Surface Drive

[Jumpem]

What's y'alls take on a surface drive mud motor? Worth the money? Looking at getting a 23hp mud buddy. Had a longtail before and really liked it but i've heard that surface drive is the way to go now.

[blgros1]

Depends on what you doing with it. Where do you normally hunt? How long are your runs? What type of boat? Many factors.

[Jeff]

Surface drives for the most part are the way to go.

That being said, with the amount of troubles I have seen out of mud buddy hyperdrives I would pick something else, gator tail would be my first choice.

[hntrpat1]

Gatortail prodrive for ease of driving go devil for simple no nonsense motor

[hntrpat1]

I've driven them all ask away. First all get the biggest HP you can. My bil has a 1644 godevil boat with a 35 gdsd gets 29-31 with two guys in the skinny.

[Jumpem]

Well I mainly hunt timber in the areas i'll be using my boat but the water is usually fairly low in the area. Boat is a 1544 Gator Trax mud buddy edition. I was thinking the 23hp but should I shoot for the 35hp?

[hntrpat1]

Are you going to be hauling booty through the woods? Long boat ride? Lots of stumps? What's fairly shallow is it hard or soft soap

[Jeff]

When running a surface drive and hitting a stump, the surface drive won't yank itself out of your hands like a long tail will.

I would get a the biggest motor you can afford and worry about the rest later.

[hntrpat1]

Hitting drill stem will go run catahoula right now. Damn you would think the whole motor just broke off. Or getting a power slide then hitting stuff sucks or hitting a mud flat and sliding into a beaver dam hurts etc etc etc. Hahaha

[Jumpem]

Are you going to be hauling booty through the woods? Long boat ride? Lots of stumps? What's fairly shallow is it hard or soft soap

I'd say a 3 miles roundtrip average. LOTS of stumps so that is good to know about the surface drive vs. the longtail Jeff. Water just varies season to season but I am hoping for another low water year so we're talking about riding through a bunch of weeds mainly. How do they fare against weeds?

[hntrpat1]

Long tail works better in stumps. If you get high centered its a Hell of a lot easier to get off with a long tail. And the short tail will still jar your booty don't be mistaking

[Wingman]

This is what I've discovered so take it for what it's worth.

Had a Go-devil. 18hp or something like that. Long-tail.

Great for hard bottom. Great for stumps and logs (lots of leverage with that long shaft and you can pick it up and swing it around and drop it back in the water to get a push from a different angle). No reverse. Took 3 acres to turn around. Sucked in thick weeds because you had to try to pick up on the tiller handle to keep the prop down in the water. I nearly got stranded for life one day in Little Eagle about 20 yards in a dense mat of weeds. Couldn't get the prop back down in the water through the weeds.

Work boat now has a Pro Drive. The big one with reverse. Awesome in soft bottom (not so good in hard bottom because the skeg rides the bottom and picks the prop up). Awesome in thick weeds (because the motor holds itself down and doesn't ride up like the longtail did). Sucks in logs when you get up on one and the prop is out of the water, you are just out of luck. Reverse is a life-saver in some situations but dear Lord don't forget to put the reverse lock in place or you will drive your tiller handle through your leg, hand and gas tank you forgot to scoot out of the way.

I tell you. I rode all over the country in my Gator Trax/Pro Drive rig this spring when it flooded. They were burning up outboards in the corn fields because the corn stalks and leaves were clogging up the motors. I was running nearly everywhere that the airboats were running and some places they weren't (like low limbs). I went across a soybean field and the beans were about 4 inches tall and I could see them right up under the water. Went across several blacktop roads where the skeg drug the bottom and I just coasted across. Riding down the side of the highway, throwing up junk like a water furrow plow out the back and just a getting it.

And if you ever get a chance to run a rounded chine boat, do it. Slides right off of cypress knees and stumps like a greased pig.

[Jumpem]

Thanks Wingman, I'd say that clears up every question I had.

[Wingman]

I haven't put a lot of time on either motor. Maybe 25 hours on each. I don't really know which one does better in stumps because I just hate stumps. But I do know that the longtail worked a lot better for me when the boat got on a log or stump. The prop of the longtail was way behind the boat so you could lever yourself off of the log that way. SD it is right there at the transom so you really just have to power out. For that reason I'd get a SD with reverse....cause sometimes, no matter how much hp you have, going forward just ain't gonna happen. But if you run a rounded chine, smooth bottomed boat, like a Gator Trax, sometimes you'll just slip right off of knees, stumps, etc, that you would normally hang up on with a square chine and keeled bottom. And then you don't need the leverage of the longtail to get off of the obstacle.

I've never run the marsh, but I'd have to say that for soft bottom, shallow water, no logs, the SD is the ultimate motor. I have one lake in my area that has a super soft bottom and usually stays about 4 inches deep. That SD is a joy to run on it. I passed a beer can in the water one day and it was on its side in the mud and not fully submerged.

[hntrpat1]

I haven't put a lot of time on either motor. Maybe 25 hours on each. I don't really know which one does better in stumps because I just hate stumps. But I do know that the longtail worked a lot better for me when the boat got on a log or stump. The prop of the longtail was way behind the boat so you could lever yourself off of the log that way. SD it is right there at the transom so you really just have to power out. For that reason I'd get a SD with reverse....cause sometimes, no matter how much hp you have, going forward just ain't gonna happen. But if you run a rounded chine, smooth bottomed boat, like a Gator Trax, sometimes you'll just slip right off of knees, stumps, etc, that you would normally hang up on with a square chine and keeled bottom. And then you don't need the leverage of the longtail to get off of the obstacle.

I've never run the marsh, but I'd have to say that for soft bottom, shallow water, no logs, the SD is the ultimate motor. I have one lake in my area that has a super soft bottom and usually stays about 4 inches deep. That SD is a joy to run on it. I passed a beer can in the water one day and it was on its side in the mud and not fully submerged.

There you go. Couldn't have said it much better and Wing your right about the lock I would swear that motor is about to jump in the boat with you