ive been in the market for a while now for a sd mud motor. i sold my 23 gdlt this past summer and now ive talked myself into going back with another lt. i dont think the sd would be much of an advantage where i hunt. im looking in the backwater 23/25 or possibly even the 35 but that may be out of my budget. question is , im wanting a rig thats around 16 ft and atleast 42 wide.. what hull would be best suited for this rig.

custom built no shorter than 18'

18x44 custom with 6' rake, if possible, or a GD 18x44 (hull I run).... As for motor/frame, the swomp 35 is very impressive and has more adjustments to dial the tiller in better!


If its up high, it's coming to the ground

I am curious if you have experience with a SD or just wanted to stick with what you know. I made the conversion from LT to SD and cannot imagine ever going back! With that said, which hull would depend on what types of loads, how many people etc. We ran a 1648 for years and had good luck with it. When we started running bigger loads it would have been nice to have a 17 or possibly even an 18.

id be running 2-3 guys and not really worried about being a rocket as long as it runs around 15 im good. the reason for the lt is that where i hunt is fairly hard bottom and full of logs and stumps.. rode in a pd the other day and we stayed out of the boat more than in it. stumps just gave that thing fits where i use to glide right through with my lt.

I can tell you 16 x 42 won't get 3 guys and gear to 15mph with 23/25 HP...

My GD 1648 struggled to get that 3 man hunting load to plane with 35 GDSD - but
the GD 1844 will get up instantly and run mid 20s on a stock 35.... In the timber
the extra 2 foot of length makes almost no difference either.... We run cypress
stumps and timber with downed trees that you must "crawl over" and the GDSD
does that with absolute ease - true an LT is a tad better at that but the SD is
so much easier to drive on long runs and twice the maneuverability at speeds
when zigzaging up lil bayous.... I ran LT for years and can get my 1844 everywhere
with 2 or 3 guys with the GDSD that I could get 2 guys with the 1648 and GDLT...

FYI - of the SD designs PD has the most trouble with stumps and logs at slow crawl
and GDSD has the least trouble and is more comparable to your LT experience but
just a lot easier on the driver....

You need to test drive a 35 GDSD powered GD 1844 ! ! ! Let me know if you need
help setting up a test drive I might be able to help out....

I am always interested to see how that backwater performs in thick grass.
I like a long tail in hard bottoms in places full of stumps. You can still use a surface drive in that but may want to go with the balanced motor of a go devil surface drive. It is designed to handle those stumps. However, if I were you I would stick with a longtail. I really like that 1844 GD boat. Those backwaters seem to run great. I just have not seen a video of them in thick grass. I want to see how that cavitation plate handles the grass.

theres a couple videos of the 23 in some pretty thick grass on youtube. im thinkin either the 25 or 35 will be where i end up.