I drive a 23 Dixie yesterday and was really surprised!

finally got my motor this week. Here are the final stats:

ordered 8/31/2012
arrived 1/17/2013

initial projected wait time: 6 weeks

total wait: 140 days, 20 weeks

made 9 phone calls
11 emails

was given failed delivery dates 5 times

arrived with gas tank lines disconnected, missing 1 spring on carb linkage (might be from shipping), all bolts on upper were only hand tightened, need to threadlock and tighten everything this weekend, and the paint on the mount rubs off with finger, like when you spray paint on an unprimed dusty surface.

I need to get it out on the water this weekend, I am just expecting it to be great and erase this excruciating transaction from my memory. Again this is just my experience, and am no way insinuating this is business as usual for DMM, maybe im just the lucky one. A lot of people have really great experiences, or seems so from this forum.

its very similar to my experience with Strongarm Products LLC, but that was a much cheaper item and maybe 1/2 the time delay.

when i got my 6.5 there were some areas that i found needed some attention. i changed up the throttle to twist grip, changed out the engine mounting bolts to high grade, the bolt on the screw trim is very weak and i changed that out to a high grade. would it have run the way it was? yes but i like being safe. but im not complaining. the motor only cost 1350.00 brand new with a aluminum frame. no way i could have made the same motor for that price. if ben would step up his prices and hire more people and get quality control up he would be better off.

I give props to Mike he answer the phone ever time I call unlike the Ben , I hope they get things on track , thy have a good thing going, taking my 35 out tomm to get some more hrs on it

Spoke with Mike today. I was pleased with his attitude and vision for the future. He also seems commited to servicing existing customers. Needless to say, I was more than a little concerned when I saw the new ownership on the web site.

Well, I got my motor today and everything looks good. The day I ordered my motor from Ben directly he agreed to a time frame on delivery. He would always say sorry and we are waiting on 1 part, the motor is complete we will ship it out this week. Over a month ago on a Friday I called him for an update. He said it was getting loaded on a truck as we spoke I will have it early next week, then I called him the following Friday he said sorry we are still waiting on a part it's not done yet. He said sorry and acknowledged he lied to me and agreed to split the shipping charges. Another month went by and I got a call saying the motor is shipping out, so I call and Mike says Ben sold out... I am happy I finally got my motor, but Ben you owe me $131 for your half of the shipping. I wish mike good luck and it only took him a week and a half to get me my motor, and he said he will stand behind it. Diceman I'm the bitch here? He gives a man his word and stretches out lies for months. Be a man don't make promises you can't keep.

Form the money u can't beat it, I see a few changes he can do really improve the overall look of the motor and maybe charge a extra 100 bucks but it would help in the fit and finish aspects of things

I bought a 10 hp from DMM about a yr ago....great price and ran good. Drive shaft snapped in half Ben shipped out a repl at no charge. My neighbor later bought a 18 hp with power trim and electric clutch. The only negatives I can speak of is the handle control box is kinda chinky....wide open bottom end exposed wires and cheap switches....also the clutch cover had an open gap on the top side allowing mud and water to get in. Other than that, it's a strong motor that runs great and for an unbeatable price. His delays and shipping runaround was the same as described above.

Well I bought a Dixie 10 hp back in September and got it delivered before Thanksgiving week so not a problem with the delivery time. I was told it would be about 8 weeks and that was just about what it was.

However, I had other problems with the motor. I could never get any speed out of the thing, I run a 14x36 light jon boat, and with just me (210 lbs) and about 75-80 lbs of gear all I got out of it was about 13.0-13.5, maybe another mile or two in really shallow water. That wasn't all that bad and I could live with it, but the biggest problem I had was the way the mounting bracket was attached to the motor frame.

On most motors I've seen it's a single pin or bolt that the motor pivots back and forth on with a locking nut on the bottom. On the Dixie it was attached with 2 bolts threaded directly into the frame, no locking bolts to keep those in place, and no place to put any if you wanted to. Every time I turned the motor it would turn those bolts, and eventually work them out altogether.

I found this out the hard way on my third hunt with it when I went over some floating reeds and the motor not only kicked up but also sideways. I checked and found out that the bottom bolt had worked it's way out and was completely gone, sitting on the bottom of the lake, and the top bolt was about half way out as well. I very well could have lost the entire motor over the back end.

I tried using nylon washers and lok-tite on the things but it didn't work so I ended up carrying a socket with me and checking and tightening the damn things 2 or 3 times a hunt. I'm all for building things inexpensively, but I have no stomach for a motor that I have to be concerned I'll lose parts on every time I take it out. In my opinion it's just a really bad design and something that could easliy be fixed. They need to fix things like that even if it bumps the price up. Low cost will not win out if the quality is poor.

I think Dixie could be a good competitor to Copperhead is they increase the quality of the product, which will certainly increase the cost, as there is room in the market for both of these as witnessed by the overwhelming demand both have gotten. Hopefully the new ownership at Dixie will take the high road here and beef up their products otherwise they risk not being competitive and losing out in the end. Competition in the market makes for better products, that's how it works. Just my .02 cents worth.

i talked to mike about that last week, in the new design that bolt system will be no more ! it's going to suck for mike for a while, he is making changes as we speak to all the unit's and alot of people that bought from ben are going to have to deal with the older unit's, Mike is the new owner not ben or the guy that made those unit's , there are going thru a lot of changes to improve there unit's and i'm sure the price will reflect that

[quote="diceman"]i talked to mike about that last week, in the new design that bolt system will be no more ! it's going to suck for mike for a while, he is making changes as we speak to all the unit's and alot of people that bought from ben are going to have to deal with the older unit's, Mike is the new owner not ben or the guy that made those unit's , there are going thru a lot of changes to improve there unit's and i'm sure the price will reflect that[/quote

Diceman,
I talked to Ben last month about my mounting bracket bolts being stripped out and he told me he would replace the bracket. So your saying that now that he has sold the company that the new guy will not fix the problems on the old engines?

Well my motor had about 5 hrs on it until i heard some horrible noise internally. It wasnt the mud motor itself, its the engine. The 23 hp. Its at a Briggs dealer now getting stripped down to get the warranty work done.

Hey, did Ben threaten anyone else and blame them for putting him and all of his employees out of work, and ruining their kids christmas?

Or just me?

the 2 bolts on the side are they for water to drain from the bottom of belt drive box? send pic

Did you guys already drill and mount the unit on the back?

What it needs is to have a washer in it to space it off so it doesnt grind. Mine was the same when i got it. Just hoist the motor up back the nut off put washer on reinstall nut. Use red lock tite. If its the samee frame as mine that is.Post up some good pics and we'll walk ya though it. I have to say i've got 55 hard hrs on my 23hp and its been fine. There are a few things that i would like to see changed thou. I have spoke to Mike and he feels the same way. He's going to turn this around and produce a good product. Just give the man some time. He walked in to a shit storm and is fighting his way though it.

I understand how to fix the steering, its not mine, and don't really feel that he should have let this motor leave without at least running through a check list or something. What does it matter if he drilled it? Hell I can't believe it didn't come with holes in it already. If I call and order a motor for a 20" transom it should be pretty Damn easy to figure out that I need a tall transom motor. If he wants to "fix" a brand new motor he can and I'll help him , no big deal. But kinda crappy to have to work on something brand new. Whatever, honestly it don't make a Crap to me, I told him to buy a different motor in first place

Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk 2

I ordered one for a 20" transom also, I wonder if I got the right motor? I'll have to wait 3 months for the ice to go out to see if this thing will run.

i think this is my last post about my DMM 6.5 I finally got. Im just exhausted about chasing and following up on such dumb little things. The good thing is that I have a workshop and now I know how simple it will be to build another frame and drive in the future.

my motor finally came something like 4 months late, and when i get it in the water it just spins the prop and moves at 4mph. got home checked, its a 7x4 prop. a longtail prop. F**k it, I called Hill Marine and ordered a 9x9 surface drive prop, they checked and verified that it was ok for the motor and ratio. Took the boat out and it moves, planes and that fantastic rooster tail.

When I called DMM they said 'no we dont ship with a 7x4", ok so fedex put it on? whatever. also it didnt ship with any safety/kill. In my last post i mentioned that when it arrived all the bolts were loose, gas tank not connected and some other things. I paid for a new prop out-of-pocket just to get this disaster over with. I wish the Hill Marine guys were running DMM, be a whole different experience.

Ben originally charged me $150 for shipping and I paid at the original order time, was great to get a call from fedex 'you gotta pay the driver $290 for shipping or he cant drop it off", call came when the truck was outside my house. I spoke with mike and he very nicely said 'i will send you a refund check for the $150 in the mail', 2 days later an envelope arrives with a user manual for a different motor and no check. great job

Maybe the strategy is to whittle away at peoples expectations till they all just yell 'f**k it!' and give up and never call DMM again. Now is 2/4, I have like a week left for late season goose, besides that I missed all the other waterfowl seasons this year, a whole year! Its depressing as hell, pathetic. I really cant stand some of you guys here how you attack some members for complaining about DMM. Guess what, my experience with DMM is an actual experience, others have similar...we are posting here so others know the full picture as to why Copperhead is so much more expensive. What is your time, sanity, anger, blood pressure worth? thats your call. There are like a dozen other things thats just sucked the life out of this transaction, I forgot a bunch, gotta move on cant dwell on this stuff or will get bitter.

anyway its on my Gheenoe, the hill marine 9x9 is awesome, i think even a 9x10 is possible and still have enough torque to get over the mud banks. My next step is swapping the stock connecting rod out for one from a Briggs animal, put on Animal carb and exhaust, and flywheel (amazingly cheap stuff on ebay) and get the rpms up to like 5500. The weight of a 6.5 and around 11hp with reliability would be nice.

oh and the bolts on the drive housing are holding in the bearing cap right before the shaft exits the drive, 1 closer to the belt housing on the drive is a grease port check. I guess thats the benifit of the motor arriving loose and unfinished, I got to go and reassemble the whole unit and threadlock every fastener. get intimate right away

hopefully this is my last post in this topic, closure finally. For you guys out there waiting, or who have been cursed at by Ben, yeah been there, it sucks. I plan on making a part directory of the drive assembly, all belt/pulley and bearing part #s and shaft spec's so that I can just fab stuff later if it breaks, minimizing my calls to DMM for support. Anyone with any DMM 6.5 questions feel free to pm me.

image.jpgimage.jpgIt looks like 22" shaft to shaft and from the motor mount to the bottom of the belt box is 20". Does that sound right for a 20" transom?

[quote="ozzi"]i think this is my last post about my DMM 6.5 I finally got. Im just exhausted about chasing and following up on such dumb little things. The good thing is that I have a workshop and now I know how simple it will be to build another frame and drive in the future.

my motor finally came something like 4 months late, and when i get it in the water it just spins the prop and moves at 4mph. got home checked, its a 7x4 prop. a longtail prop. F**k it, I called Hill Marine and ordered a 9x9 surface drive prop, they checked and verified that it was ok for the motor and ratio. Took the boat out and it moves, planes and that fantastic rooster tail.

When I called DMM they said 'no we dont ship with a 7x4", ok so fedex put it on? whatever. also it didnt ship with any safety/kill. In my last post i mentioned that when it arrived all the bolts were loose, gas tank not connected and some other things. I paid for a new prop out-of-pocket just to get this disaster over with. I wish the Hill Marine guys were running DMM, be a whole different experience.

Ben originally charged me $150 for shipping and I paid at the original order time, was great to get a call from fedex 'you gotta pay the driver $290 for shipping or he cant drop it off", call came when the truck was outside my house. I spoke with mike and he very nicely said 'i will send you a refund check for the $150 in the mail', 2 days later an envelope arrives with a user manual for a different motor and no check. great job

Maybe the strategy is to whittle away at peoples expectations till they all just yell 'f**k it!' and give up and never call DMM again. Now is 2/4, I have like a week left for late season goose, besides that I missed all the other waterfowl seasons this year, a whole year! Its depressing as hell, pathetic. I really cant stand some of you guys here how you attack some members for complaining about DMM. Guess what, my experience with DMM is an actual experience, others have similar...we are posting here so others know the full picture as to why Copperhead is so much more expensive. What is your time, sanity, anger, blood pressure worth? thats your call. There are like a dozen other things thats just sucked the life out of this transaction, I forgot a bunch, gotta move on cant dwell on this stuff or will get bitter.

anyway its on my Gheenoe, the hill marine 9x9 is awesome, i think even a 9x10 is possible and still have enough torque to get over the mud banks. My next step is swapping the stock connecting rod out for one from a Briggs animal, put on Animal carb and exhaust, and flywheel (amazingly cheap stuff on ebay) and get the rpms up to like 5500. The weight of a 6.5 and around 11hp with reliability would be nice.

oh and the bolts on the drive housing are holding in the bearing cap right before the shaft exits the drive, 1 closer to the belt housing on the drive is a grease port check. I guess thats the benifit of the motor arriving loose and unfinished, I got to go and reassemble the whole unit and threadlock every fastener. get intimate right away

hopefully this is my last post in this topic, closure finally. For you guys out there waiting, or who have been cursed at by Ben, yeah been there, it sucks. I plan on making a part directory of the drive assembly, all belt/pulley and bearing part #s and shaft spec's so that I can just fab stuff later if it breaks, minimizing my calls to DMM for support. Anyone with any DMM 6.5 questions feel free to pm me.[/quote

I call this the BEN syndrome looking back now with all the shit this guy did (mental little fucker ) just shipping shit out the door what the f was Ben thinking ,after reading more of this crap i'm sure aleast 50% must be true he use to tell me different but i'm not so sure anymore

That hind sight is something else isn't it.

I just gave Ben an ultimatum and said Fu*k it and picked it up myself, after we met he seemed alright but he still owes me a dang belt