Hey guys, brand new to this forum and to long tail motors. I'm building a long tail for the first time and have a question about the length of the shaft. What factors come into play when determining the length of the shaft? Is there a benifit to a longer or shorter shaft? If it helps it's going to be run by an 8 hp motor and will go on a 1036 Jon boat. Any info will be helpful right now as I am brand new to this.

you should be good with a 60" shaft maby even a 50". the longer your shaft the moore forward your motor will have to be to balance it. also the longer it is the more you will have to support it.

Oh ok. So it doesn't have anything to do with how it runs or performs?

Longer shafts have narrower angles between the shaft and the water than short ones. Narrower angles provide more forward thrust than wider angles. This can be expressed with a trigonometric function, but school is too many decades back in the past for me to remember.

As a practical matter for that small of boat I would use a 60" shaft.

Mark F. Cheney

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Thanks for all of the advice guys. Those responses really answered my question. I think I will go with a 60" shaft due to how small my boat is.

Thanks again