Just got the boat put back together and motor hung on.Mocked up some pods out of cardboard and they are too big, the motor hits when you turn it. What is the normal clearance between the motor and the pods when you turn the motor?

When I first mounted my 35 MB on the back of my 16ft boat, it squated down real bad. I spent the time drafting up pods in auto cad, made them out of card board to see the fit, got quotes from welders, did all the research on displacement per square inch. I personally found that it wasn't worth the time or money. I moved my gas tank and battery to teh front of the boat and it fixxed my squating problem. It planes out nice and I only have back wash if i stop abruptly in deep water.

Now, some guys on here have pods and love them, but I just feel with a mudmotor that they will take away from prefromance. Any way if you just got to have them. look at angling the inside walls outwards, to make a tunnel, it will give you more turn radius. Pods are great on some boat applications with outboard motors, but the mudmotors have the longer shafts, and it creates a little bit of a problem, cause you can't get the same amount of flotation and maintain full turn radius.

That is my .02 someone will probably disagree with me, but oh well.

Here is a quick schetch of the pod i designed.

pod scetch.jpg

The problem is that i have an extemely heavy motor on a under sized boat...29 horse MB hyper liquid cooled and it drags too much.Runs great with the weight up front just want some extra flotation.Have a welder making them for little to nothing just need to know the clearence when i turn.May just need to take a inch or to off the over all length.My plans look to be about the same as yours.

i have beavetail pods on my 1546 xpress. with the 20hp gd lt it floats great but i dont have the problem you have b/c mine is a lt motor. but mine are shaped just like the guys CAd draiwing. i love em other than back polling. but my boat loaded with three guys a dog and hunting gear drafts 3-4 inches give or take a inch. but it plans faster and runs shallower than b4.

I got my idea from the beaver tail pods. The only changes that I made to them was the angled face on the inside panels. For a surface drive to get the clearance the angles on the inside should help. ( I am not an engineer).

Now to answer the question better how much clearance do you need. Well, your pods have to be short enough to keep the prop off of them. Also, you need to look at your normal applications. For example, i run a lot of canals that are only 70 - 80 inches wide with lots of turns. There for, pods would hold me back.

Hear is an idea, have you thought about a hunt deck???? More floatation than pods, and you dont have to worry about clearance issues. If you have a welder the xtra money might be worth it. A 24 inch long hunt deck will float the heavy motor and add 2 foot to your boat which in turn should plane better.

Yes I have thought about the hunt deck.I have no problem getting on plane, it planes out almost instantly, just looking to remove some weight and float it less water....Will look into it.