Need some advice. I have a '03 Lowe Roughneck 1752VT, which is a tall tansom and has a tunnel (shallow and flat) hull with an '03 29hp MB longtail on it. I am considering moving to a short tail. Some of the sites say that a short tail won't work on a boat with a tunnel. Is anyone using a short tail with a tunnel? What "won't work"? The boat won't plane? You lose some speed? I can't replace the whole rig at the same time, I would like to go piece by piece. If it matters I am considering the GTR35L. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

ive got a buddy with a 17x44 gator-trax with a tunnel and 29 mudbuddy short-tail. it does fine and gets us where we need to go. it may be a little slower on the top end with the tunnel.

they dont carry a load that well water doesnt lift the boat as high. it will work though. from wht i heard it doesnt allow the motor to stay on the surface like it does with a mm hull. maybe on some else can correct me if im wrong

This is a old subject on here. DONT use a tunnel.

Thays been folks that have filled in thays tunnel part and everythang worked just fine. Will not cost much at all fo somebody that welds alumian.

I have a southfork 18/42 tunnel (tall transom). I was able to test a short shaft GT on the boat and I thought it worked fine. Top speed was 27. I noticed that the trim allows you to lower the motor enough to elinate any potential problems with water volume.

The grass blade on the tunnel did slow the turns down a bit and of course prohibited any sliding.

I was also told by one of the local dealers that they do have several clients that use this combo In the Cameron Ph marshes and they like their rigs.

Thanks for all you advice so far, please keep it coming if you have any experience with this combo. I am not opposed to filling in the tunnel but wanted to see if I actually needed to before I ran the motor. Again, keep it coming if you got it!

Agreed; if you don't need your tunnel, close it in and get the long shaft. it will perform better overall. If you want to switch motors during the year, though, keep the tunnel; it works...

I still wanted to use my tunnel with my outboard, i didn't want a short mudmotor rig and i liked the 1754 dropdeck boat so much, i went with the whole 9 yards.

Thanks for all the input and advice. Well, got my longtail sold and I have a GTR35L on order and will be picking it up on Dec 4th. I will post performance numbers once I get some stick time.

just close da tunnel.

Yes it will work with da tunnel, but won't perform no better than an outboard.

I got first hand knowledge on a tunnel hull with mud motors. I bought a GT with the "Hyper tunnel". A mud boat is NOT supposed to have a tunnel and will not function well with the tunnel. I tried to make it work but there was no doing it.

When you were going straight it worked alright. If you tried to turn you are screwed. The prop will ride on top of the tunnel of water shooting out of the tunnel. When you turn your porp will slide out of the tunnel of water behind the boat and kick itself out of that tunnel of water. I welded mine up and sanded it smooth. It was like have a brand new boat and totally different function.

If I had to choose between any of the mods I have done that one in particular was abosolutely the best thing I have done to the boat.

Well, as requested, here are the results. Spent the day at Shallow Water Marine on Friday (BTW: Smitty kicks a$$) and got the motor swapped. Did a short test run in Iowa, got back to MI at midnight, had the boat on the water by 10a, this morning. With myself (225lbs), my son (70lbs), 5 gal of gas, smooth water, light snow, we topped out at 26.5 mph by the GPS. Most of the time it was running right around 25 mph. It was porpoising a little so I will need to make some more adjustments. I am probably going to fill in the tunnel and get an upgraded exhaust.

transom heights are relative to tunnel heights. In other words, when measuring tunnel transom height you measure from da top of da tunnel, not from da bottom of da boat as you would a flat. Example.... if you have a 4" tunnel, a short transom would measure a total of 20" from da bottom of da boat (4" tunnel + 16" transom), and a tall transom would measure a total of 24" (4" tunnel + 20" transom.)

keep in mind that if you have a tunnel, and your boat is indeed a tall transom as u mentioned in ur 1st post.... you will have to do more than just close da tunnel. you'll also have to cut ur transom down from 24" to 20" for a tall transom model MM to run correctly....

good luck

I succumbed to the original tunnel hull / mud motor snake oil being peddled back in 2004. I just hunted in that boat yesterday with the friend I'd sold it to. That rig has been many places in Idaho in all kinds of conditions, but I feel like the tunnel gets you nothing as a bonus and probably costs you a MPH or two in the speed department.

I know a guy in Washington that runs a lot of shallow sand flats and swears he loves the tunnel in this application, but I have owned four mud boats since the tunnel boat...none with tunnels...and I would never have another with a tunnel again.