THANKS
 

I appriciate all the input so far, I am going over mentioned websites and getting alot of info...I am not looking to buy at this very moment but will hopefully in the future. Thanks to all for the input.

When I hunt in Pecan Island with my father in law, most of the surface drive motors I see are the PRO DRIVE brand.

Pro drive has the better reverse as far as power....But would you rather have a gator tail and flip a switch to go in reverse and have "Ok" reverse power, or Winch the foot of the pro drive around and have full throttle reverse...only thing i'd think with the pro drive, if you stuck that bad, then how you going to winch the foot around?

the prodrive reverse is automatic now, but still not as fast as the gatortail

You trim it up and spin it around,then lower it back in the mud. With the auto reverse,it only takes about 3 or 4 seconds to spin the foot around

I have a 20' X 48" flat built by Aucoins in Morgan City. Have the 36 Pro drive pushing it. Would not trade it. Great in the swamps where I hunt. We have several areas on our place that I have to jump to get into and have never had a problem. The best thing you could do is find people that have them and test drive them before you buy. Give me a call and we can take a ride in mine. You can also find information on mudmotortalk.com

?
 

Watching the prodrive videos it seems like the auto-reverse is pretty easy too...just a push of a button. I am not familiar with the way the Gatortail does it though?

the gatortail is just a brake cylinder on the clutch. you squeeze a brake lever and it stops something and causes the prop to spin the opposite direction. its immediate and much better for use at the dock and getting on the trailer and things.

forgot about that, sorry.

i agree to stay away from mudbuddy,dem bearings are junk, go 25 tohatsu on a 16'42" vented tunnel an run it till it breaks dats my theory and its still kicking and i ride behind my uncle with the mud buddy

id say gator tail best one ever been in.never got stuck in it,glides on mud thats it.

I personally would buy a gatortail. I know someone with a PD and while its a good motor, the reverse is good for getting out with alot of power but to me, reverse is worth its weight in gold when trying to trailer your boat, or pulling up at the dock or needing to slow down, the PD aint helping on any of that. that reverse is good for getting unstuck and thats about it. And the GT reverse isn't horrible in mud. It may not be as powerful as the PD but its still really good. I never got in a jam where I wish I had full power reverse because my reverse wasnt cutting it. When I was stuck, I was STUCK. I mean the whole boat up on land and stuff like that.

I have 2 buddies that have GatorTails and they haven't had any major issues with them. And these guys are hard on their stuff. After seeing what they put theirs through, I wouldn't buy anything other than a GatorTail.

this is exactly how i feel on the whole reverse issue

Thank yall
 

I will be able to go test drive a friends Gator Tail next week sometime and feel that is what I might be leaning towards getting in the future. I really appreciate all the useful input from everyone. Thanks!!!!

I have worked on all mentioned brands and all have their strong and weak points. If reverse is what you are needing, prodrive or gatortail. If not Mudbuddy or Godevil. The engines are the same but Mudbuddy offers different aftermarket addons to their motors giving them some more horses. I like the Briggs motors the most as they are easy to work on. I can have one apart in no time slapping on new heads and so on. Very easy to work on. The stock exhaust is crap unless you get the cdi motor which comes with stainless. The cdi has a built in rev limiter which will limit you to about 4400 rpms if you decide to hop it up where the regular has a governor which you remove when you do the addons and add a rev box and interchangeable chips. The one I run does not have a chip and will hold together at 5600. If you want the boat to have better throttle response and hold a load, get aftermarket exhaust and the single mikuni carb! Makes a great difference and wakes the motor up. Sorry for the ramble but I love working on them and if you have a any questions please shoot away

In need of a surface drive
 

i would be forever grateful to anyone dat can find me a Gator Tail or Pro-Drive with about a 17' or 18' boat for the season. i come back from IRAQ in Dec and would like to buy one before then. thanks

can contact me on here or badonrussell@yahoo.com

take a look at the mudmotortalk.com or mudbuddy.com forums as they always have people selling to upgrade

Thanks for your service in Iraq! Very grateful!!!!

not a problem. i been doing this for 12 years, love to come home and hunt. always plan my leaves around some type of hunting or fishing season.lol
thanks for all the help. i will buy in July for sure.
can't wait to CUT'EM again