Please keep in mind I'm a fng but I saw some longtail plans on ebay and was curious if anyone had built from these plans. If so, how did it turn out. Money is tight right now and I can't drop the coin for a complete setup right now but I work in a industrial fab shop and can get all the steel to build one free, just need some good plans.

i'll let you know in about a week. i'm in the process of building one now. seems to be very simple and straight foward. i probally have about 350 into it (for steel, bearings, and seals i didn't have) with a 6.5 engine from harbor frieght ($99 for a honda clone not too bad).

Yeah, please let me know. Do the plans have a cut list for the metal?

they do have the cutlist, it's mostly 1/8, 3/16/, 1/4 inch plate and DOM tubing. the plans are easy to follow and have good pics to by as well.

I sent ya a pm bh3733

I am currently building a 6.5 hp long tail based on the Madmudmotor ebay plans. Very good instructions with tons of pictures. A very good starting point for someone who wants to build a small mud motor.

I myself and a buddy have build one each this year so far we like them. we have ran them a few times worked good so far, I am running mine on a 12' jon pushes it great can't wait to be out hunting in it.

This is one my buddy built with those plans.

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=12723

I have those plans and it looks quite simple. However, I decided to build a SD instead. the parts are almost the same and I believe that with the short tail SD motor, you will solve the vibrations and heatings issues with the long shaft. It is quite hard to keep a "bearing" (roll bearing or brass bushings) in the middle of that long shaft. I am almost done with it. just waiting for one last part and it will be in the water this weekend for the first test ride.

Post up some pics when you get done.

Here are a few pictures I took today. One of the pics shows a long shaft, I didn't realized how long it was until it was all put together. It was 38" long, now is ~26" as shown on the later pics. the motor is a HF clone 6.5HP and prop is a 7X5, thinking about going bigger as I am using a clutch and not a constant drive prop. I still need to seal the bottom of the housing and finish the camo pattern.. Hope you like.... all comments welcome...
Ray

Very Cool!

That was about 2 weeks worth of work. Most of the time was the wait for the machinist to do his thing.

That's pretty awesome. Did you come up with your own pulley ratio or was that in your plans? I wouldn't mind having one of those.

nice. did u build off a set of plans or come up with the design yourself? i'm thinking of something like that for my next motor.

I looked around and found something similar. all of the post and info I found was to build it with V-belts. however, I didn't like the idea. There are a lot of problems with v-belts. 1. they can break easy (not a bad thing sometimes), 2. they slip (need for extra calculations to compensate for slippage), 3. hard to find spesific size at a decent price, 4. need a lot of tension to keep slipage to a minimum (more machine shop time = more $$$$) I am running a 1.4:1 ratio just because. that was my original plans for belt so I stayed in that course. the drive is a "max-torque" go-kart clutch with #41 chain. some people may say, "chain is unforgiving" and that is correct and a bad thing with direct drive, not with a clutch. no mods on the motor as of yet, but I have a 22mm carb on its way. I dont have plans written down, like all my projects, they come as they go or as I build... bad thing I know.......

what did you make your trim/ transom brakets with?

I went the easy way, instead of adding lots of weight by welding all kinds of weirs angles and brackets, I found an old bracket and lower unit from an 7.5 Johnson outboard ans cut it away. The top makes a good base with rubber mounts that eases vibration. plus it has many features hard to duplicate without adding tons of weigh; like, 5 different trim position, traversing/pivot point, handle bracket (i re-did mine), locks in up position, etc...

So, its got 5 positions but no fine tuning correct?

that is correct.......

didnt think too much about that, I'll see what I do about that