Well since I bought my rig I've had hell with it and even at one point considered selling it. It's starting to come around now though, glad I haven't moved it lol.

Yesterday I went to look and see what this cold front was doing with the birds. It was just me, boat unloaded with the exception of about 3gal of gas and two small batteries. I used them to offset my weight. Wide open in the water she was turning right at 4K and bumped 20mph on the GPS in deep water. I was pretty happy with that. At that speed the wakes from the float boxes cross and move the prop/cav plate side to side a bit but nothing extreme, but probably cost me a mph or two.

I've had this thing in the mud flats down at Wallisville, and stumps in Rayburn. So far she's done pretty well. Even hauled 4 grown men and all our shit through a little chop at 10mph on the last day of teal lol...

This is my old 20hp Mudbuddy LT on a 1548 Weldbuilt Mod-V with added float boxes. It's not ideal but it does a lot of different things fairly well. I've got some sort of rattle/ vibration at 2000rpm from the back of the engine/U joint area but it's not bad sounding and it's only in about a 50rpm range, and the engine never runs there anyway... If I get to it I'll work on resolving it but for now I'm not worried with it.

As far as the tail getting caught in the wash from the float boxes, I had thought about addng a smooth piece of 1/8 aluminum plate to the bottom of the boxes to run the width of the boat. It would give it more planing surface and the wake would be more uniform. Also considering moving the engine mount back and turning the boxes into a hunt deck more-less... Thoughts??


Just figured Id update. Thanks everyone for their help so far.

Leave the engine where it is and build a hunt deck. Your boat will squat less, draft shallower, get on plane easier and faster.

Do not hang it further back on the hunt deck, you'll defeat the purpose of the added buoyancy behind the engine and it'll be very difficult to make a turn.

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Sent from my beeper.

I've seen that thread. I like some of the stuff done there. My boxes are tall right now so I'd shorten them down and then connect them to make a HD... The boxes work for added flotation for the engine to keep the boat flatter but I need more planing surface to fix the wake issue. Especially since I'm considering putting a bigger engine on this frame next summer. Something in the 27-30hp range

I guess I need to get my buddy to take a pic of what mine looks like next time we run the boat. Put some miles on her today since the water is up and we have a little flooded timber to run in. Jumped probably 40 woodies, had a good ride... Gotta avoid those sand bars though, they're hell on a prop.

I know my main wake is a good ways behind the boat running wide open. The two smaller wakes from the boxes cross closer to the transom, that's the problem. It's only done it so far with me running it unloaded as light as possible, every other time it's been in the water it's had at least two people and a few items to add weight. Around 3800-3900 RPM and 17.5ish mph...

Who long is your hunt deck? Something looks like it's creating turbulence in the picture.

Did you bend the tail end of your cavitation plate down a smidge with a crescent wrench to adjust it from digging too deep?

You'd be amazed at how well that motor will run on a longer mud hull, I love my 18x42.

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I know I am not getting everything out of this hull. It's heavy as shit and a mod-V on top of that. The boxes were an afterthought at best. This is how I bought it though. I had no idea. This is my first mud motor and honestly didn't realize at the time that it needed a different hull design to be "right"... I will say, for what it is, it does good and it's plenty strong. Went over several logs with the V and it was fine. Just layed to one side when we slid over lol

I would like to put a 30-40hp Yamaha outboard on this boat and have a hull built for the Longtail. I don't look at a SD as any sort of "upgrade" though. Only maybe in the speed dept. There's plenty of places I can go even with the "wrong" hull that they can't with a SD. They're nice to run and all but I'd rather work a little bit and get where I want.