mud motors

[swamprooter]

Deltaduk...........I have a 36hp Prodrive basically on the same boat you have.........17' 54 mod V..F & F ..with gun box and carpet floor......1 person boat runs 27mph ...2 people....23mph....3 people gear dog.....20mph.....Now thats in the MS River....I putt around in timber jsut fine but..........you don't have an instant reverse with PD...it takes about 1 minute to rachet it around to use but..................It will pull you off any log ,cypress knee or sandbar......It is full power.. ..MuddBuddy I believe is several MHP faster...it's quality too..but I went with PD for the reverse and it has saved me twice on the Big Mississippi.

[Blackduck]

I've used the prodrive before and it made motoring around in deadfall timber much much easier. The steel skeg on the lower unit is some kinda awsome. One difference between it and the GoDevil surface drive is that the PD is mounted more behind the rear transom so it is a bit more awkward to pull the motor out of the water. Most of the weight is behind he pivot point. It is a two handed maneuver. The GoDevil appears to be mounted more on the transom so it only takes one hand to get the lower unit out of the water. For what its worth

I spoke with the godevil folks and they said that the long tail units are more usefull for timber, deadfall, ect. The surface drive was better suited for mud, grass and such. My problem is that I hate standing up in a boat. Damn sure hate standing up when running into a big butt cypress knee is an option.

I do know that he longtail works fine in low water and that swinging the boom around in timber is sometimes a pain. So basically I have an opposite opinion of the Godevil folks.

If you have skipped to the last line of this post then I'll make it short for you I'd get a prodrive.

[Deltaduk]

thanks fellas

[h2o_dog]

One advantage of a long-tail is jumping beaver dams. I've been amazed this year at what a long tail can do. We have a beaver dam that sticks up 6" out of the water in a ditch that has only 6-8" of water in it. When the boat slides up on the dam and the backend of the boat eventually comes out of the water, the prop on the long-tail is still in the water and pushing the boat on over the hump...no stopping and pushing/pulling over the beaver dam! I nominate the designer of the long tail mud motor for a Nobel prize!

I'm running a GoDevil 9hp w/Honda on a 1436 flat bottom.

[forever draggin]

I havent ran a surface drive yet, but i believe long tail is where its at for where i hunt. when the north wind blows I usually have to run a flat about 3 miles to get to my blind. I dont thinka surface drive will be able to handle it. I had a 24 hp honda on a beavertail chassis which was great. I Ran go devil but just dont like the bushings. Currently in the beginning stages of making my own chassis to home a harley davidson motor since beavertail no longer offers it, all i can say is demo!