BigBendFishing.Net

Who runs them? Pros and cons of each?

Contemplating buying one or the other for use on Lake Iamonia and winter redfishing. Sorting through classifieds is a nightmare due to my lack of knowledge. Seems most surface drives have been heavily modified and it is like reading a foreign language. Most airboats are running airplane engines from several decades ago. What are common issues to look for or test when evaluating one of the other? What do maintenance obligations for these kinds of engines consist of?


If you know of a good one for <$10k feel free to link.

I have a friend with many years of airboat experience. From talking to him they seem to be a very different animal to operate safely. The ones with the old airplane engines would have to be a nightmare to get worked on.

Whereas a big welded Jon boat with a surface drive would be easy to learn to operate. I do see where some folks are hopping up what are basically lawn mower engines. You know what that means. Shorter life, loud, no warranty, hard to find aftermarket parts. From what I have seen those motors have no saltwater resistance in their design. You better plan on keeping it washed, warm, dry and comfy after a saltwater trip.

Seems like a solid hull with a newer basically stock motor would be perfect for the lake.

I had both. The surface drive is much more practical, and gets about 7 miles to the gallon.

A standard 18’ boat with a stock 35hp motor will usually run 25 mph. Once you add a couple more anglers, the speeds gonna drop to 20 mph or less. Thats the reason for modifications. A 35hp motor with carb, muffler and headwork will run 30mph and even when you add a couple more people you can still run 26-27.

The above numbers represent the performance I was seeing with my boat before and after mods.

A true surface drive boat (gatortail, prodrive, godevil, etc) will perform alot better than a regular jon boat.

Have you visited the mudmotortalk.com forum?

A little clarification. My bay boat isn't going anywhere, so this boat will rarely see saltwater. It will be stored on Lake Iamonia with occasional trips to salt. I'll sell my Xpress if I"m able to find a lake toy that gets me to redfish spots when necessary. I'm not interested in a longtail engine which I what I think Rocky references as being made from lawnmower engines.

I have tried twice to register on MudMotorTalk, and they seem to be unable to process a membership. Once you complete registration they're supposed to send an email with confirmation. I never receive those emails (even in my spam folder) and I don't have any more email addresses to provide. frustrating. Other good sources of classifieds?

I had a 2010 Go Devil 35hp with the galvanized frame. It had about 300 hours of saltwater use and held up fine.

Your best best to stay under 10k is with a Go Devil SD. Everything else has clutches, neutral and reverse. Those motors alone were around 7-8k

Go Devil just came out with neutral and reverse so you should see a lot of the older motors coming up for sale.

They are all air cooled lawnmower engines. 5hp-40hp.

There are a lot of jon boats out there paired with surface drives that don’t perform well.

You should be looking for a 18x50 or 18x60 mud hull with a 35.

You don’t have to be a member of mudmotortalk to read the classifieds.

Brian,
For winter redfishing on negative tides, just use your own legs through mud as a motor, and drag a cheap 8 foot kayak (aka Mule) to hold your gear. Much simpler and cheaper than airboating or mudmotoring. I'm happy to show you my strategy & tactics, but at the end of a fishing day, you will sleep 12 hours straight through.

GaryDroze wrote:Brian,
For winter redfishing on negative tides, just use your own legs through mud as a motor, and drag a cheap 8 foot kayak (aka Mule) to hold your gear. Much simpler and cheaper than airboating or mudmotoring. I'm happy to show you my strategy & tactics, but at the end of a fishing day, you will sleep 12 hours straight through.

Gary, your supposed to sit in/on the kayak and paddle it. Your making it much harder on yourself, but you know that

GaryDroze wrote:Brian,
For winter redfishing on negative tides, just use your own legs through mud as a motor, and drag a cheap 8 foot kayak (aka Mule) to hold your gear. Much simpler and cheaper than airboating or mudmotoring. I'm happy to show you my strategy & tactics, but at the end of a fishing day, you will sleep 12 hours straight through.

How do you keep from dropping your cigar in the mud or spilling your beer?

The main goal is a lake boat. Everything is so choked up I can't even launch the Xpress at my ramp. I like cruising down to K&K with the wife and dog. Also need something different to chase gators.

SDs seem so vulnerable with all the external components and airboats seem like maintenance nightmares. How many hours should turn me away from a SD? Certain brands to avoid?

I am running a ProDrive 35 hp, stock (12 years old, only one major problem two years ago, partly my fault and 600 later after having the work done, it is running like new again-had the clutch replaced while he had the head off). It pushes my 16 foot all weld Scandy White as fast as I need to go. It is my duck boat, but has been pressed into service several times for fishing and a couple for scalloping. I load my boat down with humans, dogs and decoys when duck hunting and when fishing it seems ultrafast. It has full power reverse and for my money is the top mudmotor out there.

With that being said, I do not like using any surface drive a lot for the salt. But you can definitely do it like you want (I make 4-5 trips with mine a year) Just need to be vigilant in rinsing the motor and protecting it (I use CRC). It is not the lower unit that is the problem, it is the spray on the lawnmower engine that they all have. If you find a brand you are interested in, call the main line and tell them your needs. KP at ProDrive will talk to you directly as will the Go Devil people. Once out of warranty, they are mechanically much more simple than an outboard.

I personally would avoid a Mud Buddy, but I have had several friends with them that had problems, other mileage may vary.

Stock motors can run thousands of hours without problems. Like anything used, it just depends on how the previous owner maintained it. If it looks beat up on the outside, move on.

But like any boat, most owners don’t use them much so most will have under 300 hours on em.

I am no mechanic AT ALL, but at 150 hours, I took my 35 down to the block, installed a cam, changed out the heads, added a mikuni carb and performance muffler. Then ran it another 200 hours before I sold it.

If you do have a problem with the motor, you take it to the lawn mower shop to get fixed. They charge a whole lot less per hour than the outboard guys. Lawnmower parts are pretty cheap too.

If you want a simple crank and go motor, I really don’t think you can beat the Go Devil Surface drive. The others with neutral, reverse and full power reverse are nice too but those are all additional items that can fail.

I will say there were many times while frog gigging that reverse and neutral would have made my life so much simpler.

I’ll probably own a mud rig again one day. Its really a do everything, except run offshore rig, though I did take it to Dog Island a few times.

The FPR is also nice when high centered on a stump! Just back it right off!

Each type has its place. There are places only an airboat can go, but governments hate airboats and you have to be sure that you are in an area where you are allowed to run them. For instance, in Franklin Co., you can only run north of 98, which means no gulf. In Wakula, you can only run them during daylight areas.

Mudmotors will go where no outboard dares to tread, but still need more water to run than an airboat. I have a mudbuddy 44 now with reverse and while the reverse ain't as efficient as an outboard, it is sweet to have at times, especially navigating marinas.

Nearly everybody modifies to get a little more juice and from being the first owner of one of the first 12 mudbuddy 35hps, so long as you don't go crazy, they remain very reliable. I've never had an engine go bad, but I've had issues with electrical and hydraulics. Nothing a little wrench time couldn't fix. I would want to know exactly what mods were done and do a compression check on any used mudmotor or airboat. These motors are run at maximum rev for most of their lives. On a mudboat, usually the motor takes the most abuse while on an airboat, it is the hull.

There is a huge difference in performance with the hull you use for a mudmotor.

Lake Iamonnia has hp restrictions during the winter.