okay so before i knew much about boats and mud motors i bought at 17 foot beavertail boat with pods. big mistake. The thing is more of a barge then a boat, but anyway im paying on it, and im going to keep it. i know the hull is not designed for a surface drive but if anyone could help me out and tell me what the best surface drive for it would be. i know i will not get full turning with the pods but i need more speed. Right now with my 35hp longtail i go about 21 empty and 15 loaded. i was thinking maybe pro drive would be my best bet, because it is designed more like a traditional outboard, but i love my buddies blackdeath mud buddy. if anyone runs a surface drive on this boat please tell me your speeds, and how you like it.

Before the trolling starts about how you need to buy a better boat or cut off pods, you can make do and be satisfied with what you have. Prodrive is a good option for that rig, depending on the pod spacing. It might interfere with you going into reverse. I dunno. Both mb and gt will be fine as well. Took a piece of scrap metal and zip tied it on my father's mb frame to make sure he doesn't get into the pods with the prop on his boat. Boat still turns fine.

Tyler,

I used to run a Beavertail boat with a 31 hp gatortail surface drive. I bought the boat second hand and it never ran real fast, but that's besides the point. That Boat had a bracket that was custom built to mount the motor about 8 -10 inches back from the transom so the motor had full range of motion for turning.

If you search through my posts on this site from Wayback maybe five or more years ago I know I posted some pictures of that motor you can reference. Good luck and happy searching.

i would not be opposed to cutting off pods, or even modifying them. i am an above average aluminum welder. i do like how they keep the rear of the boat up and out of the mud, and i dont have to worry about water coming over the back when stopping with my longtail. however a surface might not be worth it.

Rob was the bracket mounted to the pods? It looks like you can only look at your post from 2014 and up lol.

Like this

Motor had the short housing and still sat a little to deep unless running in the top hole.

So if I was building one now I'd make sure to make the back of the bracket a bit higher and get the transom angle just right.

gotcha, that would not be hard to make at all. Was it steel or aluminum?

It was bolted on so i assume it was steel. Probably could be built from aluminum and welded on but I'm no expert. Make sure you check the transom height and angle requirements of the surface drive you intend to buy before building. It is important to get them right or your performance could suffer drastically.

okay. Thanks for helping me out.

Your welcome sir.

I have a 1754 Beavertail boat with a 35hp Beavertail surface drive. Only ran about 23 with pods, I cut them off and now its 26-27, turns much much easier and gets out of the hole faster. Totally worth it to cut them off, mine were full of water too.

Do you have to worry about water coming over the back when coming to a stop, also how does it do with a decent load. i think if i do get a surface drive i will be cutting them off