Hello All, I've been trolling this site for some time now as well as the Internet soaking up as much knowledge as I can about longtail mud motors. I live in Massachusetts and I've never seen a mud motor in person, I've seen 2 on CL in the last 2 years around here for sale. Never seen one while I've been hunting, you can get by up here with a regular outboard and a trolling motor ( I've done it for the past 3 years) but I'm tired of getting by and settling for the same spots only because I know I can get to them without destroying my outboard. So after toying with the Idea of buying one from Backwater Inc. I finally decided to just build one. I was a steelworker in the USN and an iron worker. So I dug out my mig welder and got to it. Here's some photos. If anyone has any words of wisdom please by all means chime in..

Looks nice for a home brew! Is that a backwater 4x8? If so its a good match for your motor. The only thing I dont like about it is it doesn't run on the surface very good at all! There is not neer enoph cup on the blades to do that. If you put more cup on it then its like adding another inch of pitch & still dont run partly out of the water.

It is a backwater 8x4 prop, most of the parts I couldn't fabricate I got from back water, prop shaft, u joint, throttle cable, propeller, kill switch, tiny tach, stopper ball etc...McMaster Carr as well as the local hardware store. I just put a shroud around the u joint and finished the transom mount, I'll have to post some more pics, Thanks for the reply...I'm married with 2 young boys so progress is slow but I try to work on it when I get a spare hour or two

Here's the transom mount and U Joint shroud

Again looks good, I speak from personal experience on that prop. Everthing else ive got from them is top shelf! Just cannot run on the surface with that prop on my go-devil lt.

I wouldn't weld the shroud on, I'd use bolts and fender washers. It will mak it easier to work on when you have to change the universal or bearing etc.

Thanks for the replies guys, I plan on using weld in nuts and 1/4 20 bolts with fender washers same as I did for the cavitation plate, I have it so it hooks on one side and bolts on the other but I think I'm going to make it bolt on both sides if anything for ease of removal. I'll post more pics as progress is made. once again I appreciate the replies

welded on the pivot points today on the bottom of the engine plate then I ran out of wire, here's the pics

Finished the motor today...

some more pics

I have one more thing to add and it will be completely done the way I want it. Took a few tries to get the tiny tach to work properly, had to reset it twice. Here's anothe pic

Nice job, dude.

Thanks A lot Russ

Test Run

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=as6sW0kFv4k