leaf litter bottom was blocking the intake ports of the water jets and spinning the wheels while the water jets are operating at low speed airates the water near the intake ports of the jets and the jets will loose grip with air in them.
This effect may happen on one only or both jets.
The stalwart was able to reverse out of trouble a few times.
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The Stalwarts draft is I think just over 6 ft and the mouth of the lagoon 5ft or may less with a extremely soft goo bottom of fine matter.
These pics are the stalwart trying to reverse out using both wheels and jets
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/751.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/752.jpg
This is what was happening with the intake of the jet ports.
This one already had some debris wiped away and why the stalwart was loosing thrust and steering at times.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/753.jpg
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When the Stalwart was driven into the main river the machine takes a little while to get to its normal water speed, as it takes a small amount of time for all the air to clear the water jets and for them to bite into the water.
The jets seem to clear themselves and work better the harder they are driven.
Recommending water operating RPMs are 3000 engine speed, but Graham was getting more go by going to 3500 RPMs.
The Water jets are different between a MK2 and MK1 stalwart.
The ones on mine are suppose to drive the machine at hull speed at 3000RPM with no increase in speed by reving harder.
The MK2s Stalwarts are suppose to be a little bit faster too.
I hope one day I will swim mine and find out.
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This is another one of Grahams unusual mods.
Keep the kids busy by fitting a slippery dip and ramp to climb back up again.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/749.jpg
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MK 1 Stalwarts were not fitted with a winch as produced.
Some winches were fitted by the army on a big clumsy metal frame under the bow in front and everything was exposed to water and the winch which resulted in a very poor approach angles
Mk 2 Stalwarts had winches fitted as standard behind the bow with the winch sitting in a under water air bubble( the winch usually gets wet anyhow)
Graham has fitted a winch to his MK 1 in a very clever way which should have been done at the factory as the winch doesn't get wet and is easy to get at.
He drilled a hole in the bow and welded a long metal tube at a angle from bow to middle of hull to just above the water line and mounted a electric winch in the middle of the hull.
The hook on the cable has a tapered alloy plug as a back up to plug the long pipe as a back up when not in use.
He is also using Dyneema rope which floats on water.
Also note the large LPG tank fitted in the hull.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/744.jpg
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/745.jpg
Note the bow with hook and plug retracted to seal it in pic below.
https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/im...014/03/746.jpg
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The MK1 Stalwart has a totally different rear end so to speak than mine.
The design and shape is different.
The MK1s water jets have a feature which the later ones on mine do not as they while running will keep the bilges dry using a series of pipes and a ventri effect of the water jets themselves......very, very clever.
Preivously it was discussed on this thread that raising the the gearing on the Stalwart by 40 % would hurt off road performance or ability to climb out of the water.
I have personally seen Grahams stalwart from a standing start on the edge of the river just walk over a 2 ft vertical bank very smoothly with 20 people in the back.
I will show a series of pics I have taken of the Stalwart climbing a log and bank with a slow rolling start.
The bank in the pics is closer to 3 foot high and I got some one to stand beside the where the Stalwart climbed just for scale.
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