Just wondering what's the advantage of the crawfish tail over a regular GDLT?

Shorter shaft I think

Yup
Shorter shaft length

I know the shaft is shorter. I was wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of the shorter tail.

The advantage is, its shorter. The disadvantage is, its shorter.

If you running trees and stumps, the longer the better. Trust me.

its a cunt hair easier to drive, not worth the lost reach IMO.

depends on how tight the trees are. My cousin and I both run 17*38 boats with a 23gdlt. open water his boat(crawfish model) is slooooow but it is much easier to turn around in the narrow ditches with trees. Mine is faster by about 3 miles an hour. His also turns alittle sharper

lets go!

Don't some of the crawfish models have a gear reduction box that allows you run a bigger prop and push more water?

This is exactly what it looks like

The gear reduction is in the crankcase, not the frame.

It's not in the crankcase. It a whole different animal. It's an add-on that's clearly shown in the picture.

So, you can take that gearbox off and have a direct drive engine?

I never have but by the looks of it you can. You would have to open the gearbox to do it. My guess is that there is a gear with a keyway and retaining bolt coming off the mainshaft.

Here ya go. I forgot about the centrifugal clutch. By the looks of it, the clutch w/gear goes on the drive line like I said. Keyed then bolted through the end. Output shaft on the gearbox and engine should be similar.

This prop actually measured 9 3/4" but you can't tell with the angle of the pic. It's worn a lil and most likely was a 10". I'm not sure of the pitch without taking it off. This is a 9 hp motor.

There is a 10X12 three blade on my buddies.

So we can all agree Godevil had the first longtail with gear reduction and neutral. Even the first mudmotor with neutral, being the reduction gear has a neutral at idle. Crawfisherman favored this longtail for that reason . I know of numerous commercial fisherman still using the 9hp crawfish model to this day. I seen people hang chains off the front of boat as to keep boat still at idle to raise crawfish traps.

This one has been has been under water for weeks, then flushed and ran for years. I am reduilding it know because it ran for years with bent prop and raddled everthing lose. These are some badass motors. Not real fast but badass and dependable.

You can get the smaller engine variety on *bay; search for reduction gearbox.