I've only got 25 hours of stick time on a surface drive, and I'm still pretty timid when it comes to breaking stuff. Hitting floating logs and crap like that doesn't bother me. It's the stumps and big trees that don't give at all that worry me. I worked hard to get this rig and I'm proud of it. I know it costs a pile of money when shit goes awry. Money I don't have. I ain't going to jerk around, I'll drive that sumbeech, and I KNOW things break, but I want to know how much of a beating they can take.

Tell us about how your surface drive broke, minor or major, lower unit or engine, normal use or abuse or defect, don't care to know how much it cost to fix or what brand but if you name the brand I don't care.

Let's hear 'em!

I don't worry about the motor as much because you can bolt on a new part of something breaks. I worry about the hull more just because there may be only so much you can do if you screw that up.

That being said...I've hit submerged t posts and gotten into rocks with it. These things are bound to happen when you are constantly in shallow water.


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I get that you can bolt on a new part if something gives. My point is that I don't want to push it past the point where something is bound to break. I know I signed up for broken shit when I bought a mud motor, but I don't have the funds to find out where these bastards tap out. Maybe I'm not as worried about the hull as I should be. It's .125 alum and I know it's not invincible but neither are the motors. Now if you'd said the motor will take more of a beating than a heavy hull, I wouldn't worry. I understand that stuff happens but I want to control the things I can control, like my throttle hand.

A good thing to do is check all bolts and look over the motor every oil change you may find things loose you normally wouldn't notice. Another good practice is check/adjust valves every oil change. other than that just give it hell and if your that worried about breaking stuff you should've got an outboard rig.

I've had a mudbuddy mini, and I was just playing in the mud with a few boats and didn't even hit anything, and all of a sudden my belt popped. Wasn't doing anything extreme and didn't hit ANYTHING. Just playing in soft mud.

Now that ive had the center console prodrive, ive hit things that I had to look back and make sure the motor was still there, and the motor never missed a beat.

You bought a B.O.A.T.
Bust
Out
Another
Thousand.

Things will break. sometimes because of abuse, and sometimes because of nothing.

I broke a steering rod on a Mudbuddy sliding sideways and the motor hit a log sticking out of the water.

Run it like you stole it! I run stumps a lot and hold that bitch wfo!


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Things I have learned over the last 10 years.

1. John boat hulls hate beaver dams and stumps. Hull lasted 1 season then was trash.
2. Taking the rev limiter off can get you 7000 rpm when jumping levees and beaver dams= bent valves,push rods.
3. If you have big balls and run the shit out of it it will break bad. I been through 4 engine blocks. So if you don't want to blow it up keep the rpm below 4700
4. Props can only take so many hits wot in logs, stumps ect. Then one day, the prop throws a blare wot. Not fun! Happened to me in the dark at 5k and by the time I shut down had cracked CC cover and oil cooler.
5. When jumping levees and there are trees on other side make sure you scout your jump. In my case it was hold my beer and watch this. Centered a willow and trashed another boat. Oh and running timber = pointed bow. Flat bow don't bounce good.
6. Sand bars are the devil. Don't think, heck I'll jump that. Not happening, I found myself 40 ft in front of my boat.
7. Be cautious and don't do the things I've done and you should enjoy your boat. If you don't care the blow the damn thing up. I sure have and will probably keep on, good luck


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I broke mine because my idiot dealer bolted my motor on to the drive all f--ked up. Got my 5500 block from bps. When he mounted it, the engine was off balance. So the shaft housing split. I took the drive apart and not only did he not balance the engine, but he also didn't put two bolts back in when he mounted the housing to the engine. One of the two that was in place was sheered off. So the block was held in place by 1 bolt. Guess the old saying that goes "if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself" is true. Now it is 100%, cost some money to get it right but now it's right.

It's Kinda like going for a heavy ass deadlift...sometimes you can't do it until you get pumped up and actually believe it. Ya'll've pumped me up! I'll keep my senses but I'm feeling better about it all. Break Out Another Thousand is spot on.

With that said, what are some of the spares and extras yall keep with you at all times? Prop, belt? I run the EFI so do ya'll keep sensors on hand? What are some things I can stock up on to hopefully save me if something simple breaks?

Thanks for the input so far!

Simple definitions.

Boat: A hole in the water in which you throw your money!

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Extra motor.


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Prop, tools, spark plug wrench if you sink it, 3 plastic throttles(I think they are metal now), and fuses.

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I don't blame you one bit!
Im actually trying to down size a bit, so my wife and I can start a family.
Definitely looking forward to it for sure!


Id also like to see a picture of said boat!

If you want to find the line where problems start go to a mud run of some sort. You will see guys pushing the line way beyond what you thought these mud motor could go. After riding around all day with a bunch of guys you will have a good idea what your rig can do.

Extra set of spark plugs, extra qt of oil, and tools. Forgot to mention that.

I sheared a u joint key today on the river. Had to push upstream 2 miles with about a 15 kt current. It sucked dog dicks. Glad I had someone with me. So I'm switching to steel keys

It's simple. get a mud motor. shoot ducks in the face.

Good to know I'm thinking in the right direction. I've got the plugs, 3 qts of oil, extra fuel filters, miscellaneous hardware (even though none of it is likely to fit anything that breaks), the clutch bypass starting procedure, extra shrink wrap wire connectors, and all the tools needed to work on simple things.

I will be buying a prop amd a belt and probaby a spare mud motor to stow away and grab a handful of throttle.

We run the North Texas Corps lakes and they look like the pic below, on a wet year like this one all that is just below the surface. The lower unit will take the abuse, but if you hit at WOT the tiller can come around and whack you like a baseball bat.

I've hit stuff hard enough I had to stop and make sure my LU was still there. Logs, stumps, hit a port-a-potty once, wrapped a fee crab traps up in the prop. All other sorts of stuff I'll probably never know what it was.

It did come apart on me a few weeks ago though, was planeing out and threw a blade, cracked the whole lower half of the motor. Im still confused on how the whole outdrive didn't fall off, it was cracked all the way around and I could see through the crack...best guess is the shaft kept it from falling off completely. It was a pretty bad deal. Good news is though that GT has fantastic customer service and had me a whole new lower half of the motor shipped and installed in less than a week all under warranty. Here's the link with some pics.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64455

You can say that again..

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The maine thing i gotta watch out for is water heaters and appliances. That shit is every where in spring bayou


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