Do repulsorlift vehicles and stuff float over water? Can I roll my landspeeder out over a lake as a short cut to going all the way around?
Without looking at any books, I say the quick answer is YES.
However, I feel however that this could be rationally argued that it depends on the quality of vehicle/repulsor engine. Just like my little Nissan Sentra isn’t a Tesla nor an F-250. It’s possible that some models do and some don’t.
It comes down to GM fiat and whatever floats his boat (or repulsorlift).
3 Likes
I’m thinking there are dseveral Star Wars video games where general landspeeders can skim across the surface of shallow waters. I would say that as long as the depth of the water is less than the maximum altitude of the landspeeder, it should be fine.
3 Likes
One could theorize that repulsors tend to “push” the water away, which can result in the vehicle “sinking” if it doesn’t maintain enough speed. Eventually the water might spill “over” the repulsors into the cabin. So maybe different classes of repulsors can do so at different speeds. Worst class → must have highest speed.
1 Like
There are Swamp Speeders in Lords of Nal Hutta, that also say “They don’t operate well in desert due to the sand getting into the machinery” which suggests that, yeah, water-based speeders are basically the same as normal ones.
I think the big difference would probably be that if you lose power or turn off a water-specific speeder it would float, whilst losing power on your X-34 will just cause it to sink to the bottom of the lake. Given how rickety and unreliable tech can be in Star Wars, I’m not sure I’d want to risk flying my speeder across a small sea when a single high wave could flood the electronics and sink it beneath the waves.
2 Likes
It’s anti-grav, so I would say yes. It’s not an air cushion type of technology.
Are there any canon examples of Star Wars ships floating high up in orbit? We do see platforms like Cloud City floating up in the atmosphere with no land surface nearby to push off of. Those didn’t need nearby “land” to interact with.
If you DO want landspeeders to sink in water, that could easily be explained by their obviously weaker repulsorlifts needing to be closer to a denser surface.
2 Likes
There are landspeeders which can only go a few metres (to a few tens of metres) above land, and then there are airspeeders which can go to presumably any altitude but not out of the atmosphere.
I remember in one of the old EU books (probably one of the Rogue Squadron ones) a pilot used his craft’s repulsorlifts in a dogfight to suddenly get pushed up and then behind his opponent, and that seemed to be saying that repulsorlift engines do push against the ground, as opposed to being some kind of anti-gravity device.
My headcanon is that there are repulsorlift engines for close to the ground and grav-effect ones which work everywhere. Landspeeders don’t use the grav-effect engines but airspeeders and spacecraft do.
So, getting back to the original question, if it’s a landspeeder I’d say it would be able to push against the water but would gradually sink. As others have said, maybe if it goes fast enough it can stay above the waves.
2 Likes
Was never an issue in Star Wars: Galaxies 
2 Likes
Awesome. So basically, like a lot of other things in Star Wars, whatever works for the plot is fine.
Thanks all! 
of course… upgrade that purple to a red for combat… you rolled a Despair I hear? The engine cuts out… could you all make swim rolls please
1 Like