mud motors

[Hayes]

Which one do yall prefer?

I only know of 3
Go Devil, Mud Buddy, and Gator tail, are these it if so what is the best out of these?

[dukbum]

you done opened a can of wurms fer sure!!!

my 2-cents muddbuddy all da way

[GordonGekko]

surface drive i'm assuming? only go-devil and mudbuddy make longtails....

out of those three....IMO either the go-devil or the gator tail, although the MB do fine, it depends somewhat on the hull you are putting it on.... the gator tail has reverse so that would probably put it over the top for me....

[Hayes]

what is the advantage of the long tails?

[olemissduckhunter]

MudBuddy all the say. ITS A TRUE MAN MOTOR!! ask OlEMSVA

[Jeff]

I have owned all three so I feel pretty confident in my response:

1. Go Devil-EXCELLENT customer service, you can bring a motor to them and they will service it while you head to Cabelas and buy more hunting crap. They made the first longtails and were the pioneers in this. Their surface drive is equal to the other three IMO.

Negative-lontails are bushing systems, even though they redesigned them a few years back, they are still bushings and they will fail sooner or later, also lots of greasing required with these.

2. MudBuddy-Bearing drive longtail, VERY GOOD longtail, best I have ever run. First "Big Company" to market a surface drive. Runs well, good speed. Without a cavitation plate if you are in coffee ground mud and less than 2" of water you will be left stranded. Lots of their add ons will break. In three years, I have gone through two clutches, nine mufflers, two actuators and a partridge in a pear tree. I like the motor, but not it's reliability. Would buy a long tail again from them. Customer service is good until you tell them the accesories on their surface drive are crap.

3. Gatortail-Small company, great customer service best surface drive out there IMO. I would sell my MB and buy one of these in a heartbeat, but I am not completely convinced that a pirouge isn't superior to all of them in that you don't spook the birds that you do in a mud boat.

4. Prodrive-only one of the four that isn't a belt driven surface drive, it's gear driven, currently has Neutral and forwards, reverse may be available now, if not now in the works for the near future. Also a small company with great customer service.

[Hayes]

ok I am new to these service drive motors. What is the advantage of the long tails. When I go to GO devil page they make the long tails where the gator tail motors are not long like the others?

[rjohnson]

gordo can tell you what we have and I can vouch that it flat gets it done. But a 31hp will beat the crap out when you're learning to drive one. I speak from experience. I need more lead in my booty that's for sure. For someone 165lbs it's like someone put it so eloquently "wrastlin' a midget". But ours run pretty good so far. I think this is the one we have. http://www.godevil.com/31hp_VANGUARD.html

[redneck22ms]

prodrive is definitely where its at. easiest of all mud motors to drive.gear driven lower unit. har forward neutral and full power reverse. can literally get the boat on plane in reverse. http://www.prodriveoutboards.com/ gatortail would be my second choice. they are belt driven. the original surface drive mud motors. have forward neutral and a conventional style reverse. both of these companies are run by standup guys and are known to have awesome customer service.

[swamprooter]

I have owned a Prodrive 36hp for 1 year with Full Power Reverse. I run in it on a F &F 54'17' mod V hull. I can jump cottonwood logs on the Mississippi River willow flats or skiiny water on state lakes to flooded soybean fields or flooded timber in Delta...visit mudmotorforum.com.....No one else has Full Power Reverse except PD...if your into performance then thats all you need to know

[redneck22ms]

mudmotortalk.com

[Roach]

I have to vote for the ProDrive as well. got one on a 16ft skiff I keep in Louisiana.
I had two coolers of beer, and 4 lard arses in there with me and we went across a mud flat. when i looked back, all the water was filling in my rut made by the prop.
I turned around and stopped and the boys said ooooochit. You did it now.
gave it the gas and we took off again.
The only thing that I would give an advantage to the Gator is that it has a little more top end speed, but not enough to outweigh the advantage of the gear drive.
I don't get paid to sell or advertise these. This is just my opinion after researching everything out there before I made the purchase.

[Roach]

Oh, one other thing I would suggest if you get a ProDrive.
Go somewhere and buy you a 90 degree pipe and clamp and put it on the muffler.
the factory exhaust exits straight out the side, and if you make a long trip, it gets kinda loud. I put the 90 on it and pointed it straight out the back and it made one heck of a difference.

[lipsplitter39654]

i am partial because i am a mudbuddy dealer however they are all very well built and very nice and will all do the job. mudbuddy has taken it to a whole new lever though with all the mods and options they have available. the pro drive is a totally different animal all the way around. if you decide to go with the mudbuddy give me a shot at your biz

[GordonGekko]

Hayes, the biggest difference in between the longtail and the short-tail is ease of operation, for an average sized guy a 31 HP longtail is a HOSS and can be somewhat hard to control (motor weighs over 200 pounds and has a LOT of torque). the short-tail (commonly referred to as a surface drive) weighs close to the same amount, but the propeller doesn't have as much leverage making it easier to turn and manhandle....

the best thing you can do is drive one... I will likely bring mine up around your area over the Holidays...if you want to meet up and take it for a spin you're welcome to do so.... just give me a shout or you or your girlfriend can call my little sister (Morgan)....