Ok so heres my attempt at my mad mud motor with a 13hp honda motor on it using the plans as a guide, been throwin in some extra support braces were i thought they need it cant ever hurt to have a little more reinforcement. Did alot on it today but i ran out of flat bar so i have to get some more. Gonna tyr to get the transom mount setup tomorrow. Let me know what you think, this is my first attempt at building a mud motor.

Looks good so far, but I dont see any jamnuts welded to dom tube for bushings. Also good that you added extra brace to base, I have built a couple 6.5-13 hp and there is alot of flex there.

Hey fellas. i just ordered the plans from mad mud motors to build a longtail. I have a 14' monarch aluminum boat. Im planning on building the motor with a 25hp kohlar motor. Do yall think this will be too much motor or do you think it will be ok as long as i dont stay in the throttle?

What are you going to use for a top seal? I would have threaded it before welding it to the frame. Looks good so far.

And for the 25hp kholer on a 14? Thats what I run and it goes pretty good but not like a 16 or 17 would. The short boats plow too much water.

ok i appreciate the input...im new to this mud motor thing. Is there anything you would recommend doing to make it cut through the water better? I have unlimited access to a machine shop. any advice is greatly appreciated.

^^In an attempt to not derail the OP's thread why dont you start a new one where the guys can point you in the right direction. But I have to warn you, the answer to your question is going to be add 2 feet to a 14 if you want to run shallow water and maximize engine performance.

ok i will do that. I apologize, i have never done this blog thing.

I have some seals that i got off of mcmaster the ones that the plans recommend they just tap in with a hammer. The set screws do have jam nuts and once everything is where it needs to be the jam nuts will get welded in place. Like i said this is my first attempt at one gonna put it on a 1448 alumacraft just so im not dragging the bottom of the river with my 25hp evinrude.

turn the heat up on the welder, the welds look alittle messy? you might not be getting good penetration, just my 2cents. Other than that it looks good.

First time with flux wire i miss my miller 250 i had acess to but they took me out of the shop and put me back out in the feild at work so i had to go buy a welder. My next purchase will prolly be a hobart handler 130.

Get the 140 or the 185. The ones that come ready for shielding gas. Its well worth a few extra bucks.

Yeah the 140 was what i meant i def want the gas though cause i kinda wanna try weldingon aluminum as well.

Maybe just make sure the metal is real clean. Grind off the mill scale, and it should weld a little beeter, and not leave the weld balled up.

I just finished my Mad Mud motor for my layout boat. Its a 6.5 hp. don't use they're set screw idea on the handle. It moves when you get in the mud and causes more hassle than a removable handle is worth. Weld it or use a pin. Also the vertical fins on the cavitation plate i cut off it sucks in the mud too! and a remote throttle it def worth the 30 bucks. send me an email if you need some help

Yeah that thing looks pretty sweet. I only have just a few more things to do and ill be done. How do you like the harbor freight engines? I want to get the 420cc motor for my next build plus i have a few other things i want to change the next one i build.

Nice job, looks good!

for the money you can't beat it. it starts every time but you have to choke em because of some environmental bs. I'm probably going to sell the long tail and build a new one with a briggs and stratton kart racing engine. its a 6.5 hp hopped up to 14 hp and weighs less with an electric start.

Im not worried about the choking in fact we have gx390's at work on the trash pumps we run and every single one ive found has to be choked to crank. I was just wondering if they were reliable enough to be worth saving the money or if they would fall apart cause they were cheap.

I only have around 20 hrs on it... thus far its working great.

Ok so i finally got it finished and got it out on the water today, def not a speed demon but i was gettin a respectable 11 mph with just me on a 1448 alumacraft. Ended up goin to harbor freight and gettin the 420cc predator so that id have electric start and pull start. Motor handled great got to wot and the cav plate was about an inch or two under the surface and was stable there i let go of it a few times and it stayed there. Im extremly excited this is my first motor and it sure is cool had a lot of looks cause i live in east nc and nobody has ever seen anything like it except on tv. Had one issue my cav plate broke off but its ok went to lowes and got another plate to make another one.

Looks pretty good, I just finished mine the other day and gettin ready to paint it one night this week I used a 15hp lifan 420cc from home depot with a key start that's worth its weight in gold!!! I changed quite a bit on the design though I'll try to get some pics up after I paint the frame otherwise mine was doing really well it pushed an alumacraft 1448 at 16mph+ with two 200+ pound guys in it it's maiden voyage I'm runnin a 9x3 backwater prop on it and I based my design of my skag off backwaters skags too.

Welcome to the ghetto longtail club! Good luck out there.

what did you use to make your cavitation plate? Looks a little thin...

Well i used a .100" peice of sheet metal and it worked great until my entire freakin motor fell apart goin down the river and fell in the river leaving me with an engine and a base plate. So instead of trying it again im just gonna suck it up and get a 23hp backwater. Its got a warranty so if anything happens itll get replaced.

Shit!

What did you hit? Or did your welds release?

Sorry to hear that - you put a bit of work into that

You'll like the Backwater - I'm drooling over the 35 SWOMP

I'm using a .120 cav plate that I'm trying to replicate the backwater cav plate - getting it bowed out - apparently it's the shit and gets a bit more speed Than a typical cav plate
We will see

Sucks about your motor - thanks for the post - let me know how the 23 backwater is

I didnt hit notgin hadnt hit anything with it its like arlon from backwater told me today he said im the 4th oerson thats had this happen he said the metal in the kits is just way to small so imma get that 23 that thing just looks mean as hell.

Cool. Let me know how it performs.

Alright ill do it for sure.

Is there any way I could get some pictures of where it failed. I'm am currently building one and would like to know where I need to add extra support.

Yeah just look at the third and fourth pics of this post and thats whats left sittin on the boat.

Remember when i said the welds werent hot enough, that is what will happen with no penetration.

I turned the heat up on em but i guess it wont enough.

If you have a torch or map gas heat up the area first. That will give you the penetration u are looking for

Use a thicker extention cord.

why you would choose one over a go-devil. Whats the difference, $100?

What makes a go devil better than a backwater or even a mud buddy?

^^ IDK, I was confusing backwater with the fireman/ripoff artist/swampratt motor. I would like to know what the difference is as well.

I can tell you a few differences:
59'' shaft on the Backwater 23hp; and
72'' on the Go Devil

Different sized props, different mounts, different material used in construction, and different cavitation plate.

Both use a Briggs I believe - I've heard also that Backwater goes faster...depending on the boat obviously and setup...

I drive a 20hp GDLT - runs great - no complaints.

I'm interested to know how well the Backwater actually perform - been drooling over a SWOMP 35 for a while now....

According to arlon at backwater a 23hp on a 1648 empty hes doin around 22. The others say at most 18 mph. The backwater looks alot tougher to.