I have often heard the long tail mud motor described as the 4x4 of the boating world.

Hearing people describe getting into some sticky situations with their mud rigs... made me wonder...

What made you decide on a long tail? What do you normally run in?

I decided to build one after a season of push-poling my marsh boat into some hiding spots for duck hunting season. I got real tired of running the outboard until it got to shallow, then using a push pole or paddle for the last couple hundred yards. Hoping to get into some spots that big boats just cant get to.

SO mine will be used for shallow marsh and lakes. weedy stuff. Soft marl bottoms. So mine may never truly be put to the test that most of yours goes through.

Please share.

longtails are also great for taking on some sweet jumps. the chicks also love it (you know, the long shaft and all)

I recently joined the site for input on building my first long tail. I just ordered a 22HP for my 1436, I'll be using it to run thru reeds/grass in super shallow water behind my house to hunt and fish with. Right now there is only about 8" of water and ill have the whole creek to myself to crappie fish this year!!!!

I have a lot of it figured out, but what's the best way to get the shaft done?

Been driving LT's since 1989 and never looked back. Shallow water, plenty of veggies, no real mud except mud rafts I drive around, and hard sand/marl/coral rock bottom. Got tired of conventional outboard plugged intake and snarled prop, etc. When surface drive appeared, I got all excited until I drove one and drove into the skinny and bottomed out...long drag back out to float the boat, prop sheared to ruin. My friend had his in the shop every year for something. My LT will bottom out faster and you know not to go farther. Can't beat the price and reliability against the others; you could not give me an airboat, too expensive to run and maintain and I like to hunt out of my boat, my waders have been gathering dust and that is ok., nothing like a high and dry and mobile blind. GoDevil was the first on the block, solid product, but MB made it better, and now BackH20 has gone a couple of steps further. It is still a great fit and buy in many marshes.
The lily hyacinth rafts are a real obstacle. True, they are slow and more laborious but you learn to rise early and enjoy the ride.

i love my go devil longtail. have put over 1600 hours on it since 04 and never done anything but routine maintenance to the frame and its components. I have run real mud 1 time my entire life. we just dont have it up here. its either real hard bottom, sand, or clay/sand mix. Over the years i have gotten all kinds of questions and perplexed looks from curious folks. a few years back an old timer walked up to me at the gas station and asked if the tail went straight down in the water to drive it (as in parallel to the transom ) i explained to him what it was and how it worked but my goodness i about died laughing after i drove off. I sure wish there were still as few around as their were back in 04-08. But somehow having a lawnmower engine bolted to an archaic looking mess of flatbar and shaft housing is cool nowadays. I have been fortunate enough to have some friends with deep pockets so i have driven all of the major sd brands at some point or another, and they are nice, but you just cant replace the reach of a longtail in the type of stuff that i hunt. your going to enjoy yours. you'll learn some things, get to see some stuff you have not seen before, and after a while you dont really mind the speed. you learn to enjoy the ride. And this is coming from an absolute speed junky.

Learn to enjoy the ride.... Lol. Maybe in two years when I'm old (30) I'll lose my need for speed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My long tail 's main purpose is to get me and my gear to where the ducks want to be . Now in off season it's for going to rides and scouting for next season . It is fun though .

H Finn

Seriously though , mainly where I hunt it's hard stump filled sandy bottoms. , but I run it all over from the marsh with mud to most lakes from southeast to mid central Texas . Longest run I've made would be the caddo lake ride. , thst was a good weekend with plenty of long rides.

H Finn

what speeds are you getting, huck? i dont remember seeing a review thread after mods

24 empty. , 21-22 loaded. Deep water speeds . , it's a small rig , so loaded is two men. , dog and gear . I run it about 3800-3900 range . Which is enough for my normal trek to my spots, I'm going to see what it will do in skinny at 4300-4400 at setx this weekend .

H Finn

Had mine for Two years now and no problems. It's not fast. Still surprises me what it will go through. I figured I wouldn't be using it much in the off season. I've had it out fishing a few times and come home to find out my boys took it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought the first one only to get into a thick duck spot, then we started just running around with it in places we were too lazy to paddle. I'm on my third longtail and I really ought to get rid of my outboard, it hasn't left my shed for a few years now. I run a round with a few friends that have longtails, go new places to fish and drink beer and call it scouting for ducks. The best part in Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakiota is I rarely ever see others out on the rivers streams, just people on the banks. I have had a ball exploring rivers around my home without having to paddle and push pole. Fishing and hunting have really improved, but this year I started coming across a few others who used longtails to find their way back to spots I had to myself.

What rivers are you running? I'm on the Minnesota and Blue Earth with my rig during the summer. Not too much traffic on either but there are spots that stay busy. I just stay away from those spots.[/quote]

Mostly the Mississippi above Minneapolis, sometimes the Minnesota where it runs into the Mississippi
(sounds like a Midwestern Dr Suess book) The Crow can be fun, but it can be hard to access at times and it has big sharp rocks that will tear a boat in two in the last places you's expect them. The Mississippi from St. Paul, down to Lacrosse has some fun stuff, beautiful scenery and great places to camp and fish. Rice Creek chain of lakes north of the cities is a 15-20 mile run that's a lot of fun when there's enough water to get through, but not so much water you can't get under some of the bridges. I would stop at the long lake boat landing, or you're going to hit rocks and need a chainsaw to get to the lake at the end which only has a canoe landing, so you'll need a light boat you can carry. I have been thrown from my little boat on this one hitting submerged logs and sank it a few times blowing out in the corners. There's also a standing wave at the end of the culvert under University Avenue that the Kayakers like. It's a a lot like a log flume ride, I wouldn't recommend it if you think you might want to use your boat again. (i'd like to find a trashed 12'-14' boat for this and the dam on Rice Creek!)
I'm still looking for more places to run as well, and trying to determine if there are any rules in Minnehaha Creek and a few others regarding motors. What do you have?

We stick to the Minnesota for the most part. Anywhere from Henderson downstream to Franklin way upstream. Theres good stuff scattered all over. There isn't alot as far as small stuff to run. The Minnesota has many backwaters and sandbars, a few islands and some crazy split off side channels. We catfish mostly and there is some great habitat, holding some big fish. The Blue Earth is ok the last few miles but gets really rocky about half way to the Rapidan Dam. Never tried to get up the LeSueur off the Blue Earth but might try if it feels safe. We made it up the Cottonwood a little ways over by New Ulm last summer but it got too shallow and was all sand gravel bottom so it was short lived. Might try the Watonwan and Blue Earth above the Rapidan Dam this spring/summer. A lot of the smaller rivers down here are shallow and rocky and when deep enough to run they are fast and potentially dangerous. I have kayaked all of them and not sure I'd want to run the motor boat in those situations. I'm gonna see where I can go this spring and hopefully have some fun when the water is high.

I run the flint and paint rock rivers in north AL with mine. hard rock and soft mud with stumps. fast currents at times with "rapids" lol. My little 12' with a 6 hp briggs sps ain't failed me yet... I'm sure it will though that's why I go prepared. Like Honky said I can't wait to see where I can go this spring as well. It's a small enough rig I can put it in the bed of my truck, and now upgraded to a 5x8 tilt trailer that I put runners and a winch on to load the boat from the yard at the house and carry to the ramp. Trailer works for my boat and wheeler. Overall a pretty sweet rig.

I've had a couple of longtails and loved em, they got me in and out of alot of places and we killed alot of ducks with em.
Hands down they can go through more stuff than a surface drive. I run a prodrive now but I find myself wishing I had my longtail pretty often