By old i mean ol'. Just bought the boat new this year. 1648v weldbilt Finally got all of the wiring and lights done. Now I gotta put the floor in and build/hang the motor. Headlights I went with 1x6 low profile led flood lights, the bow lights are sealed led strip, and sealed led strips on the interior lights and a cheapo atwood stern light.as progress happens I will update

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

Like how you did your nav lights!

Yeah a friend of mine had em on his bass boat and I really liked em. Ten bucks at academy

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

Does the whole neighborhood store thier fishing rods at your house ? Geez !!!!

Lol. Collection of dad and I over the years. That's his garage I'm keeping the boat in.

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

Got ya. Lol

Finally got everything purchased to build the longtail mud motor. Grand total to build the engine for some people who were skeptical:
Predator 670 vtwin: 615
Machined shaft: 115
Parts and hardware: $80
Prop: 159
Steel: 143 (due to some pieces having to be special ordered)
Moog high speed u joint and yokes: $52

Total: $1164
Price of new go devil 72" shaft 22hp honda built to similar specs: $3850


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

With as much shit as you have talked about building this thing, it better run like hell and never have a moments problem. Good luck with it.

Only time will tell. I don't see why it won't hold up. Alot of math went into the plans I made(use the mad plans As a place to start) and I didn't skimp on the details and all the bearings and bushings are high quality. After I'm done cutting corn this week. I'll get it put together and put a picture of it up and a video of the maiden voyage.

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

Just got the floor put it. Tomorrow I need to put the fuel door on and lay down the turf. The floor is white .050 because that's the thickest we had in the metal shop at work. It'll have to do for now.
Wednesday I'll be putting the motor together throughout the rest of the week trying to get the motor frame painted and ready to rock by Saturday. Couldn't be cutting the deadline closer

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

Is that one long strip for the interior lights? How did you secure them?


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Yes. The interior lights were 2x 16 ft strips. One on each side of the boat. They had a self adhesive and I also ran a thin bead of clear Silicone on the top side to insure they stick permanently

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

I'll take more pictures tomorrow to show some of the steps up to this point better

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

Sorry I didn't take pics today. Grabbed the wrong contact cement for the turf and it took me longer than I thought

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

Building a mud motor isn't a cake walk I'm finding out. But my math has been pretty close so far. I'm a little over halfway done with the motor I think


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

Lookin good. U gonna put some mods on the predator?


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I'm planning on keeping it stock. But that might change

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

On another note, I haven't taken any of the interior pictures because I've been working pretty much every moment of free time I have on the baot/motor. But I promise, one day I'll get the pictures up

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

Here's a picture of how I siliconed the strip lights


Interior picture

Other interior picture


The turf is the real tree closed cell foam stuff that was talked about in a bunch of other threads, we'll see how it stands up

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

So far

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

I got the motor totally done today. Gotta paint it, put the throttle on and put the kill switch one. Pics to come

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

15mph with 3 people and a 85pbs lab and 12 gallons of gas. Given that the boat is a mod v and not a true flat bottom I'd say I'm happy with 15, it does 15 no matter how much weight I put in the boat or by myself.

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

Don't make the same mistake I did and put the wrong oil filter on. The motor isn't listed in the wix crossover chart but the right wix filter for it is WIX 51394. It's not the same as the gx670 filter. Luckily it just ruined the threads on the oil filter and not my motor

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

The final pictured of the finished rig


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

The plastic covers on the engine are all green as well as the motor frame

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

Looks like that out drive would have a good amount of lateral flex with that flat bar being used like that. You may be fine since you apparently don't run real tough conditions from what you've said in the past. I know I'd break it in a weekend of running and I'm not excessively rough on my equipment. I use it for what it's intended for.

Also, consider moving those lights closer to the front if you can. They're prone to getting drug off on tree limbs and such being stuck out there on the corners like that.

What RPM and prop are you turning to get that speed?

I have lateral supports on it. You cam see them in the second picture. All the steel is 1/4". It's pretty solid. I played in some shallow stuff and the only thing that flexed was the pipe for the handle. My prop is turning 3500 rpm and it's a 9x5 @ 15mph
3500 is what it's governed at
It's simple. get a mud motor. shoot ducks in the face.

I see those two braces.... But they don't look like much.

The tube itself is 3/16" walled. Maybe the governor isn't at 3500 but that's just what I'm guessing it is.
Compared to a go devil I don't see much difference. Put up a pic of yours so I can compare it and see how I can make things better. Might also add that all the flat bar metal is 1/4× 1-1/4 and the weld/ contact from the two side supports are 5.5" long where it attaches to the tube and they are rotated 45° so if you're facing it from the rear and looming at a profile of the supports those pieces sit kinda like this /
It's simple. get a mud motor. shoot ducks in the face.

Lookin good!


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My GoDevil is of the surface drive flavor.... Plenty of pics of every brand of longtail floating around out there.

Here's one of their frames. Not a good angle but the plates on the bottom are braced differently and much wider if I recall.

http://www.godevil.com/Images/31Vanguardenginelarge.jpg

I know the mudbuddy I owned had a very wide almost plate across the bottom, then braced up from there.

Then there's the BW frames. Everything is triangulated with the shaft housing being braced in the middle of its backbone. That's probably the strongest design going right now. The material they use definitely helps that too.

I'm not busting your balls over some bracing, but it would suck for that to come loose or flex to the point of failure when the going gets rough.

Finally took it hunting this morning, our area is shallow as shit. Everything ks mid shin deep. Happy to say I never had to walk and the boat can go through 4 inches of water with 4 guys and a dog and gear. Running it in that shallow of water I'm sure was hard on it because it was hard on me. Boat was touching mud 95% of the trip and still pushing, and I'm happy to say I passed a prodrive with ease heading back in. he Couldn't get on plane. Quickly learned in shallow water these thing are hard to steer especially whenever the prop bites. I've got some learning to do before I'd consider myself experienced running this thing in super skinny water like we have this year. But the boat could plane out with our load today. It was up and down up and down on the tiller handle. I know this is probably hard to read but I'm writing this excited like a little kid

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

Congrats on the build. Sounds like it does just what you wanted

No videos yet?! WTF!!!

It's too damn hard to steer and take a video lol. Next weekend I'll have someone record. No way I can operate that thing in shallow water with one hand

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

Does anyone know what the stock governor is set at on the predator 670 engine. I don't have a tax I just have an hour meter. The book says max rpm is 4k. I don't know if that's with or without the governor

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