Long tail vs surface drive

[Shawn Braquet]

Whats the pros and cons? Im real familiar with a surface drive but not so on the long tail. This is for duck hunting only to prevent me from burning up my tohatsu this year. So should i sell my tohatsu and fork out the change on a surface drive or keep my 25 tohatsu and buy a long tail?

[Raymond]

Buy a used longtail if the run is not over a couple miles and keep your o/b.
Do not buy the Honda engine they are a piece of $hit, Vangard all the way. 16 hp should be enough for your boat without the added weight of the 24hp which is a Pig.

[Shawn Braquet]

Found a 35 gdevil long tail for 3250, want to push my 16x42 with a heavy load through MUD and vegetation

[yak'em-n-stack'em]

surface drive if you can afford it

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Shawn Braquet

Found a 35 gdevil long tail for 3250, want to push my 16x42 with a heavy load through MUD and vegetation

That is a very heavy unit Shawn for a short boat and the price is fairly high. You should be able to find a 23 for $1,500 that will do the trick. I would expect your boat to run about in the 20's mph with a load with the 23 hp. Surface drives require short transoms to preform at their best which means cutting your existing transom. You will not be happy with a s/d on the hull you are running now.

[Shawn Braquet]

Originally Posted by Raymond

That is a very heavy unit Shawn for a short boat and the price is fairly high. You should be able to find a 23 for $1,500 that will do the trick. I would expect your boat to run about in the 20's mph with a load with the 23 hp. Surface drives require short transoms to preform at their best which means cutting your existing transom. You will not be happy with a s/d on the hull you are running now.

We had to do that with our Southfork 18x42 tunnel that we have a 35 hp mudbuddy on and I am not impressed with that setup, of course im not impressed with the mudbuddy hyperdrive either after leaving us in the marsh twice due to bad bearings, guess I'll look for a 23 long tail then, i do like the idea of keeping my outboard for fishing purposes but didnt know how the long tails perform compared to the surface drives and after this weekend I realize that to get to my blinds in johnson bayou i need something other than my outboard.

[Shawn Braquet]

10-4 deadly d, pretty good about wearing my kill switch anyways but will make sure i do

[Gerald]

I have a small Godevil. It does good for what I use it for......running bayous that have logs and stumps.

You have to be careful when trying to make sharp turn......do it at a very slow speed or the handle can get away from you.

[Ray]

Don't turn the motor all the way to one side while stopped and gun it.
My friend sank his Go-Devil like that.
He got to a sharp turn, slowed way down, when he got half way into the turn, he said he gunned it and the boat turned on it's side and sanked with him, 2 hunters and their equip.

[Sea-Trac Offshore]

Long tail if you are back in the stumps is the only way to go. If you are just in mud and veggies go with a surface drive.

[southern151]

I don't like a longtail for any reason! That thing is WAY more a pain than it's worth! I've operated both and that surface drive is the ticket!

Now, if only I could afford one!!!

[huntin fool]

His thing is, we have a ton of grass this year in JB, and low water, so getting to the blind is tough for us. So, it's grass and low water that he will be going thru.

[speck-chaser]

you can get the pro drive with a long shaft also. As far as stumps go, your not gonna find any more stumps than on our lease in the basin. And all of our guys run surface drives,mostly pro drive,and run skinny skiffs all the way to 54" bottoms without any problems. they are as tough as nails.

[Shawn Braquet]

stumps will not be an issue here, like fool said skinny water, and will be on a 16x42 boat, im pretty set on a longtail for the price alone