New to the forums here, not new to forums in general. I'd like to share my experiences with my SPS Thai Mud Motor Kit.
I bought mine back in April, and originally put a 6hp Briggs & Stratton Intek on it, had it all on a 1236 Tracker Topper. It worked ok, I could get about 8mph at best with me and another in the boat.
She wouldn't really get on plane, only just short of it. I could go pretty much anywhere, so as long the prop could be fully submerged, Northeast Texas doesn't really have clean smooth mud flats, just swampy marsh estuaries connected to lakes. They are littered with logs, stumps, rocks, and hard packed mud and clay.
So I've never been able to test it in a proper mud flat, but I have no doubt it would push right through.
I really put the kit to the test with it on that boat, dang near tore up the boat hitting stumps and a few times nearly getting dumped out of the boat.
Anyway the with the kit I have hit all kinds of things, bent several (Aluminum) props, never broke one.
I haven't had any problems with the kit related to design, yes it has a plastic end bearing and wood mid bearings but let me explain them.
The plastic bearing is made from Delrin, a plastic material patented to DuPont (not sure if they are the manufacturers of this particular bearing or if they are the original inventors). But this material is very similar to UHMW, a plastic I have had a lot of experience with in a oil field hydraulic equipment repair, fab, and service company is worked for. It was used for resting heavy things on, sliding through and on, striking, rotating, and more. It is a tough a** material, put grease on it and it will last a long time, some applications we could not put grease on it, it is also self lubricating for low impact, low heat uses. To my knowledge Delrin is not self lubricating, that is the only thing I think that sets these two plastics apart. This Derlin flange does allow some grease to penetrate it to displace water, but the rest of it is water lubricated, is has grooves cast in for that. There is also a bronze end bearing option that is inexpensive, I am thinking of getting one when the plastic one wears out.
The wood bearings are made of Takien wood, I did not know of this wood till recent, Mr Dobbs (owner of Swamp Runner Mud Motors and authorized SPS N.America dealer) told me this "The internal sleeve bushings in the shaft are made of a hardwood similar to mahogany the Thais call takien. This wood is ideal for marine shafts because it will not swell in a wet environment. The only purpose of the bushings is to keep the shaft aligned so that it does not whip inside the shaft housing and cause vibration. These bushings will last for years, and can easily be replaced when they eventually wear out. I've ran longtails in Thailand with the bushings completely gone."
I recently completely disassembled the kit to inspect it, the wood bearings were soaked with grease and were not worn at all after about 15 hours of service. So put your reservations aside about them, they can hang.
I had an issue with the tail pushing out of the water and cavitating, Mr Dobbs recommended I add a tiny "whale tail" to the skeg, I did so and it worked very well. I wasn't getting good speed so I unloaded extra weight out of the boat and that's how I got 8mph. At the time I thought it wasn't enough power, so I bought a new 10hp Tecumseh L-head that would fit the kit (3/4 shaft and 3-5/8" bolt circle), it got 14mph with me and another in the boat and 16mph with just me.
I liked it a lot better, as not only did I get to places faster but it was a lot less monotonous to travel 2-6 miles to my fishing spots. But the vibration was getting to me and starting to cause a condition I forgot the name to but can be caused by vibration to the hand, like you can get from using large impact guns too much.
I then was beginning to rethink what I really wanted out of a boat setup. I will spare you a longer story and tell you I wasn't satisfied with the Jon boat, sold it and got a Pelican Bass Raider 10E, now I can go into the stumpy areas and not worry about denting, scratching, and or puncturing the hull. But when I got it I was thinking the mud motor was too heavy, and it was with the 10hp on it, so I got the 6hp put back on. But I had a problem at first, one of the Briggs' mount holes were stripped out, I don't like using helicoil unless I have to. So I drilled all of them out and tapped them out to 3/8 NF, then drilled the kit's hole out to fit and I have to say I am a lot more satisfied with that than the original 5/16, seems a better fit for the weight hanging off of the back of the engine like it is.
So I got it out and tested it out on the water, first of all the champion spark plug broke, so until the E3 replacement got here I used and old Champion from a 2 stroke outboard, one problem though, not enough depth for the electrode, it ran ok, but would eventually sputter and hunt and die and I would let it cool a bit and restart it. I was only able to get 10mph. It ran similar to that with the OEM plug in it when I had it on the Jon boat.
Oh and BTW I had the OEM throttle setup on it on the Jon, and it was never set right, so I could have been getting about 13mph with it.
With the OEM plug, full choke- 2-3 pulls- 2-3 fires of plug, then half choke- 2 pulls fire up if I could unchoke it fast enough, if not it would die and I would have to start over.
E3 spark plug, full choke if block is cold- 1 pull, 2-3 fires of plug, then half choke- fires up and unchoke, runs awesome!
If warm one pull, no choke runs awesome!
She sounds better and smoother, and I think it will run awesome on the water, and with a new throttle setup directly linked to the governor arm. If the tach I had on it (before it went nutty and broke) read right I can rev the Briggs to 4600rpm!
That model of Briggs Intek is a commercial model, maybe not as "commercial" as a Vanguard but I think it may have heavier valve springs in it, that's the only thing I can think of that would allow it to rev that high. With the 10hp it took 4100rpm to achieve 16mph.
So with the thought the Bass Raider is a pontoon or catamaran style hull, it takes less effort to push, especially on plane.
So I think I can get up to 16mph and do it safely, that boat is more stable then the 1236 jon I used to have, that jon was almost as tipsy as a canoe. The Bass Raider you can stand on the side and the rub rail is still above the water line! I even rocked it almost as hard as I could while underway at 10mph and I still felt safe.
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Custom Fuel tank mount to move it's weight to help balance the motor more.
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Homemade cavitation plate, the prop design prevents surface operation, at least I think it is, not sure what enables some motors to run on the surface, some with cav plates, some without.
Anyway this will help it a bit to decrease strength needed to hold it out of the water at lower speeds and hopefully achieve a faster top speed.
So with all of that said I would like to to say, if you are thinking of buying one of these kits, listen to this.
Do not buy a SPS kit from any other dealer then Swamp Runner Mud Motors or California Mud Motors, both authorized SPS Thailand Mud Motor dealers.
Original maker and designer of SPS kits
http://www.longtailboatsps.com/Swamp Runner Mud Motors
http://mudmotorkit.com/California Mud Motors
http://www.calmudmotor.com/Any other sellers selling SPS or the copies called KKK are inferior, I have done the research. I just don't want someone to buy a crappy copy and them think all Thai longtails are crap, which most of them probably are! They don't have the features of the original SPS.
>>>>>I am in no way affiliated with these companies in any way, I am not pushing a product, just merely a satisfied customer and wish that you know the truth and if you buy one that you are not steered wrong buy false advertising into buying an inferior kit.<<<<<<