I am new here, but not new to mud motors. Been using long tails for a few years and decided it was time to go with a short tail. I mounted a 32hp Pro drive on a 16ft lowe boat today, I THINK it might be a little heavy in the back.

It is the pro drive with reverse, so I am thinking if I mount pods that will hinder the reverse, am i right?

Going to try and get it in the water tomorrow, what do you more experienced guys think? I am running a river in western alaska, no stumps just silt.

I run the same motor, but on a 16 PD hull. You can trying moving your gas tanks and battery foward! I don't like pods, they're more of a band aid to fix a problem!

Someday I will get a hull designed for them, but where I live the boat would need to be transported to Anchorage, and then flown or barged to Western Alaska. It would be ONE expensive hull by the time it got here.

x2 on what mudhole said...

But.... had a 32 on a 16X48 and had to do something so I added pods. New boat not in the budget so went with pods.

Yes, I lost the reverse when I added them, but it fixed my problem. (was able to move the reverse to another boat that didn't have it so it worked out ok...)

I would run the boat first without and see what happens. All boats are different and it may handle it ok.

My boat just couldn't float it. There was no way to slow down without swamping the boat. Not turning, not slowly backing down, nothing. Even a sharp turn would throw water in the boat. Pods fixed me right up. I would try to get a set of custom pods welded on-hopefully by someone who has some knowledge of what you are trying to do, but that may be hard up there...

I would also look at the strengh of your transom. I went from a LT to the 32 pd and thought it would be fine (and I have a boat that while not great was built for a mm) but the transom did get a little crack in it eventually... and had to get som extra bracing put in it....

A better boat is always the best solution, but pods will work. Just make sure you put them on for the right reasons. Not performance gains... just help float the back of the boat better..

Good luck on your choice.

If you need some pics of mine for your welder or reference, just pm me and I will send you some...

Ran a 32pd on a 1648 alumnacraft for a year. Ran fine and handled it well. Needed to brace the transom and move weight around to get it to run good. Now I have a 1648 pd boat. If I slow down to fast the short transom will swamp the boat but just need to change driving habits and be aware of what you are doing. Yes I have sunk the boat twice, but both were under odd circumstances. The motor will work on that boat it will just take a little ingenunity.

Thanks for the help guys, it sounds like I should brace the transom before taking it out. I will have to get it welded up.

Also thanks for the forewarning on swamping it when slowing down. I will take it easy until I figure it all out. I HOPE i can get by without the pods, but if I have to put them on, and loose the reverse, so be it.