"Howe and Howe Technologies" on Discovery channel...

[Simon]

I was really enjoying the show and I definitely want a "Mini Rip" but they ruined it for me when they did the "P.A.L" Personal All Lander out of a Snowmobile.

How they failed to calculate the volume of the front ski floats to determine how much water they would displace is just annoying the heck out of me.

How did they not do such a simple calculation, and how was it not obvious that they wouldn't support the front of the vehicle?

I couldn't even bring myself to finish the show after that. I'll need to watch the rest some other time.

I still want a Mini Rip though...

In side news, when the RipSaw was first shown, I forwarded the E-mail to Gino and he was going to buy one.

He asked me to look into it.... This is the reply I got from them...


From: Eric Emery [mailto:eemery@howeandhowe.com]
Sent: Mon 12/13/2004 4:59 PM
To: Simon Stevens
Subject: Ripsaw

Simon-

Thank you for your interest in Ripsaw. It is possible
for us to make you the ripsaw chassis, however due to
the extreme man hours and complicated build you are
looking at a price around $50,000. Ripsaw can be used
for a promotional tool, if you are ever in New England
get ahold of us, and we will discuss details.

Thank you,
Team TMT

[Kyle]

I'm not even an engineer, and I was slapping my head that entire episode. If a snowmobile has the horsepower to run across water stock, then you really only have to accomplish two things to idiot proof it:

1) Waterproof your engine -- Would it have killed them to put a snorkel on it? The damn thing turned into a vacuum the second they stopped moving, or let the intake dip into the water
2) Tub the thing appropriately -- The welds on those floats looked terrible and they didn't even consider spray foam or anything to keep it buoyant even if it did spring a leak.

Plus, 25mph over water? That's totally not going to cut it in a "tactical" situation. I will keep watching the show, but their R&D leaves something to be desired. Their testing methodology really sucks it.