Hello everyone, I'm new here so it's nice to meet you guys. I've got a couple questions for those of you who have some extra time and want to help out a stranger.

Would a longtail mud motor work alright in the Great Lakes? I'm looking for a motor for my 17' boat that will push it in the shallow, mucky, smaller lakes and work great in the large lakes as well. Would a surface drive be better suited? How hard would a longtail be to turn in a lake with small to medium sized waves? I'm leaning towards a longtail because they are cheaper, but a surface drive is not out of the question.

Lastly, I know of Go-Devil, Beavertail, Mudbuddy - are there any other manufactures of these two types of motors out there that are worth looking into?


Thanks in advance for the info. . .

Surface drive. Prodrive or gator tail.

I wouldn't want to drive my 16.5' boat with a longtail on the Great Lakes. If it was always flat sure, but maneuvering that long motor in any sort of wave action sucks, not to mention dangerous if the waves are big enough.

I. Concur , i run a longtail , when on big water I use a different boat

long tail wouldnt be fun to drive on the great lakes. what king of boat do you have? go with a surface drive. pro drive and gator tail are other popular surface drive brands

i would have to agree to an extent with the sd if you spend ALL your time on the great lakes. but i spend a fair amount of time open water hunting divers on a lake that has an 40 mile surface area / 25,000-30,000 acres and i run a longtail on it alot you just need to watch for changing conditions and know your limits.

I hunt Michigan,gb and superior with my sd. If I plan on heading more than 3 miles out I take the bigger boat and outboard. The best thing about a mm is if the weather changs in a hurry like the great lakes like to do you can run to shore and run the shallow waters where the waves cant get that big. 5 footers out on in deep water compared to 1 footers along shore. Best advise is to know your limits and when in doubt err on the safe side.

You did not describe your boat with respect to beam, freeboard or decking, so assuming it is a jon-type 17' boat I would affirm the suggestions of caution that others have made above. It might be OK close to shore on a calm day but conditions can change faster than you can escape them. I ran salmon charters on Lake Ontario for over a decade and don't think small open boats with low sides are a good idea offshore. There may be lots of people who can say they run open water all the time but you only have to be wrong once......

The boat in question is a 17' basstracker. In regards to how far from shore I'm talking about, I should have specified a little better. I really have no reason to go more than 500 yards off shore after some divers. I've already had the boat on the lake with a 40hp Johnson and it's actually very stable, even with larger waves. I don't care for how bumpy the ride is, but it's not a deal breaker.

I've never used a mud motor before, but I want to take my boat on the shallow inland lakes around where I live where there's about 1'-3' of water and endless muck under it and filled with catails and wild rice. I figured there must be a single motor that can be used in the smaller, shallow lakes often and occasionally in Lake Michigan under fair to moderate conditions.

Get a surface drive. My brother hunts Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Detroit River, Saulte St. Marie. 18 foot Phowler with high sides and a 35 GTR.

Getting tossed out running a longtail would be a high possibility on the Great Lakes.

I hunted Lake Ontario in a 1542 with a 20hp LT

Not the best in rough water. ..

I have ran my LT in 2' waves a few times with a strong crosswind and wasn't very comfortable with it.

Granted I made it to the ramp fine, I wouldn't make a habit of going into such big water on purpose. You just don't have the power to get yourself up on the waves and back to the bank if the conditions change.
Go to prodriveoutboards.com and look at the 36hp motor on a SBX (selfbailing floation hull) they are very safe boat and will give you better performance out of your mudmotor than an outboard hull.