Hover Garage
Discover how to build a hovercraft from a kit
Read the experiences reported by customers who assembled their hovercraft from a Neoteric Partially Assembled Kit. Their reports include step-by-step photos and lots of helpful hints and tips for building a hovercraft.
Hovercraft kits are more than just a hobby or family project. These reports are from commercial and rescue hovercraft builders as well as recreational users. You’ll get to know your hovercraft inside out when you build it with our easy-to-follow DIY hovercraft plans.
Have you built a Neoteric hovercraft from a kit? Send us your hovercraft project photos / videos and experiences and we’ll post your report in the Hover Garage: team@neoterichovercraft.com
Charlie Wolfe
Texas
Deluxe 3706 4 Passenger Side by Side Hovercraft
Wolfe's craft kit was delivered in March 2023. Since then, he has been working on assembling the craft.
Read more…
Clayton Lennartz
New Hampshire
Partial Assembly 4 Passenger Recreational Hovercraft
The one tidbit that might be helpful. Since I don’t have an overhead crane, but I DO have an engine hoist, the wheel from the trailer was in the way of the feet. I have a bunch of matching 5 gallon buckets and those gave me a nice stable platform that I could arrange out of the way of the feet. Once the mechanical module is in permanently, I’ll swap back to the trailer. Note: the rope around the fan doesn’t have a lot of tension on it. The 4 ropes to the frame hold the weight, I used that rope to control attitude so it aligns better as I’m fitting it.
Read more…
Reed Lewis
Wayzala, Minnesota
Deluxe 3876 4 Passenger Inline Hovercraft
Reed's mechanic collected the kit and assembled the craft. He called only once during the whole process with a simple question..."Where does the green wire go?"
The green wire is the fuel injector signal wire.
More to come ...
Budd J. Rutter II
Stillwater, Minnesota
Recreational Hovercraft
Budd Rutter the II contacted Neoteric during Nov 2020 with an interest in purchasing a hovercraft. By the end of Nov, Budd had explained his interest that he wanted to build a partially assembled Neoteric Kit and select from the various options available such as an enclosed cabin and a special orange gel coat color to match his other vehicles. As soon as a color sample was obtained and the color sample confirmed the Gelcoat was ordered. The final order was decided during the second week of December and once the deposit was received, work began. Unfortunately, this was right in the middle of the pandemic and Neoteric had to shut for two weeks but reopened since the Government declared Neoteric manufacturing rescue craft was an essential industry.
When completed, Budd’s craft was shipped by truck along with its own trailer. Usually kits ship in a 16-wheeler truck but this time it happened to be a small box truck. The craft with cabin and trailer were too tall to fit inside the truck so the wheels were removed, this proved to be an advantage when unloading at Budd’s garage. Just a couple of simple ramps enabled the trailer to easily roll off onto the ground. The axle hubs simply rolled down the ramps and the trailer jacked up to refit the wheels. Work began with enthusiasm and the following picture story is Budd’s account of his experience. During the Assembly process, frequent calls were made to the factory for explanation, guidance, and clarification.
Paul Carr
Houston, Texas, USA
Recreational Hovercraft
“I’m 81 years old and my wife Mary and I aged out of motorcycling, but we have a pair of jet skis that we put about 500 miles on each year. We discovered hovercraft two years ago and were so impressed. The people flying them were laughing and having too much fun. After thorough research, we chose Neoteric. I purchased a kit to save money, and also because my hobby is building wooden play structures. And we’re naming our hovercraft “Too Much Fun!” …
Chris Wayman
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Rescue Hovercraft
"My interest in Hovercraft started in 1959 when watching the SRN1 perform crossing the English Channel on the old black and white Pye Invicta TV. I watched and learned anything I could either on TV or at the local library (no internet then). Then a magazine was published called Hovercraft World. I collected as many as I could and from the library took out Janes Surface Skimmers many times and any other books on Hovercraft that I could get."
Tim Juzyk
Aurora, Nebraska USA
Recreational Hovercraft
“My ranch is just a mile from the Platte River. It’s a great place for a hovercraft because it is wide, shallow and extends for hundreds of miles. I plan to use my hovercraft mostly to explore and enjoy the Platte and its tributary, the Loup River, with friends and relatives.”
Walt Sitz
Burns, Oregon USA
Rescue Hovercraft
“You can try to row a boat through the flood debris, but if I could deploy with a hovercraft, that’s what would be used. It’s a natural addition. And your reverse thrust system – you need that kind of control. I want to push the usefulness of this amazing machine in all situations. I went to Terre Haute and took hovercraft training with Chris Fitzgerald and was sold on its potential after that!"…
Recreational Hovercraft
"Neoteric makes putting the hovercraft together so easy. What an awesome machine! I thoroughly enjoyed the process of assembling the hovercraft and learned a few things along the way, too. It was also a good opportunity to teach my eldest son Travis about hand tools and fasteners and also some basic aerodynamics”…
Dirk Lohry
McCook Lake, South Dakota USA
Recreational Hovercraft
“The Neoteric craft can hover in place, spin like a top or even backup - try doing that in any other hovercraft! The cool thing was flying over floating logs and vegetation - try doing that in a boat! Landing on shore was just cool - no more dragging my boat up the shore, knee deep in mud.”…
Don Kerr
Minden, Ontario, Canada
Recreational Hovercraft
“I could see the many advantages of Neoteric’s advanced design with its reverse thrust system, including a light fiberglass hull and no large exposed prop subject to rapid tip damage from water spray. I also wanted to go with their partially assembled hovercraft kit and assemble it myself so that I could get a better understanding of its assembly and parts.”…
Albuquerque Police Department
Officer William Taylor
Albuquerque, New Mexico USA
Email: tucoii@aol.com
Rescue Hovercraft
“When we first took delivery of our unassembled Hovertrek I decided to have all the police striping and markings applied before I started any assembly. I took the new and empty hovercraft hull to a local company that stripes and marks all of our patrol vehicles.”…
Ryan Westmerland & Pascale Geoffrion
Whataroa, New Zealand
Recreational Hovercraft
Ryan Westmerland and Pascale Geoffrion built their Hovertrek™ from a Neoteric Hovercraft Kit to be used for fishing at the mouth of the Whataroa River in New Zealand. Ryan’s young son was involved in the hovercraft’s construction…
Richard Weissensel
USA
Recreational Hovercraft
The first hurdle to jump in this project was getting the right hovercraft. I searched for years, until finalizing a deal a few months ago in Oregon. Here are pictures from picking the craft up. It is a Neoteric Model 1874, which is approximately 12' long and 6.5' wide, which makes this unit a good platform for the DeLorean. It has side by side seating for four, although it will now be used primarily as a two-seater…
Recreational Hovercraft
"I hover nearly every weekend … I have been in Gale Force 3 conditions: 0.5m – 1 m waves and winds around 35km/h in Durban Harbour. It really was fun – challenging, but fun. The wind was too strong to drive straight into the wind and waves, but tacking worked well and WOW, this hovercraft can surf on the waves!"…
Recreational Hovercraft
"I'm Rich Stuart's son, and I took our hovercraft out the other day on Geist Lake, which is totally frozen over, and it was a complete blast! I love how much easier the craft skims across the ice than the water.”…
The Butler Group Co., Ltd.
Phuket, Thailand
Commercial Hovercraft
“Your product is FUN!!! It is a joy to drive (ride) it … Wind and water current add to the complexity of telling the craft where you want it to go. But the reverse thrust system is "God's gift" for light hovercraft. It is amazing how much more control this system gives the pilot. What a pleasure to drive it.”…
Recreational Hovercraft
“I am very pleased with my hovercraft. I have altered the forward seat and made it rigid. I have strengthened the back seat. The design of the hovercraft is very much liked. I have other remarks to make in the future but for the present, my hovercraft is simply amazing!”…
Commercial / Rescue / Recreational / Military Hovercraft
“Our products aroused great interest among the higher ranks of EMERCON (Chief Department of the Russian Emergency Services Ministry) … Neoteric hovercraft are extremely mobile, amphibious, have a low-profile design, good ergonomics and low maintenance - all beneficial attributes for emergency work.”…
Recreational Hovercraft
“I think a hovercraft would be really great on all these mudflats, much better than a boat. The tide's always out you see, and you'd never get a chance to use a boat, whilst a hovercraft … One day with Chris Fitzgerald and his team had me hooked – after a couple of hours on the Wabash river, I placed an order for a Hovertrek deluxe with the Hirth fuel injected engine.”…
Viking Adventures Norway
Evjemoen, Norway
Commercial Hovercraft
Overjoyed, Geschaftsfuhrung Mario Juric hugs his hovercraft shortly after unpacking. Next comes preparation to install the machinery module…
Winous Point Marsh Conservancy
Point Clinton, Ohio USA
Commercial Hovercraft
The Winous Point Shooting Club is a part of the Winous Point Marsh Conservancy on the shores of Lake Erie in Point Clinton, Ohio and is the oldest duck hunting club in America. Their hovercraft is used to transport hunters over water, mud, sand and thin ice to suitable hunting spots…
Recreational / Commercial / Rescue Hovercraft
The kit-built recreational, commercial and rescue hovercraft utilized by Craftima Oy customers in Finland operate successfully in extremely adverse conditions…
Recreational Hovercraft
Learning to master accelerating through hump drag is an important part of the certified pilot training (land, water and classroom). Neoteric offers this training at our Terre Haute location…
Don Williams
Piney Flats, Tennessee, USA
Recreational Hovercraft
“The assembly was a little more than I anticipated. It's like anything else; once completed it was really not that hard to do. It just required a lot of planning and following the manual.”…
Aki Kaisla
Espoo, Finland
Recreational Hovercraft
Among many other activities, Aki Kaisla uses his kit-built Neoteric hovercraft to easily fly across thin ice and water to explore the frozen Sea of Finland…
Recreational Hovercraft
Art Rosacker and his friend and neighbor, “Les Boss”, report that they thoroughly enjoyed the construction of Art’s hovercraft from the kit. Art keeps his hovercraft stored on his yacht.…
Don Abernathy
Texas USA
Recreational Hovercraft
“I had the opportunity to sit in on one of Chris’ training sessions and was truly impressed with the lesson plan and information. His communication skills are great for both technical and non-technical students. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to meet the folks there and experience the professionalism at the facility.”…