The trip home was rather uneventful, though I did have my wife watching it just in case it tried to achieve lift off. We did laugh at the kids then thought they were probably correct. It is easy to think this is something that would be homemade. This is certainly not your average mode of conveyance.
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As said previously, this was built in Toledo. Unfortunately, Windcraft is no longer in business and I have yet to make a trip up there, just to see where it was. Still, this is not something simply assembled in someone's garage. There is evidence of an assembly line process, though I would liken it to something like a Rolls-Royce or Bentley where everything was hand-fit and assembled - a bit of a personal touch. |
We took it to my parent's house, mostly to return the truck and trailer, but also because that's where it would be stored, having no room at our house in the city. While not heavy (most likely three or four people could pick it up), it is big. Really big. And awkward. Most of the weight is in the front, where the engine sits, though the rear is prone to swaying simply because the fin is so tall. A quick measurement indicated a properly fitting trailer should be somewhere around 72" x 144" (189cm x 366cm).
| A week passed before it could be worked on. The first order of business was to get the Hurricane off the trailer. I spent the time finding casters large enough they could be drug through pea gravel without too much problem. I also had to locate hardware to assemble a dolly to slide it around on. After that, it was simply a matter of cutting a 4x4 down and bolting it to two other 4x4's. While doing this it began to rain. | 
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With the hovercraft being so light it should have been easy to maneuver the dolly underneath and, in fact, that was the case with the rear. The front, however, was a different story, more so because there was little room in the trailer to stand so it could be lifted. Unfortunately, there are no photos of it, but we managed to get around the problem by picking the rear end up and setting it on a board that straddled the rails on either side of the trailer. The front was picked up using two long boards, one on each side, independently being hung on by my mom or my wife.
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Adjustment of the dolly underneath the craft took only a few minutes, though the front end did want to be stubborn. It was during this alignment I was able to get my first good look at the underside. There didn't appear to be any physical damage and it looked possible to repair the corners of the skirt, at least temporarily, to see if everything worked just right. That would all have to wait until it was off the trailer, though. |
The only problems that we ran into were 1) the dolly, being so long, decided it wanted to high-spot about 1/3 the way down the ramps and 2) the Hurricane wanted to slide off the dolly. We managed to eventually get everything down with a bit of effort and have since put straps around everything to keep it together. The other thing that was an issue is that the rain made it look really good and I had to end up scrubbing and washing it down. That, in itself, removed the 20lbs of dirt, grass clippings, what have you from all the years of sitting. The dramatic change didn't last after the drying but it did look much better.
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