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1st time mud motor (and first time on forum, be gentle..), for duck hunting my local spots, water is low and ramps closed. 412cc powerhorse, 8x4" hill prop, loaded to 600 pounds (my boy and i are robust, and bring a trolling motor and battery along too) it will do 14.5mph. since video i've galvanized it and painted camo, added handrail, led spotlights on order to mount on the rail. bought motor, prop, two bushings, rest is from scrap and an old bike. had it on the water six times, made a few adjustments, so far it works fine, will get me to the duck holes. 14' 120 pound alumacraft jon boat. dont plan to hunt from the boat, just get to the area and put out decoys and then stash the boat. thinking of coating the bottom with vinyl ester resin mixed with graphite powder, and coating the inside floor with vinyl ester resin topped with grit media for traction and a few thousandths of an inch extra thickness. (i found a 5 gal bucket of resin laying around...).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10 ... 0065417699

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(had hard time trying to upload videos, new to forums)

Definetly different. What kind of bushing are you running? Is the tiller conduit? I'm glad it works for you. Hope it holds up.

center bushing is homemade from bronze nipple, added a grease zert to hold it in place, btm bushing is ptfe/bronze flanged. my shaft is alloy steel, interference fit to engine shaft, only need for the rest of the stuff on the tail is to reduce harmonic vibration and keep the prop from hitting stuff, the frame isnt really toting much load, other than the thrust load to protect the engine bearings. thats my theory anyway. was trying to make it light enough to haul around by myself, but that didnt happen... back's been broke in three places, couple of ruptured discs at bottom and in neck, can work all day but try to avoid dead-lifting heavy stuff. tiller is conduit, i've got some 1" tube but wanted to keep diameter small to mount a twist throttle when i run across one some day.

Not bad! If it works, it works! Be cautious with a twist throttle as with the fixed tiller when the engine kicks up from hitting something it can cause a person to unintentionally bump the throttle and lose control of the motor. Get some time running it so it becomes second nature during season. Good Job

Not bad! If it works, it works! Be cautious with a twist throttle as with the fixed tiller when the engine kicks up from hitting something it can cause a person to unintentionally bump the throttle and lose control of the motor. Get some time running it so it becomes second nature during season. Good Job

Thanks! I test quite a bit, got a nice little lake 2 miles from home. The little trim tab in front of the prop failed the test yesterday, it disrupts too much water in front of the prop, when standing up I can see a softball sized air cavity right in front of the prop. Plan to remove it, add a narrow strip on the leading edge of the bottom tubing to make it streamlined, maybe a little bondo on the trailing side of the tube to blend the flow back into the stream. i've never seen a 'real' mud motor in person, this is all trial and error, and really pretty fun.

actually ran it for the first time with just me in the boat, didnt bring my trolling mtr and battery so no power to my gps/depthfinder, but it felt really fast... MUCH faster than with me and the boys and gear. I look forward to trying it again with the gps on. It planed almost instantly and stayed on a plane even at a fast idle. at low rpms i can hear the governor kicking in so its still pulling pretty hard.

how wide is the standard shaft assembly on longtails? I used 1" carbon steel square tubing, thinking it would be narrower and have less drag than some of the pics I've seen.... but I suppose a round tube would have better flow characteristics. I could make a half-round and weld it to the leading edge of the last foot of tail that touches the water... but a thin steel strip with the bondo to round the corners would seem to do the same thing and maybe better.

Most long tail shafts are 3/4" shafts run down the middle of steel pipe using either bearings or bushings. This gives you the ability to put the cav plate or fin up above the prop as well as a sealed area for grease. You can also weld a skeg to the bottom of the pipe to protect the prop much as your frame does now. Look some pics up online, obviously you have the skills, keep tweaking it!

I initially tried my design with no center bushing, at two rpm ranges there was significant harmonic vibration down the shaft, since I added the center (slightly off-center) bushing there is only one range where it has a little harmonic vib so I just avoid it. my next will have another extra bushing spaced unevenly... and will be about 1' longer tail (unless I get the fever to build a short tail... I can see the beauty of a reduction gear and having a tighter turn radius... then again I like robust simplicity of the long tail). I do like those that bolt onto the engine case, the thai type... but that looks like machine shop work to make the adapter between pipe tail and engine case.

It's not too hard to build an outdrive like this:

I like it!

any problems busting rocks/stumps without the skeg to keep the prop from hitting? we have a bunch of rocks here

You can build it with a skeg or rock guard of some sort. I like the straight coupled shaft setup tho, I get more speed and power out of this motor than when it had an angled shaft with a U joint.

She'll for sure buck if I hit a stump or rock, but it's a surface running motor so I don't hit too much stuff when running. I do everything I can to avoid hitting submerged stuff, this motor works best in straight mud or hard bottom for me.

I've had so much fun working on this one I am considering building a lightweight 6.5hp, and maybe a thin stainless tube tail and aluminum transom swivel mount, if I can find some scraps... of course I'd also like a v-twin... want, want, want... and no time to finish what I got! hoping to have time to hunt too.

just a little fyi- in 2004 i got crushed under a tractor. squashed my head, broke my neck and back in three places, broke my collar bones and all my ribs, broke my pelvis too, lungs were mush. today i'm healthier and do more than most guys i know who are in their 40's, i'm strong and do what I want to do. I'm a christian chaplain (ordained) these days, not a holy roller, all on volunteer basis and free and available 24/7 for anyone who needs any kind of miracle from God. I can promise you, help and hope are available, God is not head-knowledge from a book, He is real being who can be reached and He made you, he can fix anything, one way or another. sometimes the end is not the end of all matters. I got extended play, and have seen a whole lot of people helped both inside and outside of 'church', I dont push religion, just faith that Jesus is who he said he was, and is able to do the same things today that he did back in bible days. seen it with my own eyes, felt it in my own body, have the scars to prove it. I was back to work 75 days after the accident with no restrictions or accommodations, never got on disability. and I aint pushing it on you, just letting you know my experience and that I'm available if anyone needs anything ever, I'll pray for you, tell you how to get in contact with the one who healed me and restored me and sobered me up for the last 10 years (the biggest miracle so far), and no, i'm not saying that drinking is bad for everyone, but for me it was a trap for 20 years. I'm not fussin', just sayin. There are lots of traps out there, I know a way to freedom.

how i got there, all caved in collapsed and bout dead, blowing blood/snot/copenhagen bubbles, like trying to breath through a cig butt, drowning

can you bench a 2,500 pound Ford? me either... but that red dent in my chest is from the steering column

That's incredible. The Good Lord kept you around for a purpose.

Amen, redneck! If you don't have a kill switch on the motor, get one asap! I'd advise to coat the bottom with steelflex or gatorglide, will help when running mud/veggies. You can buy a closeout sheet of hydroturf (saving money) and put that over an aluminum floor. Alum is expensive nowadays but highway signs are out there! I hunt out of my boat but if you wade, get some Cabelas breatheables!

Impressive build.

Thanks for the info! I had never seen the hydroturf, looks good, will price shop and try to find some on the cheap. I have a big bucket of vinyl ester resin and a bottle of hardener I found laying around, was thinking I'd coat the floor with some and before it cures sprinkle on a hand full of grit, which I also found a bucket of sitting around, for traction. but the hydroturf with some adhesive spray sure sounds a lot easier to make pretty.

-I started duck hunting two seasons ago, walking in and wading out, definitely have the neoprene waders, and have my kids waders too, best way i've found so far to stay warm! bosnian army surplus lined parkas! neoprene socks. We killed a BUNCH of ducks the last two years due to me picking lots of friend's brains on tactics, have learned which ones taste good and which ones taste like liver/dirt-fish, was given a lab pup a few months ago who's dad on one side and grandpa on the other were field trial champs, so i'm getting my feet wet on the duck hunting. so far its much more fun to me than deer hunting since my youth. I like being 'active' while hunting, and I like blasting stuff out of the air. I've not hunted the lab yet, but have been training to stay and retrieve when told and he's a natural. I wanted the boat because the public land we walk in on gets crowded on weekends, we would go in and set up at around 4 a.m., and end up seeing 20 other hunters walking in past us, some after daylight... bummer. still fun, but I like to hunt without seeing other hunters outside of my group nearby if possible. I'm hoping a boat will get me away from the pressure on weekends, and I'm willing to kill half the ducks to not have hunters walking by at first light. Thank yall for the info! I got my led lights mounted, built a dog platform/step, added a trolling motor bracket further away from the mud motor to give clearance, getting things closer

bruce step

Update!!! this step is a failure!! the ancient cypress steps are too buoyant and it tries to float off the side of the boat when waves come in... got some used expanded titanium that ought to work when I get a chance to replace the boards. I still like the design, just not the floating off.

lights wired up

the hand rail /light bar is removable, and the wiring has quick disconnects. its all going to get a coat of camo when its all said and done, and eventually the bar and step and mount brackets will be replaced with aluminum, but right now i'm pinching pennies and saving up for a tig rig.

still confusing to upload pics... a few ducks from pre-boat days

Luke and Henry

Luke

teal day

boys

Luke's first duck

Luke's first limit... in 15 minutes

By far we get mostly teal and gadwalls (the teal are always awesome eating, straight to the skillet for them. gads get put in gumbo or jerky). but occasionally get some mallards and wood ducks

Henry and my very first two ducks. had walked down to this area in the afternoon to scout and set out decoys and just see what happens, before I learned that you dont hunt in the afternoon! on our way in these two ducks came up out of some weeds and flew right across in front of us, I saw one fall and Henry swore there was a second. I identified the spoonbill but it took a while for me to figure out what a gadwall was... now I know.. they are everywhere. A special day, and I was hooked.

We are getting things figured out, and i'm getting better at calling them in

the day that Henry held the blind bag upside down on the way back to the truck and lost my string of calls and whistles... never to be found again... hunted two days, for several hours... but a lifetime memory...

homemade call since my good one's got lost.... but it worked ok kuwack! with JT, the boy's youth leader fr church

all my homemade stuff ends up looking like pieced-together crap... but it usually works well

For some reason i remember reading about a guy that was crushed by a tractor similar to your story and the story was told that angels lifted the tractor off him enough for paramedics to get him out. Wouldnt happen to be you would it?