Longtail motors

[Duckdon]

I am thinking I need a longtail or a shallow drive motor on my 18' flat bottom. I know next to nothing about them but think they would be great for most of Alaska's backwaters and shallow rivers. Anyone have any experience out there?

[akriverrat]

oh yea they work allright. i dont have any first hand experiance but they have always been at the top of my intrest for backwater travel. economical and minimal maintenence on the go anyway. no water pumps or cooling to worry about and goes through about anything. someone will chime in with first hand experiance and have great things to say im sure.

[21'-Grayling]

I was looking at a couple websites in the past for details. There were some videos I rembered looking at that were showing some on Jon type boats going throu swampy areas and mud. If that is what you want to be able to do then I dont see a better set up unless you have an Airboat.

[Duckdon]

Longtail motors

Thanks Guys.
Looking for any input I can get and of course first hand experience is the best. Have looked at many different options with different companies. Their demo videos are helpful, but then I am sure they would not point out any product limitations. Not sure if the industry standard is 4 stroke or 2 stroke. Any ideas there? The demo video's and web info do not seem to metion that on any web sites I have looked at.

[AK DUCKMAN]

With an 18 foot flat bottom I would look a a surface drive mud motor. Try asking a ? on the refuge forums web site. You will have a lot more brains to pick, From guys that know.

[komocazie74]

http://www.scavengerbackwater.com/ This is the one I've been looking into. Looks like it is pretty easy to maintain and they have packages for larger and smaller boats. I don't think you could go wrong with any of the longtails out there

[aaalaska]

I've got one of the old go devils with a 16 hp b&s engine on a 14 ft flat bottom ,it has it's good & bad points. Guess if you run shallow water enough it would be hard to beat without going to an air boat. Alex

[Taiga]

I have a mudbuddy longtail with a 27hp Kohler ( I thing) motor. Takes me anywhere I want to go..but is slow. I would look at the suface drives. Much faster and carry more weight. And you don't have to stand up and risk tipping over while steering them. They are more like an outboard

[Duckdon]

Longtail motors

AK Duckman......the refuge form? How and where is that form? Thanks

I was thinking the longtail motors would be better in the rocky streems. Anyone with experience with rocks and the surface drive rigs? Also, I have a 28" transom on my flat bottom and the surface drive motors I have looked at seem to stop at 25". Thanks guys...

[AK Ray]

skybust deals the Prodrives so he should chime in soon about those.

No prop powered motor likes rocks, not even the mud motors. They handle mud OK since that is what they are designed for.

I remember reading an account on the 'Fuge about a guy running his new mud buddy surface drive in a sandy Texas river. In one day he ground down the prop to stubs and needed a new one. They have so much torque that they can tear themselves a part. They don't have shear pins or hubs to deal with hitting stuff so when you hit a rock you know it right away due to the banging and jumping the motor does.

All commercial mud motors use 4-cycle motors to get the power that they need to make the prop push the mud. Most folks don't realise that mud motors don't work great in clean water. Sure they work, but their props are designed to push semi solid material like mud. A standard outboard pushes water best and does not push semi solid stuff well.

Mark from AK Backcountry Mud Buddy has taken his boat up some of the shallow rivers in the Tanana Flats to hunt moose and had no issues. They were up in air boat land and well past jet boat water due to the mud and alders in the slough.

[Duckdon]

Longtail motors

Thanks Ak Ray. I will be looking for Skybust if he answers. Is he in the Anchorage / Valley area with a show room?
Don

[yukon]

The mud buddy guy is usually at the Sportsman's Show. He is great to talk to. I saw a 35hp surface drive motor on a silty river last year and he kicked some serious arse, it was impressive. Just like any boat/motor combo in Alaska, each has waters in which they thrive while struggle in others. I wouldn't take a mud-motor in a rocky river but in muddy, weedy areas (Jim creek area) they would be fantastic. Also in the interior rivers I have heard they do well.
Go to the mudbuddy or prodrive websites, pretty cool videos.

[AK Ray]

These guys work out of their homes.

Show room? That is funny. I think they are way too busy in their real jobs to be real salesmen. Find one of sky busts posts and PM him.

Sybust is in the valley and if he stops doing what ever he is doing to read this thread he will contact you with a PM and you can go see his rig or his buddy's rig.

AK Backcountry Mud Buddy will more than likely be at the Sportsmans Show in a month. Mark ususally has a small spot in the ice rink and will be more than open to talking about his stuff.

[AK DUCKMAN]

AK Duckman......the refuge form? How and where is that form? Thanks

I was thinking the longtail motors would be better in the rocky streems. Anyone with experience with rocks and the surface drive rigs? Also, I have a 28" transom on my flat bottom and the surface drive motors I have looked at seem to stop at 25". Thanks guys...

Try here. You have to join to ask a ? Kinda like this place.
http://www.refugeforums.com/

[dieselfitter]

Mudmotors

You might check with Stu's GoDevil Outboards in North Pole. http://home.gci.net/~godevilalaska/
I have heard he will give demo rides after the water gets soft.