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 Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Review 
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi

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Thu Feb 23, 2012 11:36 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
How much did just the hull end up weighing? Think I need one in a 1542.

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Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:28 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi

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Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:16 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
I forgot to mention the easy fix for the Vanguard choke annoyance. The Copperhead guys had a super easy fix for the choke which was just to unscrew the little tab holding down the choke pull and instead of having it between the two tabs, just put it under the small tab at the bottom. Works perfect. Briggs should do that from the factory.

One more note... you can get them with and without pull start so make sure to let them know if you want pull start as I did not think to ask so you can save yourself the trouble of adding one later if you like having a backup.

Hopefully pictures coming soon with camo.


Thu Oct 11, 2012 1:48 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi


So here is my latest paint experiment. The boat camo was done in an hour using 2 cans of Krylon camo "Brown" and some Johnson grass. The icechest also took an hour because of the extra layers since I used the new Styx river shadowgrass stencils on it. I personally think there is too much grass in their new pattern but it still looks great if you get the technique down.

Also new for 2012, the engine got some mods and tuning help from Josh at Copperhead who does some work on the side in his spare time. I also purchased a different prop which was of their newer design and gained quite a bit of top end speed, but lost a little low end power. Since my boat is small and light, I can get away with it, but props are always a balancing act between top speed and low end power.


Wed Nov 14, 2012 1:32 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
Update:
The ducks did not seem to like my camo. I don't know how, but with the boat in heavy cover they somehow saw it and flared (wood ducks). Of course I was sitting in the middle of their roost so they may have just noticed that something was different? Previously when it was all green I had ducks fly straight at me with no cover whatsoever on a couple occasions and dropped them almost in the boat with us. I don't know if the brown made it too dark or what. Back to the drawing board on camo.


Wed Jun 05, 2013 1:13 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
teal season 2013


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Mon Sep 16, 2013 1:55 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
The paint looks good.. may have a little too much brown this early in season.. Id wait till later on to see if it blends better once everythings brown. What mods did you go with on your motor? Speeds?

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Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:19 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
The paint job was from last year so the dark brown from the rattle can faded quite a bit. I am just going to leave it as is for now.

I found out the 18 had some more speed to give up with some intake polishing work and a different prop and I think it remains my favorite motor. I never did get heads, exhaust, or mikuni.

I also ran a Copperhead 23 on it and on a Phowler sneak boat and it was stupid fast, but weighs too much for this boat. I cracked a couple welds on the transom which I had to have repaired (my transom is .125 even if the rest is 0.100 if that gives you an indication of how much it was bouncing) while porpoising doing 29 mph turning around 4000 rpm during the test drive on the Tchefuncte River last year. Deep water speed with 2 people was 27, but mud performance went down the drain because of transom squat, which would be alleviated by putting it on the right boat. The slightly longer Phowler outperformed it with the 23 due to better turning with their chine design and no porpoising. Top speed was essentially the same when I could keep my boat on the water and under control. The rest of the time, the Phowler sneak boat smoked it because it did not have to slow down for turns. I only ran the Phowler in deep water though so I have no idea what the comparison would have been like in mud, but the bottom line is that my boat was built for a Copperhead 12 and works well with an 18 but cannot handle a 23. I would not bother with the 10 as the 12 far outperforms it. I am considering buying another 12 for situations where I need to drag the boat a good distance to get to a pond.

Still not sure what to think about props. The 18 and 23 props are interchangeable. My original prop would never go over 23 mph, but low end power was great. The newer prop I got appears to be slightly smaller diameter and gives a huge amount of extra top end speed, but I definitely feel it slipping on the low end. I would like to try out a few more and see what I can learn about them.


Wed Sep 18, 2013 3:18 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
Thats awsome, man I dont know what id do if I saw those speeds out of mine.. I ordered a 23 and it will be going on a custom 1544 slick. Im willing to bet itll haul

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Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:55 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
That boat is bad ass. Have you considered havin J add a huntdeck to it? Saw where you said that if you could go back you'd get it a foot longer. Seems Like that'd be the ticket .

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Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:12 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi


Wed Sep 18, 2013 9:50 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
It seems like everything is a tradeoff. I loved the small size for being able to turn around even in tiny streams, which is something I could not do with my 15' boat (but the big one has reverse so eventually you can back all the way back to somewhere you can turn around with the big boat). I also loved being able to hide it so easily because it is so small and being able to drag it easily. Going to a bigger engine gives up portability but gains speed. For a Copperhead 12, I don't think I would really change anything. Going up to the 18, I would definitely make it longer.

As far as the hunt deck goes, Uncle J talked me out of it originally and I did not push it because the price difference was pretty big relative to the cost of the boat. My friends have told me I should have got it anyway, but to be perfectly honest the only time I ever thought it would be useful to have one is getting my buddy's old dog out of the water. That dog probably weighs more than a few people I know lol. What do you guys use a hunt deck for? I have never had a problem getting in or out of the boat myself. Where we hunt there usually isn't ever more than 6 inches of water and the bottom is hard as concrete. I would have more trouble getting in my truck than getting in my boat.

Brasso, I don't see any reason you would not see speeds like that on your new 23. The 23 was not modded or anything, not even exhaust. I am considering having another boat built for a 23 Copperhead and holding on to this one because it almost seems like once you go up to a certain size you lose the portability benefits and almost might as well go all the way up to a barge with a modded 35. Let me know if you want to go riding when you get your new toy. Not sure where you are. I am south of Lafayette. I will be VERY interested in checking out your new ride.


Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:04 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
Yeah I wish I could actually hunt comfortably out of a smaller rig like your but I just carry too much and need the extra speed too much. Ill do it! Im in Texas, but have family in lafayette and carencro. Im from there.

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Thu Sep 19, 2013 4:57 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
Hey cheesypoof could you PM me? I have a few specific questions about the boat.

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Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:22 pm
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
I don't think he comes around anymore


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Fri Jun 17, 2016 1:49 am
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Post Re: Uncle J 1340 / Copperhead 12 / SAW Aluminum trailer Revi
I had stopped coming to MMT for a couple years since I was no longer hunting where I needed a mud motor and had considered selling both boats.

I had commissioned a Cottonmouth build which took almost a year and in the meantime had to move so I had no place for boats plus I was no longer hunting where I needed a mud boat, so it has been sitting in a shed unused except for some short runs prop testing.

Prop testing on the Cottonmouth with a 23 Copperhead showed me some interesting things. The Cottonmouth 0.125" thick hull is built like a fortress, so it was much more sensitive to prop size than the light weight Uncle J so the improvements in performance were like night and day vs the stock 23 Copperhead prop which had performed horribly on the Cottonmouth boat. That made me realize that something I had said earlier was probably not entirely true. I had said that I liked the 18 better than the 23 Copperhead on the Uncle J boat because although the 23 was faster, it just seemed like the 18 got stuck on shallow hard sand bottom less. At the time, the only thing I could attribute this to was weight difference and therefore draft. The problem with that line of thinking is that there just is not that much weight difference between the 18 and 23 so this kept nagging me. When I was testing props on the Cottonmouth, I realized that what I was missing was prop diameter. My 18 was one of the earlier ones so it had a Hopkins prop which was around 11" diameter (it may have been a little less, but it is 11" now after reworking it). The 23 was built after they changed prop manufacturers and the prop on the 23 I think is 10.25" or after running it over sandy bottom a bit was more like 10" diameter. On the Uncle J boat this meant that the 18 HP engine with the larger diameter prop was getting me stuck less than the 23 with the smaller diameter prop. On the much heavier Cottonmouth with all the fancy storage, hunt deck, double the stringers and supports, and 0.125 hull, it meant not even getting on step with 3 people and the stock prop. Alone, it would hit max rpm's almost instantly even if you buried the prop, but the boat just wouldn't go anywhere because it was slipping too much. Since it was larger diameter, I had the old Hopkins prop from the 18 modified to have similar pitch and cup to the new 23 props but larger diameter and tested it on the Cottonmouth. It was like a completely different boat it improved the performance so much. Although I have not tested it on the Uncle J hull, I am pretty sure at this point that the 23 would now have the same good acceleration and other good properties I had loved on the 18.

I actually had the prop shop put too much pitch on the Hopkins since I did not know what pitch it needed to be, and overpitching results in lugging the engine so less acceleration, but despite that it still accelerated orders of magnitude better than it did with the stock prop and was able to step 3 people which it would not do with the stock 10.25" prop on the Cottonmouth. That means if I go back down an inch in pitch, that will bring the rpm's back up a bit and the performance will probably improve a little bit more over what I have already seen. I was considering getting some engine mods in which case I could probably leave it like it is, but don't really have a need to unless I start hunting where I need a mud motor again.


Thu Jul 07, 2016 6:30 pm
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