I am new to the forum and I want to ask what your experiences are with copperhead motors. I am considering an 18 or 23 for a 12' crawdad. I just sold my 27 pro-drive which I really liked and have been using my sons 23mini. Both motors are too heavy for a 12' boat. Any input would be useful. I know I will miss neutral but I don't know any light motors with neutral. Thanks.

What width? That's alot of motor for that short of a boat.


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Nice review

At this point its not his fault. Its his first post... didnt we have a thread by the admim that every 1st post will be reviewed. And then approved.

My buddy has a 23 hp copper head on his 14' shallow water skiff. He's running the mid 20s by himself and light hunt load. We run a lot of shallow water creeks that are tight corners and heavy vegetation.

18 and 23 is the same weight.

For sure... Needs to look at the12hp

18 would probably be topo much. Past a pic of the boat..... how wide across the bottom?

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It has 44" bottom, 18" sides and 20" transom. The 18 and 23 copperhead weigh about the same so I figured go with more hp. I kind of know how the hp will perform, I was wondering more about the lower unit, like is it durable? I cracked the skeg on my pro-drive and have had to weld on the 23 mini. where it clamps on the transom. I think some of the problem with mini was rough roads on the trailer maybe.

You'd probably be okay with the 18.

The lower unit, tailshaft, and skeg are virtually indestructable. I give mine hell every time out and I havent had any problems in that area yet.

Make sure you secure the engine when trailering. Let it flop around and I doubt there is a motor on the market that will take that kind of abuse. They simply arent designed for that. No sense in trying it either since all it takes is a ratchet strap around the tiller handle.

With that small of a hull and so much horsepower you will probably be able to run a little extra pitch in your prop, or gear it a bit higher.

I have a 1330 skiff with a 14 copperhead and it's a little rocketship. I just got the 18hp prop for it but havent been home to try running it yet. Also I have a huge 3 blade I plan to run in the summer after a few mods.

I have never yet seen a long shaft (20") Copperhead. If they have started building them, I would love to hear it, otherwise you are going to have a problem. It is possible to cut the back of the boat off and rebuild it though (have seen it done).

44 inch bottom is good to float the 23, but it is going to porpoise really bad on a 12 foot boat. If you don't have someone in the front of the boat, it will squat badly in the back making your mud performance go down the tube, but would probably run ok if you always had someone else in the boat.

18 and 23 Copperhead do not weigh the same. On a bigger boat, it wouldn't matter at all, but on a really small boat, it matters. I have not been able to figure out why the difference though.

I agree with TxKingfisher that they hold up well in the water but trailering will tear up any motor if it is not tied down well. Although I love the 18/23 vtwin smoothness, I would probably put a 14 Kohler Copperhead or Briggs 2100 Copperhead on a 12 foot boat based on reviews. I have run the 10 and 12 Copperhead which I really enjoyed while I had them, but people like the reliability of the Briggs and Kohler engines more.

I have seen a 23 on a 12'x44" alum john run. 1 person it didn't have as issue ran out smooth with pretty good speeds. It states on ch web site the 18hp and 23 hp weigh 140lbs I take it that's a typo ? My buddies 23 hp weighs in at 146lbs with fluids and everything ready to go on a boat.

Cont520. No arguments on the 23 getting great speeds. On a skinnier but slightly longer boat than the one you saw, there was a problem with squatting causing decreased mud and hard bottom performance on the 23 vs the 18. It was much faster in deep water than the 18 but porpoised bad over 26 mph alone. On another boat with a different 23 that was 14' and even skinnier it was fine with no squat or porpoising, so I guess it just depends on how well the boat is balanced. Either way, you throw one person in the front and the problem goes away. The boat must have been really borderline on weight for the difference to be so noticeable. I don't know why that would be since the engine block is the same except the 23 is bored bigger (which normally means lighter). The frame is only slightly taller on the 23 with bigger gears, longer/bigger belt, same prop, bigger muffler, additional oil cooler, possibly bigger starter, slightly different carb and airbox. I was wondering whether your friend had any other gear in the boat and if he had moved the gas tank all the way forward to offset the weight some.

How much has your buddy run his in no water situations? I have seen the 12 outperform the 18 and the 23 in no water simply because it was so light. It seems to really depend on the boat. Also it is more noticable in hard bottom areas than soft mud bottoms because draft means everything over hard bottom.

I would be happy with either one as long as it matched the boat it was on.

Copperhead doesn't offer a motor for a tall transom.


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The 18 weighs 135 lbs dry the 23 weighs 138 lbs dry


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