hey guys I'm new to mud motors looking for some opinions..... ive got grizzly tracker 1548 its got 25 mercury on it I like that motor but duck hunting is a little hard on it ....thinking of getting a MM and to put on there to use for duck season or if I like it may keep it on there.....long tail or surface drive??? thanks guys

Bought my 04 1648 grizzly with the 25 merc as well, great motor in clean water and was fast. But where I run it was not a good fit- shallow water, veggies, hard bottom- a longtail was the ticket, albeit slower and harder to drive. Never have looked back though. All depends where you run, your typical hunting load. The grizzly is a compromise with a mm, and will be ok if you are willing to accept its limitations. If you have long runs, need speed, a shortail is the way to go, but a lot more $. What is typically used in your neck of the woods?

If you go longtail you will be disappointed with speed.

If you go surface drive you will be disappointed with speed, but beat the guys with longtails.

If you were smart, you would use the search feature, and inform yourself (this had been discussed a ton) and decide what your compromise will be.

You could find a good used longtail for that purpose, and keep the outboard, and swap them when needed. I did that for a while, but realized I was not using the outboard so I sold that. Like Bigbend said, use the search feature, get info, you just might be able to trick out your outboard to run in the skinny.