Long tail vs surface drive

[Shawn Braquet]

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

[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.