The 1st Aquamog
The aquamogs was designed & created in the early 80′s by a company in Martinez, CA named Aquatics Unlimited (AU). The members at AU, headed up by Tom McNabb and Jim Nevrela, had the idea to create a multi purpose aquatic machine that could perform a number of aquatic maintenance tasks. The name aquamog was thought of by Jim Nevrela who was the engineer on the project. Jim was a Czechoslovakian by birth and immigrated to the U.S. via Canada. Jim’s knowledge of the Mercedes Benz Uni Mog, which is a multi-purpose land vehicle that can go anywhere in most any conditions, was the source for the name Aquamog. AU’s mission in designing & developing the Aquamog was to have an aquatic vessel that could go anywhere in almost any condition. Thus name aquamog was croined. At the time the Aquamog was created and developed just for the AU contracting business.
The original Aquamog was devloped using an existing barge from an H10-800 aquatic harvester. This was done as an experiment to see if the Aquamog idea would even work. A removable unit was created that could be bolted to the barge of the H10-800. The top of the H10-800 was removed and the new unit attached and the original Aquamog was created. The unit has a backhoe type arm on the front an operators area in the center and the engine with hydraulic parts on the rear end. There were also two spuds attached at the back of the unit. The propulsion for the Aquamog was the same paddle wheels used for the H10-800.
The operator’s cab of the Aquamog included of a seat and a control panel. The original Aquamogs were designed around the physical dimensions of the original Aquamog operator David McNabb. So the original Aquamogs were all designed for Dave’s height as well as his arm length and reach. This was not an issue until more Aquamogs were created by AU and sold. Some of the new operators where shorter and did not have Dave’s arm length either. Some could not touch their feet to the floor of the operators area as well as reach all the controls efficiently.
Thus the first generation of aquamogs from the late 1980′s was an ever changing machine. Tom McNabb and Jim Nevrela made it a point to improve each Aquamog built with each new project that came along. This was the case until the early 1990′s when the first Aquamogs where produced and sold commercially. AU still utilized the Aquamog for its contracting business but there was a market developing for the Aquamog in parts of the United States and internationally.
Additional info about the history of the Aquamog can be found by visiting aquamogs.com. There you will find numerous pictures of the early Aquamogs and descriptions of each of these machines. In addition info of projects completed by the Aquamog can be viewed by visiting aquamog.net. There is now one more entry into the “Mog” family and that is the Marshmog, which can be viewed by visiting marshmog.com.
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