Might be a dumb question but I'll ask anyways. Does anyone run a longtail or surface drive mud motor on a vee bottom? I have a 17 ft alum great lakes style walleye boat, fairly light and I thought of throwin a MM of some sort on it to use as a crab,fishn,and al laround general use rig. My problem is a regular outboard cannot be used from the cooley in my backyard to the bayou, but I think a mm can get this hull in and out with no problem. Boat will basically be bare other then a floor, since all interior has been stripped out.

Rivited? V bottom front to back or just front?

yep its a riveted boat but stout by rivet boat standards to take a great lakes poundin. vee from front to back with more of it rounded in the back, not a deep vee by any means. Its a 20" transom boat with higher then jon boat sides but not so high you can't reach down to the water. I picked it up from one of the yankee snowbirds pretty cheap right before we left S Fl so I don't have much in it. have new wood for transom and will do floor soon as well, but no real interior to speak of other then a cooler to sit on.

Heres a few more pics of the tub when I bought it in Fl, last pic is misleadin, it's not as deep of a vee as it looks.

Don't do it!!!!!!!!!!!! With either!!!!!!!!

X2

Whenever it hits bottom or thick vegitation, its gunna plow to a hault.

I'm new to MM's but not boats and outboards. All a MM surface drive is, is a reworked arneson type drive, they run them on vee hulls all the time in hi-po applications. I don't know where you get the idea that outboards spin in a different direction then MM's? Only exception to that would be a counter rotatin motor in a big twin or multiple outboard application. I doubt 35hp is goin to throw this thing wildy out of control on a boat rated for 90hp. Worst case scenario is I might try a MM on it anyways and if it doesn't get me out of the backyard cooley to the bayou on a low tide, I'll just get a flat bottom hull and shelf this one. Thanks for the suggestions and input guys

No problem, lots of internet know it alls out there.

Worst case scenario, you die.

I actually know somebody that has a MB on a semi-v. Believe it or not it works and will go through mud. You can think of it like this- you will get places in that hull with a MM that you will not get in an outboard. I'm sure it won't perform as well as a flat hull, but maybe for your application it's better still than an outboard. You can always get a flat hull later when you can afford it.


And as for the negative trim angle thing- when running at cruising speed, aren't most surface drives pretty much parallel with the bottom of the boat? The only time you should have negative trim angle is when you are diggin mud or trimmed down getting on top.