Count me among the masses who are disappointed with MudBuddy. While I'm not one of the unfortunate souls who was sold a lemon and forced to endure a never-ending and never-curing series of "cures" for a lemon, I still will not be buying another MB and will discourage my friends from doing so.

I have a 2006 23 hyperdrive. Last year, my original Bear trim went out. From what I read, I was lucky it lasted that long. I called MudBuddy and provided my engine details (model, type, code, year) and was sent a new Thompson trim actuator and new bracket to mount it. When I tried to mount it, something just didn't add up. The metal bracket atop the Thompson did not have enough height to allow it to reach the bolt holes. The diamond-shaped top of the actuator hit the main motor mount.



I called Justin. Then I called Justin again. Lunch, working on a motor, on the other line.

Finally got through to Justin who said that I should have told them I had a high-transom model (I certainly do not). I could ship the trim back to him (from Canada), and wait several weeks until new brackets arrived. He would then make the necessary mods and send it back. He also suggested that to save time, I could take it to a welder and have them do the mod, using the bracket from my old Bear unit, which I thankfully had saved.

I took the unit to the welder, at the tune of a $75 shop fee. I then went home, put the top bolt in, and tried to swing it into place for the bottom bolt. No go. The nipple coming off the Thompson trim for the breather was in the way. No forcing would make it work.

I called Justin. Then I called Justin again. Lunch, working on a motor, on the other line. (notice a trend here)

Finally, I got through to Justin. He said I shouldn't remove the nipple. I asked what solutions he had. He'd get back to me tomorrow.

Then I called Justin again. Lunch, working on a motor, on the other line.

Eventually got through to him. No answer for me. Engineer's out, we'll talk to him and get back to you ASAP.

I gave him several days. Then I called Justin again. Lunch, working on a motor, on the other line.

Finally got through. Still no answer. I suggested that it may be possible to unbolt the diamond plate and spin the whole actuator 180 degrees and put it back together, but wanted to know if that would be ok before proceeding. He said he'd talk to Thompson.

Several days of calling and getting told he was working on it. Finally, confirmation that it would work.

Excitedly, I made the change and voila, it bolted up. Happy times!

Until I used the trim. Half-way up and the front of the engine mount was hitting the transom mount. All the way down and the prop is just in the water. No chance of getting any bite if I get hung up in mud.

I contacted Glen at this point. Admittedly, I ranted a bit about my general displeasure with my MB and some of the other issues I've had with it. But I got back on point and I demanded that they get this trim figured out right and that they credit me for $75 in parts orders (I'd need something else soon, since it's a MB). I was out the price of the trim, an additional $75, and it still didn't work right. Glen basically told me that my motor was really old (8 years old), that these motors are custom, and sometimes that means the customer must pay to modify things to work, and asked for pics. I sent them. He responded by telling me I'd need to talk to Justin to get it work.

I tried Justin numerous times. Most recently, he said that he needs Glen to work on it with him. I asked where Glen was and Justin said [I have no idea, he's been pretty MIA the past few weeks]. I have since e-mailed both of them several times and am no longer getting responses.

Here's the problems as I see them:

- These engines should be traceable. Serial numbers. I can give the B&S info which should be tied to a MB serial number, except in cases where engines have been swapped. I bought the motor new from a MB dealer, so why is there no record of drive length, transom style, etc?

- They should have schematics of each engine variety that comes off the line. I didn't order a one-off model. There were many of these made. Why don't you have any idea how they were built?

- An 8 year old engine is not "too old" to have records for, as Glen indicated. I can get schematics for my 1995 Evinrude and my 2000 Chevy. Computers existed in 2006, as did paper. Keep the diagrams on file!

- MB should have credited me $75 in parts for the mods. In reality, this would have been, what, $40 in cost on their end? That would be a small price to pay to say "sorry we sent you the wrong stuff and jerked you around for weeks and still didn't get it right".

- MB needs more staff. If I (and several others I've spoken to) regularly have difficulty getting through to someone in parts and service, then you need more people in parts and service. Justin, who I don't fault for his employers inadequacies, explained that he's running around like a headless chicken come duck season. I work in a very seasonal business too. You know what we do in the high-season? Hire more staff.

And it's not just duck season. It's hard to get through to that dept year round. I've had that problem before.

- Glen, Justin, the engineer, etc should have not blown me off. You don't take someone's money, send them the wrong parts and then ignore them. Period.

CS is what sells products. Sorry bud about your luck. I've been down that road before. My MM manufacture closed shop a few months after I purchased my setup. They also have this crappy CS you speak of. At least you don't own a Dixie!

Where are you located

The first Dixie I bought was a short and I had a tall transom . After mounting it on then boat and finding out something was wrong I called and he said he would build me a tall frame. We'll the week I'm going to pick it up guess what he sold the business. So I ended up buying a new frame. It happens to us all. Good luck getting it fixed.

Call boat Dr and talk to Andy he is in Louisiana every time I needed parts for my MB got them next day he a sponsor on here. Great guy to deal with.

x2 on Andy being a great guy, he will def get my business again

I've only used the boat Dr one time. But he had my carb rain cover to my door the next day. Awesome guy to deal with.

I will be using the Boat Dr. in the future. Buzz has drilled that into my head as of late. Poor sucker bought a MB after telling me how bad they are, so he's been dealing with Andy frequently.

Dealings with MB = 0

Problems so far = 0

No problem with mud buddy and Andy at boat dr is great to work with bought a rain cover and some turf the other day and talked boats very knowledgeable about the mud boat world .... Isaac

Does any of you know how to get ahold to boat dr besides the number that's on this site? Email or pm?

Pm works, but calling is best

Is his username boat dr? I searched that and nothing popped up. I'm in Au and the timing is hard to call the States.

^ Speak of the Devil.

You won't get bad service from Andy. I can definitely attest to that.