21 Feb
The Biggest, Most Versatile Truck You Can Drive on Water
By: Patrick Kiger
It’s the ultimate vehicular mashup: an off-road diesel-powered truck, built of super strong, super light carbon fiber, that can reach speeds of up to 80mph on land, and then roll into the a lake, river or even the ocean and cruise along the surface at 45mph. Oh, and it also can carry 15 passengers and haul more than 3,000 pounds of cargo. I’m talking about the Gibbs Phibian, the biggest, most versatile amphibious vehicle ever created. It was on recently on display at the Columbia Island Marina near Washington, DC. Along with a few other reporters, I got a chance to trail behind the Phibian in a motorboat and catch a glimpse of its mind-blowing capabilities.
I shot some video from the chase boat, but the one that the company provides is much cooler, especially after I dubbed it with the soundtrack of Terminator 2: Judgement Day:
In fact, the Phibian would be perfectly suited for a soggy dystopia akin to Kevin Costner’s 1995 sci-fi flick Waterworld. I even could imagine it getting a top award from Car And Aquatic Mutant Driver magazine.
The Phibian's manufacturer envisions it primarily as an emergency vehicle. It’s perfectly suited to roll into a hurricane disaster area, plow through the mud and wreckage, and navigate flooded areas to reach trapped survivors. It also could be useful to the U.S. Marines, with the addition of lightweight composite armor and weaponry.
And while it may sound like the vehicle of the future, the idea has been around for more than two centuries. In 1805, a Philadelphia inventor named Oliver Evans devised the oddly named Orukter Amphibolos, a steam powered paddle-wheel boat with wheels. Its purpose? To dredge the waterway. Apparently, the vehicle actually did work, but was too cumbersome and impractical to catch on.
In the 1930s, a New Jersey visionary named Peter Prell designed an amphibious diesel-powered cabin cruiser equipped with tank-like treads for crawling around on land. In the 1960s, a German manufacturer created the Amphicar, a spry little convertible that was surprisingly seaworthy enough to cross the English Channel. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson actually owned one of the latter and enjoyed driving around a lake on his ranch in Texas, according to this 1965 New York Times article. The article goes on to describe how President Johnson used to dress for those jaunts in “knee-length blue and gold bathing trunks, knee socks, deerskin desert boots, a plaid shirt and gold cap,” setting a sartorial standard for amphibious motorists that hopefully won’t be emulated by Gibbs Phibian drivers.
So will we be living an amphibious, terrain-agnostic lifestyle any time soon? There is the prospect of aquatic cities such as the Lilypad, a self-sustaining, floating offshore community that would house 50,000 inhabitants at sea. One big problem about living out in the middle of the ocean would be getting back to land occasionally, in case you, say, needed some supplies from Office Depot or had a craving for a caramel macchiato from Starbucks. Practical, versatile amphibious vehicles would make aquatic living a lot easier.
Can’t wait for the future to get here? There’s always Sealand, the North Sea manmade island and abandoned former naval base, whose settlers proclaimed it to be a sovereign country. (We'll look at that idea in a subsequent blog.)
Think you’d like to own an amphibious vehicle, or does that idea seem all wet to you? Post your opinion below.
