DIY Mud Motor

[Houston4x4]

I am doing research to see what the best diy kit for a mud motor is. Has anyone had any experience in this field? I dont want a long tail i have read they are very hard to handle. I want something like a gatortail or prodrive set up but i want to build it myself. I dont have 8k laying around for one of those so i was hoping to build my own.

[hully1029]

Can maybe look into the twister kits. Half the length of a long tail.

https://mud-skipper.com/index.php/twisters.html

Throw a harbor freight predator engine of your liking, match twister kit, bolt on, go..

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[dclifton]

Yea i never ran a long tail but i had a Go devil surface drive and you better be a man to steer it. I couldnt imagine the leverage behind those long tails.

You might call Pete at WC custom boats and see if he has any pull of lower units laying around that you could fix up or swap out the motor for a predator if the motor was bad.

Just a thought.

[Pat Miller]

If you have to use muscle to steer a long tail, it's set up wrong.
Mine is easy and I'm really old too.

[Buck hunter332]

I have a gtr 40 and if you have to use much force to steer
it’s loaded wrong weight placement is important in the surface drive game. I’ve seen some guys down here use direct chain drive on home made jobs and seem to work great

[Eagle19]

I tried to build my own and bought instructions from eBay. The reality was that with steel it was going to be heavy for my jon boat.

Mud skipper sells kits but you’d still spend $3,000-4000 with kit and a decent motor. Sometimes it’s just better to find an older surface drive and replace the motor.


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[Houston4x4]

Thank you for the input maybe i will just look for an old motor that is blown with a good drive and just go from there

[Txtourist]

I was at Backwater inc. (Longtail Manufacturers in Minnesota)before the 4th getting a fresh prop and they had some trade in stuff lying around. Worth a call. https://www.backwaterinc.com/
Talk to Jake.
I’ve been a longtail guy for years and I’ll say the newer direct drive models are a lot easier to drive, marginally longer than a surface drive, considerably lighter and a whole lot less to break/tear up.
They’re addictive no matter what you end up with. I’ll caution you on building one, as simple as it seems, there’s more than meets the eye. Most who build one, end up buying one to upgrade shortly after they get a taste for it and want better performance. It’s a fun experience building them, but ultimately you learn how much engineering has gone into the production models.
Best of luck.
PS. Wear your kill switch 100%. Not uncommon to hit a submerged log, etc. and get tossed out or dangerously off balance.

[dpg481]

That looks just like the Briggs and Stratton engine on my mower, other than the exhaust. I cant imagine something like that costing 8k.

[donpablo]

Was gonna post this link but then realized you said you don't want a long tail. You might ask the guy who posted it though. He seems pretty knowledgeable.

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=359540&highlight=mud+motor

[pervis]

All the mud motors use are either briggs 23s 37s or 40s. A new gatortail xd40 will run you 9k plus tax. They are expensive. I just got one not long ago.