Showing off my progress ive made so far. Im gonna be using a 22 hp vtwin predator engine. And yes i will order a tiny tach to view rpms.

Im going with a belt drive set up. Using 30mm wide htd timing belt pulleys and belt. I do not have the motor yet but will get it soon. I still need to finish a few things.

I have the outdrive bearing and seal system complete. Im using needle bearing front and rear and double seals on the prop side. Need to fabricate a skeg. And move my grease zerk 90°.( dumb mistake)
Belt housing is complete as far as i can do w/o the motor except for the brace running from housing to outdrive.
Transom mount is fully functional and smooth. Just need to drill trim tab holes and get proper bolts.
Need to thread shaft. And a few other minor details.

For now ill be running a 1:1 gear ratio with a wore down 9x6 longtail prop i have. Eventually ill get a new one once i work the bugs out(hopefully theres not many) for refuge running.

Im gonna get a bigger bottom pulley to gear down (1.25:1-1.4:1) and run a surface drive prop like a 9x9 or 10x8(probably gonna need advice on prop size).

Will post pics
Ill keep my progress updated as i go. Let me know what yall think.

How short is your transom?

Plan on putting it on 16" transom. So i made it 14" from inside the transom mount to bottom of the belt housing. That way i have 2" of play from the bottom of the boat. So its not causing drag and is out of the way for stumps and logs. I just kinda guessed on it from my buddys gatortail and all the pics ive seen.

Too high???

I would think the height you're mounting the engine is a bit too high [WINKING FACE]

Yes the bottom of most sd lower units are about level with bottom of boat.

I bet it'll be fine. How long is the drive shaft going to be?

Look forward to hearing about it once you get it going. Good luck!

I would go wider than a 30 mm belt.

My advice, try to gear it closer to a production surface drive ratio and find someone's wore out 25GTR or smaller Hp GoDevil Surface drive prop and have it reworked for your specific setup. That longtail prop is just going to piss you off if I'm not mistaken, there is a refuge prop for a SD in the classifieds here. Might check it out. I believe it was done by Coastal Prop in Bridge City. He's done several props for me, and has done a great job on every one of them.

I'm over between Kountze and Sour Lake off 326. I see you're from Batson. Small world!

Yea for sure.

I cant find much info on a refuge prop. Like gearing and performance. Im not asking for a drag boat but dont want to get that prop and not know the best way to run it.

Hit up calphil on here. He'd be able to fill you in on it.

Hit up jay dore, he's the only guy I know that make a refuge prop. Instagator911 is his handle on here.

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Just curious, but what is wrong with a 30mm belt? What makes a wider belt better?

I dont see a major downfall in using a 30mm belt. In theory a wider belt should be able to displace its " work or contact area" to the pulley and take less torque or load(however you want to classify it) per square inch of belt. anybody that has another theory or experience feel free to let me know before its a short trip off and back on the trailer. Lol

The major plus is you can find a wide selection of pulleys that slighty increase in size. So i can fine tune my gear ratio if need be. Tooth sizes only increase by a couple each size.

40 and 50 mm belt pulleys only come in a few sizes.

On your bearings and seals situation, you gonna run grease in shaft housing? What about seals on pulley side?

Yea im gonna run grease. Im only putting seals on one side of the bearings so as i grease the outdrive acts as a reservoir. Im doubling up one seals on the prop side.

Im using high speed and heavyvload needle bearings that havea grease ring dead center of the race. I measure from where the bearing seated to the grease ring. Then drilled a hole and threaded it for grease fitting. That way as long as the grease zerk is taking grease you have zero doubt if its getting greased. After the first time i fill it with grease it should be basically one pump and done everytime out.

You got any pics of the bearing setup?

How are you protecting those needle bearing from side load thrusting?

I guess this is a questions I've had in general... how are the outdrives setup to absorb the the forward pressure the prop is putting on the entire drive shaft?

My heavy duty needle bearings are set up to run 4500lbs load(if i remember right).

Idk how other name brands run their outdrive but im using a 2 bolt pillow block bearing with a heavy locking collar.

I'd be interested in seeing some photo's of what you are using.
Thanks

Okay guys, it's been a while since my last update. I ended up having a little girl and some of my projects got pushed back. A buddy of mine just bought a 25 gtr and I got the itch again.

I Have got a lot more done since the last time I posted.
- outdrive is complete
- motor mount mocked up
- motor will be here tomorrow
- skeg and inspection plates installed

All in all its coming together faster than what I planned. Im sticking with a 1:1 gear ratio for now and running a long tail prop. I'll try and get some pics of my bearing drive set up. Let me know what y'all think so far and try not to bash me too bad.

I will finish it this time so check back in to see the progress.

Pics

Looks ridiculous , but it's better then anything I could come up with !

Lol. Thanks. I'm sure I'll buy a new long tail in a year or so. Maybe even a 25 gt . its just something to talk about for now. If it works well enough I might just through a vtwin on it any go with that.

Glad to see ya back at it.

Main problem I see using a Longtail prop is the fact the it will have to run submerged. The belt housing will likely drag the water and you'll lose speed horribly. If you're set on the Longtail prop look at GoDevils outdrive/frame and see how their CV/U joint is setup. The engine and belt run on a level plane and the prop is lower. This keeps the prop/skeg lower than everything else. Just something to consider.

Yes definitely the insight I need. I'm using a 15hp motor and I cannot find any info on what copperhead or orion or other smaller horse mud motors use for their props. I just told my buddy about instagator911 9" cut down prop for his 25 gtr so I might can use it to do some testing. But I'm sure I'll need to gear down to run it

I believe Hill does the Copperhead props. Maybe someone else can say for sure... I think either Hill or Hopkins could fix you up.

If you want to take a look at a GD frame let me know. Id be happy to drag mine over and let you look around at it. You're not far down the road.

Did some looking and seen some people say they did okay with the sub surface props but the might be running long outdrives. can't find an exact size for the copperhead but I am wanting to stay in the 9" range for legal reasons. I found the gear ratio for my size engine someone posted a while back. I'll ask a few buddy's if the have any used props laying around to test with.

Thanks for the offer but if you drag that boat over here my bank account would soon drop cause I'm sure I'd run straight to the tractor place and pick up one of those rigs they have our front. Lol

Yeah, I see ol Kevin has become a GT dealer. They're nice rigs but they have their flaws and shortcomings just like all the rest of them. GD included. You'd probably buy one and never have a minute's trouble with it but I personally won't do business with him over there for other reasons. I bought my GoDevil rig thru TxBackwater.com and picked it up in Baton Rouge. Shipping cost about the same as the trip over there so I figured why not go and have a look around. Glad I did.

Anyway, the offer to bring it over your way stands if you'd like. Or if you need a hand or another set of eyes dialing yours in once it's together or whatever. Just hit me up. Id like to see it run.

What refuge are you running?

One other thing to consider because I ran into this when I used needle bearings a loooonnng time ago when I built a long tail. You better use a tapered thrust bearing inside the lower at your bottom gear to take the thrust loads out from the prop. Those needles can handle high temp and high rpms, but no thrust. Just a consideration from my experience.

Setx- if I get that rig going before season I might run it in anahuac a few times. Probably won't do much at McFadden because the intracoastal run. Im,not depending on it to hunt though. I have several buddies that run out there plus I do side work for a crawfish farm.

Banded- I have a back up plan in case the needle bearings fail. May not be a good one but I bought some bronze bushings that I used on a long tail build of mine and it worked great. On the pilow block bearing I'm going to run an extra shaft locker ring to ensure I'm not just relying on the 2 sets on the bearing.