Ok, for 20 years I've watched the mud motor market grow from the scarce occasional small hp longtail to every boat in the duck swamp sporting a $5k surface drive. I have a boat on the way and that oh-so-common and dang near infuriating question has become THE issue for me... which mud motor do I buy? i know a little about them all with 40 hours experience with MB HD, and a few years longtail experience with moth MB and GD. I want all of it, once and for all the definitive arguments from all of you. This thread should be damn near epic.
I know opinions are like buttles, and i'm fine with that. What I need is some honesty and the truth. the real truth to, not the watered down I just paid $6k and love what i bought stuff. I want the "if i had it to do over" stuff.
My MB HD experience has raised some reliability questions in recent years and I want to chase that rabbit down the hole as far as we can get it.
We run flooded timber, flooded fields, beaver swamps/dams and creeks. Obstacles and prop contact are pretty constant here, so that has to be considered (we really don't have much of that clean mud). Super shallow starts are often necessary as well, sometimes with harder bottoms of freshly flooded field, so that performance question needs to be addressed. the boat is a 17 footer with a slick bottom and square chines. I'm not a total speed junky but 25 with two is about as low as I'll be interested in, but mostly I want big picture info from you guys.
Dig deep and break it down like a fraction. Thanks guys.

To do it over again I would get a 20x60 duals one prodrive w/fpr and one gtr. that way I have best of both worlds.

really? why the GTR love? what's it bringin to the party?

The instant reverse is a nice option.

IMHO- the choice would be between gatortail and prodrive.

durability on both? how much tinkering is required throughout a normal season of use?

they are all the same.
They all need grease and oil.

3!!! one gd one gtr one pd on a 24x72 with tiller handle lol

I would hit everything on the water trying to handle all the controls.

i'm pretty sure i'll buy just one motor, lol. dont get me wrong, tandem look badA, but I need just one. I;ve had good times with MB but theyve hurt my feelings a few times too breaking down

Demo the other 3 and see which one you like.
Come on down here and you can demo them.

They all get the job done and can all break. As most would say demo them all and then decide, its alot of money any way you go and YOU have to live with the purchase. Options are the biggest determining factor and for me. FPR is something I wouldn't be without. I had to use it several times last night, otherwise I would have pushing. Fork that any day of the week. A clutch is also something I want as my only expience with a MB was a balanced with no clutch. And my PD is easy to drive. Only thing I wish my PD did a little better was hard bottom starts but as long as the boat is floating it can be done. The big skeg makes it a little harder to get down into a hard bottom but that same big skeg keeps prop stirkes on stump to a minimum. The MB seemed to have hit everything on the prop, below and above water with no clutch on it. I guess MB has worked out alot of their bugs but its hard to tell since most MB folks mainly post on the MB site and I don't go there.

As far as the cage match, that was offered up to the owner of MB on more than one occassion.

interesting... i never really thought of when you'd even use reverse until you said that.... then i had nightmares of sweating will pushing the boat back for the third time on the way to a blind....hmmmmmmm... how's the PD stack up under normal abuse for relaiability? i know you break anything if you try hard enough but i mean under normal use. does jumping obstacle hurt Pd's?

Troll....trolling

I have hit countless stumps WFO in my prodrive. So durability is not an issue. Reliability depends on whether you maintain your junk or not.

me? no troll job here... for real i have a boat coming and after a billion times of saying it, I'm buying a motor. i;ve always loved the torque of the MB but the last failure was one too many for my taste. The PD and GTR are not around here and I have no idea about them. I want to know what's up with all of them

Be sure to get reverse what ever you do. You won't be sorry.

If I had to do the engine part again, I would get the exact same engine I have(GTR35). I love it, with no regrets on buying it. Best MM I have owned.

Tell us what options you think you might want. ie reverse, neutral, power trim, etc.

oh believe me I pledge no allegiance here, I just dont have experience with the others. if the GTR is the business, I wanna know. same for PD....

options? well i dont have reverse experience but your point makes damn good sense to me about backing out. trim is non-negotiable as it seems required for getting a good ride. dunno about clutch but i can see how slow speeds maneuvers would be easier. my main worries are reliability and maintenance but low end power is big time important to me as well

you need to understand that i'm still thinking like a longtail guy. so the surface drives are super nice and i've enjoyed the performance boost from the hyperdrives but advancements in clutches and reverse are still new to me

Seems everyone is on the MM band waggon now days and for good reason. I am jumping stuff every time out just to get to those hard to reach places that are untouched by other folks. I did break a prop shaft off after a year of hard use but haven't ever heard of anyone else doing it. Funny thing is I was running clean deep water when it gave way. But I have hit chit so hard I had to look back to just make sure I still had a motor on the boat. As far as FPR, I swear I can go places in FPR that I can't go no further in forward. Sometimes its easier to have the motor pull the hull through the trail the motor already cut than try to force the boat through first. If you run up small bayous where you can't turn the boat around a reverse can save the day.

HuntFish,

I run the same type of bottoms you are talking about. Most of them are hard bottoms with little room to get up in. I do not have that clean mud either. I run in flooded fields and timber as well. This is my opinion. PD owners please do not hate. I have drove my buddies PD in the hard bottoms with shallow water and from my experience they can not get up on plane in as shallow of water with hard bottoms than a Gator Tail can. Also, I think a stock Gator Tail is quicker than a stock PD on matching hulls. Although, I do like PD full power reverse, but the instant reverse on my GTR gets the job done. I also hit a lot of stumps and have not had an issue yet. Maintenance is probably about the same. They all take grease and oil.

side bar, i have actually knocked a surface drive off the back of a boat before, so i know the feeling right after you hot something. (and there are pictures of that trip)

Don't know about how TN is laid out but Cut-Down is from TN and I believe still sells PD rigs up that way.

shallow water plane issues huh? ive read that before so no big surprise. unfortunately i seem to end up in that kind of water all too often. that would be a strike in my book since i have started to hate the WOT song and dance trying to get a good bite in bad water

Go down to the Morgan City fun run this weekend and demo them all.

there u go!!! demo all of them stock and modded ones

I bought a PD because my longtail wouldn't make it thru the thick, long patches of hyacinth where I hunt and because I make long runs for hunting and fishing. The full power reverse is perfect for the vegitation and cutting trails. I can run thru the patches until they stop me, then reverse out and do it again until the trail is cut.

I also like the fact that it drives like an outboard. I almost always sit down to drive. Since I got it, I got in a new lease with TONS of stumps, logs, etc. The first time I ran it, I literally hit something every 5-10 seconds for miles with no damage to the motor. I have not have any problems with the PD unit itself, the only issues I have had were Briggs problems or self-inflicted (diodes, not greasing things, etc).

My buddies have a Gatortail and they love it. They don't worry about a lot of maintenance, they just get in the boat and go hunting. So far after 2 seasons, they have not had any problems. They seem to have no problems getting going in shallow water either.

What size boat are you getting? That might effect your decision also. What dealers are close to you should also be considered? They all break at some point, whether it's the engine or lower unit, so good service is a priority. If you are mechanically inclined, then all the manufacturers can ship you the needed parts, but if not consider who will service it.

Well said Wilson!

We probably run a lot lf the same type of terrain. To me, there are only two choices. PD or GT. I haven't driven the GTR and would like to see how it does. I honestly can't see it performing as well as FPR. But, like I said I've never run the GTR. I have spent a lot of time backing a big hull out of dead end coves over hard clay bottom. FPR has saved my solo hunting ass on many occasions.

it's getting obvious in a hurry that reverse is a must have. Interesting mix of non MB folks, which is what I wanted. the strikes against the PD seem to be shallow takeoff. The GTR is essentially the same config at the MB HD ? so performance is similar? I dont have any hyperdrive complaints about drivability, trim or low end power so that would be a plus... tell me (other than reverse) why I SHOULDN'T buy a MB, or should buy a GT R

Drive them all and see what best suits your needs.

i would also say go drive em all. i wouldnt want a gd just for the fact that they dont have a clutch. i know a clutch is something else that could break but i like being able to engage/disengage the prop. i run a mb and it does everything i need it to. i'm not as adventurous as some of these guys here nor do i have the time to run as much as most here do. if i had the cash i would look hard at the gt and prodrive. the reverse option is appealing. both seem to have good customer service and i have rarely heard a negative about either one. i have had to get out and push and pull while sweating my balls off and would have loved to have the ability to at least try to reverse out. but right now my ass pockets arent quite deep enough for a new motor so i'll have to make do with what i have. if you have the cash to spend on whatever you want then demo is the way to go. thats alot of money to pay out based on anothers opinion.

i know the MB raises out of the water as you turn harder... is that design unique to the MB HD?

and for sure the demo is going to happen, i don't have a bottomless supply of cash either. it's a real sacrifice to get this bought so I take it dead serious. hell i've practically studied these motors for years as most of my buddies can attest. I just don't want to scratch out enough cash for a once in a million years purchase and wish i'd gone another route. especially in the performance and durability area

There are different MB frames for different applications. If you are running alot of stumps and need quick lift of the prop, the HD probably wasn't the best choice for you (a balanced model frame may have been better for you- can't remember what they call it).

There's lots of options out there- go demo them all.