Swamp Buggy in Florida

  

In 1994, I lived in Naples, Florida.  People used swamp buggies to hunt and play in the mud and swamps of the Everglades.  I wanted to build one for us to play with too.  My son was 3 months old when I started to build it.

This is a 3/4 ton Chevy rear end that I got out of an old junk truck. 

This is a 4 speed transmission from an old Ford truck I had. The way I had it set up, I had a 4 cylinder Datsun engine with a standard transmission that went into the 4 speed and then into the rear end. Later, because of having problems with the 4 cylinder, I took the motor and transmission out and replaced it with a 302 Ford motor with an automatic transmission. I hooked this to the 4 speed. It ran a lot better with the Ford motor in it.

This is the view of the back of the buggy with the tractor tires and the start of the deck. 

My son was two years old in this picture.  He was helping me check things over.  We had been using the buggy for two years now.

Me and AJ in our driveway.  We used to go for rides around our area.  We lived on a dirt roat that ended at a canal.  There were lots of woods and muddy ditches for us to ride in. The front end of the buggy was made out of a 1978 Ford twin I-Beam.  I cut it to make a straight axle out of it. It had a Datsun steering box and tie rods on it. It rode like a Cadillac.

Here is another shot of me and AJ out for a ride.

This is the buggy up on the trailer the first time we took it out to "Bad Luck."  Everyone who had buggies, trucks and ATVs liked to go there to play in the mud.

This is me driving back to pick up my wife and son after going to help a friend who got  his buggy stuck.  He had to return the favor right away, since I got stuck helping him out. It was always a good idea to have others go with you because getting stuck was pretty common.

Here is another shot of me driving through the mud.

Her is our little guy by the buggy.  He was two years old. Now it's 13 years later and he's almost 6 feet tall.

This was my friend Jim.  He had a buggy and took us out to "Bad Luck" since he knew where to go.