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The First Aquamog

April 28, 2009

The Aquamog was designed and created in the more than 20 years ago by a firm in Martinez, Calif. by the name of Aquatics Unlimited (AU). The team at AU, headed up by Tom McNabb and Jim Nevrela, had the idea to manufature a multi-purpose floating vessel that could perform a number of aquatic maintenance functions. The name aquamog was suggested by Jim Nevrela who was the designer on the project. Jim was a Czechoslovakian by birth and immigrated to the United States via Canada. Jim’s knowledge of the Mercedes Benz Uni Mog, which is a multi-purpose land vehicle that can go any where in most any conditions, was the source for the name Aquamog. AU’s mission in designing and developing the Aquamog was to make 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 very first Aquamog was engineered 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 skid was created that could be attached to the barge of the H10-800. The top of the H10-800 was removed and the new skid attached and the first Aquamog was created. The skid has a backhoe type arm on the front an operators area in the center and the engine with hydraulic components on the rear end. There were also two spuds attached at the back of the skid. 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 first Aquamogs were built around the physical dimensions of the first Aquamog operator David McNabb. So the first Aquamogs were all designed for Dave’s height as well as his arm wingspan. 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 aquamog 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.

More information about the history of the aquamogs can be found by visiting aquamogs.com. There you will find numerous pictures of the early Aquamogs and descriptions of each of these vessels. In addition information of projects completed by the Aquamog can be seen 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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