Mud motors

B

Bill Wortz

New member
A guy here in Michigan who duck hunts and guides for a living absolutely swears by the go devil. I trust his opinion as this is all he does and has had all types of boats and motors and says this is what you want. He also discourages the hyper drives that have the right angle to them (if I am describing that right).

OKAY EVERYONE - your thoughts on mud motors? I hunt a very shallow but large lake and in flooded corn fields the state operates. What mud motor? and why not the hyper drives? Thoughts? please discuss amongst yourselves (but so we can all read it)

Wortz
 
I would like to hear everyone's opinion on this as well. I have been looking at the small mud motors (5 or 6 Hp) for a couple of years now and have heard good things about the go devils, mud buddy, and scavenger but have no first hand experience with any of them. They all seem to be very over priced for what you get.
 
There are not a lot of mud motor users on this forum so you won't obtain as much feedback as you are wanting.

Your questions have been asked many times over on the Refuge mudmotor forum under the Boats and Blinds forum, and on mud motor talk forums. Even if you are not a member you can still review the postings on both forums and even search them for specific words.

When ever someone tells you to stay away from a certain device. Have them explain exactly why they have this opinion and make sure it is from their own experience and not just opinion based on rectal extraction.
 
Bill,

I run a couple of Go-Devil longtail mud motors and a few outboards. I have no experience with surface drives. We run longtails in areas that are very shallow and filled with down trees. In the backwaters it may be 1-3 feet of sediment (mud) with anywhere from a couple of inches to a couple of feet of water depending on river levels. We used to canoe into these spots and when the water was low we could not even get the canoes thru the mud. The longtails do great in these areas.

In areas where there is current it may be very shallow in places with a hard sand bottom. My longtails are not great in these hard bottom conditions, but they are better than my outboards.

I have no use for a longtail mud motor on big open water. Also, I do not like mud motors on riveted aluminum, fiberglass, or wood boats where we hunt in the sand and logs.

Mike
 
My partner has had his go-devil boat & motor for almost 10 years now. It has served us well. It is a 1654 boat with a 25 longtail. In shallow, weedy, mucky waters, it is fantastic. Matter of fact, it runs best and fastest in about 1' of water over muck. It can push the boat in little or no water if the slop is sloppy enough.
Like others have noted on sandy or hard bottoms, not as good- in these condition you need a little more water to get the prop completely submerged or performanace will suffer.
In deeper calm water, the boat & motor works well but it is slow (~12 when loaded) and sometimes cannot even get on plane in the deeper water. It is definately not a rough water setup, you simply dont have the HP to get up & run. One advantage is that if it is rough on the open water, you can run the shallows right next to the bank, where it is normally a little calmer.
I've seen a few hyperdrives running here. Speed-wise, they perform more like an outboard and are great in the shallows too. But they are gawdawful heavy and expensive.

In flooded corn, you could get by with a small longtail on a jon boat. i've seen lots of riveted 14-16 jon boats with longtails on them and they do fine. From what I know about the weight & stress a hyperdrive put on the transom, a welded hull or special made mud boat may be the better choice.

On the big water, the decision should be based on just how big it is and how rough it gets. You don't want to get stuck 2 miles from shore in 3' waves running a longtail on a flatbottom boat.
 
Prodrive. I don't know about hyperdrives, but I know my Prodrive is far superior to the Go-Devil long tails we've used in years past, and it's probably tougher. I'd disregard any worry about it not being the "right angle" etc. BS. Only disadvantage is they cost about a third more than the longtail.

Ed.
 
I run a Gator-Tail. I love the motor, and wouldn't switch brands, but at the same time I don't believe that anyone makes a bad surface drive. It really comes down to what size motor you're looking for, how much you want to spend, and what features you want with that motor. I use mine year round for hunting and fishing, and use it on all types of water from rivers and swamps to large lakes (the Finger lakes, Ontario, Oneida, etc.). I don't really know what the rules for posting up links is, but if you do a search on "the 'fuge", or look at www.mudmotortalk.com , there are people there who can answer absolutely any questions you have about MM's in general.
 
I run a Mudbuddy surface drive. I like it alot. Go-devil makes a surface drive (along with prodrive) The advantage to a surface drive is the are faster and generally take less effort. Once set, you can generly drive them like an outboard. Long tails can take work, especially on a long open water trip. The refuge form mudmotors subform is an excellent place to gain information. (Beware the arguments about which brand is the best though!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top