Homemade Snorkel

I always liked the Humvee intakes that @Cisco Kid posted. You can find surplus humvee intake caps with screens for like $30 bucks. A bit of work but if I ever make a snorkel it will be a cowl based one. I think they look great except you can't fold indhsield down :( I hope to see more of these in the future
 
I had found this write-up on another forum a long time ago and had considered doing the mod myself but never got around to do it.
I created a PDF doc of the write-up because I knew pics tent to disappear at time from forums.
PDF has been attached
Here is a pic from the write-up
snorkel.jpg
 

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@jeepersoutpost from the replies seems the favored method is the hummer style cowl intake. I wouldn't bother with the ones they sell online that extend to the top of the cab.

Even if you leave your intake the stock height your talking about water up to the top of the headlights before it gets inside the engine. Your diffs and tranny probably have water in them long before. And water above the headlights is like waist deep. I think jeeps have fairly good water fording abilities to begin with. But it is not without its downsides. Super long term damaging to most of the components both electrical and mechanical that cannot be saved with just a snorkel.

First mod I did to my jeep a week after getting it was extend all the breather tubes. Then I put electric grease on all the connections I could find. Didn't bother with a snorkel but I might someday do a hummer style as I like the look and think it's the most useful of the snorkels. You can also just add a pvc tube to most of them to extend them higher which is neat.

Not to mention the hummer intake doesn't move it that much higher (unless you bring extra pvc tubing and seal it). now the extra 6 inches or so it's totally useful now the hood can be under water.

I know you didn't ask for an opinion on if it's worth it, but maybe this could be useful somehow. Just my opinion based of my no-where-near-proffessional-experiences.

YMMV
 
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There's a good, in depth discussion on deep water fording, dust and the factory intake around here someplace. Deep moving water is a problem to cross, and more dangerous than a person would think. Water in the intake is the least of your worries so a snorkel doesn't have a ton of utility there.

Now, If you're doing it for the sake of appearances, that's a different ball game. Just don't think slapping a snorkel on a TJ gets you across deeper water.

I'm still running my stock intake air box. And checking water depth religiously.
 
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@StG58 Based on the original poster's location there is not much in terms of moving water down here in Florida :D
We have tons of slow very very slow or standing still water down here. Oh yea and that very thick sandy water :)
 
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JeepNWilly said:
@StG58 Based on the original poster's location there is not much in terms of moving water down here in Florida :D
We have tons of slow very very slow or standing still water down here. Oh yea and that very thick sandy water :)
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Ever find any potholes in that slow moving water? Or submerged logs? I get what you're saying though. Every place is different. If the OP wants ideas for a home made snorkel, that's cool. I wouldn't buy a TJ that has a snorkel on it though, because the PO may have actually tried to use it.

Up here when the water gets about half way up your tires, it starts to move the rig pretty badly. We lost a CJ crossing a rock bar on the Molala River one time because of that. Took hours to fish it out and that water was reeeealy cold. We also have lots of ledges and potholes where the water goes from "No Problemo" to "Oh Shit" in very short order.
 
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StG58 said:
Ever find any potholes in that slow moving water? Or submerged logs? I get what you're saying though. Every place is different. If the OP wants ideas for a home made snorkel, that's cool. I wouldn't buy a TJ that has a snorkel on it though, because the PO may have actually tried to use it.

Up here when the water gets about half way up your tires, it starts to move the rig pretty badly. We lost a CJ crossing a rock bar on the Molala River one time because of that. Took hours to fish it out and that water was reeeealy cold. We also have lots of ledges and potholes where the water goes from "No Problemo" to "Oh Shit" in very short order.
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I'd suggest buying a diesel surplus humvee before driving a TJ above the windshield haha. Those things are super water proof if you want to actually drive in water. Get one of the ones with the exhaust stack and intake. I've seen those drive around with water above the cab with zero issues. Then you don't have to worry about water depth. Not to mention a functional one can be had for around $5k I've looked at decent ones for like $8k
 
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@StG58 Ah yes logs specially the kind that move and bite you lol. I was going though a water hole on my old 61 CJ5 and I went over something big that wasn't there before (1hour before). Water went as far as the bottom edge of the door opening and at that moment a very angry large gator showed me his teeth LOL It scared the crap out of me and I stepped on the skinny pedal.
 
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JeepNWilly said:
@StG58 Ah yes logs specially the kind that move and bite you lol. I was going though a water hole on my old 61 CJ5 and I went over something big that wasn't there before (1hour before). Water went as far as the bottom edge of the door opening and at that moment a very angry large gator showed me his teeth LOL It scared the crap out of me and I stepped on the skinny pedal.
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Holy crap. I assume you guys all leave the doors on?
 
Tj04 said:
Holy crap. I assume you guys all leave the doors on?
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Nah my old CJ5 had no doors or roof.
He was so close I could have pet him lol. When I stepped on the skinny pedal my read tires went over him and he took of to the canal just on the other side of the trail. I think it was a scary moment for both the gator and myself lol
 
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JeepNWilly said:
Nah my old CJ5 had no doors or roof.
He was so close I could have pet him lol. When I stepped on the skinny pedal my read tires went over him and he took of to the canal just on the other side of the trail. I think it was a scary moment for both the gator and myself lol
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Man I can't say that sounds fun. I'm sure it's fun to tell about though!
 
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Tj04 said:
Man I can't say that sounds fun. I'm sure it's fun to tell about though!
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Yea lol the thing was that it was a relatively small water hole in the trail no larger than maybe 20 ft by 20ft but it was deep enough to reach the bottom edge of the CJ's door. It was on 32" tires with 4" lift I think. About 1 hour before I had gone through it and no problems on the way back the gator must have gone to possibly hunt deers or hogs taking a drink on the water.
 
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Tj04 said:
I'd suggest buying a diesel surplus humvee before driving a TJ above the windshield haha. Those things are super water proof if you want to actually drive in water. Get one of the ones with the exhaust stack and intake. I've seen those drive around with water above the cab with zero issues. Then you don't have to worry about water depth. Not to mention a functional one can be had for around $5k I've looked at decent ones for like $8k
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That's a good idea, and there's a few motoring around up here but they seriously don't fit on the trails. Way too wide and long. There's a couple of Deuce and a half's with the fording kits on them as well. Now those are really cool, but same problem, they don't fit. Even the ones with the single axle conversions are just huge when you try to run them down most of the older skid road or trails.
 
You don't even need the Hummer thingy. As long as your cowl drain works, you'll have to be in some pretty deep water to start filling your cowl up. The intake for my Ford Windstar cowl intake just goes into the open cowl area, and is a couple of inches from the bottom, just in case water does somehow get in there.
 
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StG58 said:
That's a good idea, and there's a few motoring around up here but they seriously don't fit on the trails. Way too wide and long. There's a couple of Deuce and a half's with the fording kits on them as well. Now those are really cool, but same problem, they don't fit. Even the ones with the single axle conversions are just huge when you try to run them down most of the older skid road or trails.
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I was more meaning for "true" water abilities a humvee is the way to go. Not a hummer 1 but a genuine humvee. They are huge. I've seen some neat videos of them with TJs and other wranglers and again they are huge. I wouldn't trade one for my tj ever, as most of my off-roading is in narrow forests and space is limited. Humvee wouldn't fit. but some day I want to just say "fuck it" and drive into a river, and I will do that with a humvee :)
 
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