Background
Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International, LLC dates its founding to 31 March 1999 and is based in Bluffton, South Carolina [2]. The history section of its catalog lists Cool Stuff Tours, an amphibious tour operation on Hilton Head Island, together with the Hydra-Terra amphibious tour bus, the Terra Wind motorcoach and the Hydra Spyder amphibious sports car among the vehicles it has developed [2]. The company describes itself as a custom builder, and its catalog cites 12 inventions and 30 countries [2].
John Giljam, CAMI's president, built the Terra Wind in 2004 [5]. Core77 placed it after the success of the company's Hydra-Terra amphibious tour bus, when Giljam set out to make a luxury RV version [4]. He built it for CAMI itself, to show what the company could do, and it became the company's flagship, taken coast to coast [5]. In a March 2020 interview with Soundings Trade Only he said, “We haven't sold another one, but there's always interest,” and the magazine reported that he had no plans to build more [5]. CAMI's catalog says the coach has been featured on ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today Show [2], and its 2025 catalog still places the Terra Wind alongside CAMI's other amphibians, including tour buses, a rescue vehicle and a new hybrid diesel and electric amphibian, the Amphiquest [2].
Design and how it works
From the outside the Terra Wind is styled like a high-end motorcoach, 42½ ft (13 m) long [5]. CAMI notes that only the two 19 in (48 cm) bronze propellers at the back reveal that it is also a boat [2]. A rear-mounted diesel drives the axle on land. In the water its power goes through a separate marine transmission to the propellers, which turn in tunnels in the aluminum hull [4][5]. On land it has a maker-quoted top speed of 80 mph (129 km/h). To go afloat it is simply driven into the water, where its propellers push it at up to 7 knots (8 mph, 13 km/h) [1][2][5].
The maker lists a gross vehicle weight rating of 33,000 lb (15,000 kg), with axle ratings of 12,000 lb (5,440 kg) front and 21,000 lb (9,530 kg) rear [1]. CAMI says its amphibious vehicles carry flotation foam approved by the US Coast Guard for positive buoyancy, and it calls them unsinkable, a safety feature it describes as patented [2]. This is the maker's claim; no independent test of the Terra Wind's buoyancy was found.
Interiors are built to the buyer's order. Floor plans, cabinetry, furniture, electronics and paint can all be specified, but CAMI notes that the layout has to keep the weight balanced from side to side because the coach is also a boat [2]. Standard equipment listed by the maker includes a cockpit-style dashboard with many gauges and a computer docking system with internet access, GPS, moving maps and navigation charts [1]. In 2020 the price was about $1.2 million, depending on options [5].
Photos
Related entries
Sources
- Terra Wind RV on Land & Lake, Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International (CAMI). camillc.com/terra-wind
- CAMI's Catalog (26th anniversary edition, updated 12 December 2025), Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International (CAMI) (2025-12-12). camillc.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2025-CAMIs-Catalog-Updated-121225-18ccc556-d6d3-4f21-934f-c14c86cc97e5.pdf
- Cool Amphibious Manufacturers International, Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Amphibious_Manufacturers_International
- The Terra Wind: An Amphibious RV!, Core77 (2014-06-23). www.core77.com/posts/27201/the-terra-wind-an-amphibious-rv-27201
- The Ultimate Hybrid, Soundings Trade Only (2020-03-01). tradeonlytoday.com/post-type-feature/the-ultimate-hybrid
Last reviewed November 2026. Spotted something to correct or add? Tell us and include a source.
About the Amphibious Encyclopedia
WaterCar has designed and built amphibious vehicles in Southern California for more than 25 years. We keep this encyclopedia so anyone curious about vehicles that cross between land and water has one place to start, with the sources listed for every fact.
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