Some time back I posted saying that I would soon be in the market to purchase a surface drive/boat motor package and received a significant amount of valuable info from the post. Well after the feed back I received I continued doing my own homework comparing the hauls and motors to each other weighing out the cons and pros (mainly Gtr and prodrives) between packages. About 2 weeks ago I finally went on a few test drives with the Gator tail and Pro Drive 1854's with the 37efi motors. The conclusion I came up with myself from my homework and the feed back I received showed a positive correlation as to which boat I thought would out perform when I went for test drives.

In my opinion the Gator Tail our performed the Pro Drive in pretty much all aspects. I am a very attention to detail person and I am not saying that Pro Drive builds boats that hinder performance at all, they are honestly both great boat companies and its evident why they are leaders in the surface drive industry. They were a few things I did find nice about the haul of the Pro Drive over the Gator Tail, however they were just personal cosmetic personal preferences. I really did like how the support beams running through Gator Tails haul were overplayed with aluminum compared to how you could see the beams on the Pro Drives.

One of my favorite things about the Gator Tails motor is that it is belt driven, I really think the engineering behind building the motor around a belt driven system is much more efficient and makes the motor lighter. There is no need for gear driven motors on surface drives for the amount of toque they produce and ultimately the amount of work they have to accomplish (unbalanced force needed to drive propel the boat) to achieve desired velocity and ultimately maintain integrity under surface drive conditions; besides belts are continuous improving, but unfortunately it is very costly to reduce the weight of gears.

Another major advantage I think the Gator Tail has over the Pro Drive is the skeg, again better engineering done by Gator Tail. I feel as the angle of the skeg of the Pro Drive, although does create less resistance than the Gator Tails, is so minute that its doesn't even factor into how much the angle causes a problem with the motor not being able to run efficiently.

Like I said they are both very great boats build by two of the leading companies in the industry and the things that matter to me might not even remotely apply to majority individuals. I just know this is a hot topic for debate and am trying to help many of the same people who were in the same situation I was in when trying to determine the deciding factor for which boat to purchase. I hope this forum helps someone likes it helped me, Thanks everyone!

Cool story bro.

It's a hull not a haul.

And for being a "very attention to detail person", your spelling and grammar is pretty marvelous <_<

Awesome write up... I too am on the fence for a new duck boat. Once I return from my deployment I'm hoping to pull the trigger and finally own a quality craft for the first time in my life!!!!!!

Are we comparing hulls, hauls, motors or all of the above?