Has any of yall ran any Copperhead surface drives? Are they as good as people say they are? I hear that they are pretty good if your putting on a small rig. I was thinking about putting a 18hp on my 15x48 xpress boat. What are some mods you can do to them?

On that size boat I would go with something bigger for sure!!Check out the new GatorTail 25 EFI

yeah I was thinking about going bigger at first but then I read some on the copper heads and there is people saying they have the 18hp on 16ft boats with 2 grown men in it going 25mph and the motor is pretty light

My 18 ran 24-25 on my 1542 jon on the river in 10+ foot of water with me, blind with grass and a small load. Waiting to see how it does in the shallows though.

I have one on a 16/42 and it runs 23 with 2 poeple batteries trolling motor and gun box

Yea go with a bigger motor, I've got a 16 50 xpress with a 36 prodrive

Yea go with a bigger motor, I've got a 16 50 xpress with a 36 prodrive

I would love to put a bigger motor on it like a pro drive but I don't have that much money to spend if you know what I mean!! lol

I know exactly what you mean, it was on the boat when I bought it, it's my first surface drive I'm used to longtails

But pushes it really well

I'm getting 21 mph one man and gear .. on a 1648 .. with a 12 hp.. I love mine and customer service is great..

You know that Copperhead is making a 23HP now, right? It's not on their website yet but they've already sold a few.

I was in Covington a few weeks ago and Josh had one on his Boat and their Neighbor had a 23HP on his Phowler Prowler 17x44 Sneak Boat.

Call Gil on Monday - it's not that much more $$ for the 23HP over the 18HP ...

Yeah I was talking to josh on the phone the other day and said he is getting 30 mph on a 16 footer

You do not want a small engine on an Express. With all the storage and floatation, those boats weigh a ton! One of my friends has a 16' Express Duck boat (not the mud hull) with a new 36 Prodrive that can't get out of its own way if more than 2 people are in the boat. I could outrun it when I had my 12 Copperhead. I don't know if your boat is as solid as the other Express boats I have seen, but with the ones I have seen, you need more HP than a normal boat of it's size, not less. Last duck season with my 18 Copperhead, I passed an Express Mud Hull with a 23 GT like it was standing still. Express makes a fantastic well built boat, but you need to have a good sized engine on it to push it (hardly a fair race when my boat is super-light and theirs is very heavy). You buy an Express because you want a cadillac built like a fortress with lots of options, not because you want light and fast imo.
I have run Copperhead 10, 12, 18, and Josh's 23 and I am a fan, but while they are great engines, I do not recommend it unless your Express is lighter than the other models I have seen. I don't even think you can do it as I suspect the Express is built for long shaft engines (at least the ones I have seen were) whereas the Copperhead's are short shaft (at least all I have seen so far including Josh's 23 though if they have gone into production on the 23 they may now have a long shaft model - good question to ask). Also 30 mph on a 1636 sneak boat made out of 0.09 that can be picked up with one hand or one of thirdtimesacharm's custom boats which is designed to be light, is not an apples to apples comparison with a heavy barge Express.

My 1650 xpress is short transom. And yea they are super heavy.. Mine is 600 lbs plus a 330 lb prodrive.. Might want to find a different boat for that smaller motor, you'll definately get better speeds and performance.

Smart move

With just you? I'd say somewhere around 21, 22 but when you load it down with extra guys and gear, it's gonna fall to about 15

Go look on tht thread engines and mod talk about the guy wanting to put a prodrive on his xpress, there's a picture of my boat . Mines a 1650 with the 36, I don't run mud either, just stumpy lakes and grassed over lakes with Lillie's. idk how it would run with a 27.

I had a 18 copperhead on a 16-50 xpress for about 2 weeks:grin: it actually did really well on that boat. Ran around 25 solo and 23 with 2 people. I got it in a trade with intentions of reselling it.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

Depends on the boat. Modified V = really bad for mud motor regardless of manufacturer. Express makes different hulls. I would expect the their mud hulls to do the best and anything with modified V to do the worst (just read the other threads about people complaining about performance on their mod-v hulls).

Copperhead tested with multiple gears and props. If that is the route you want to go, ask them if they would put the lower gearing for a heavy boat. That would make a big difference in pushing a bigger load. They love going for test rides, so if you are not too far away, tell them you are interested in purchasing if you can test it on your boat and they would probably be happy to put one on your boat for testing in the river in Covington (very pretty river btw).