Cost is a huge advantage....

My little 6.5 predator was $100 and the kit was $399, plus tax and a few assesories . My boat and trailer was $350 with an old motor on it. You cant buy a longtail at that price in a backwater or go devil, and certainly not a surface drive. Meanwhile, for the price, I'm scooting all over God's country with my rat boat. But, I have brought that boat in with very little freeboard a time or two when pulling gear.

SniperBBB I bought 6.5 hp scavenger in 2006. Been great rig and its been abused bad on rock filled rivers. The prop is unbreakable and the big loop steering handle is great no leaning out of boat to turn.

sniper bbb, i ran a scavanger 6.5 hp for many years on a coleman plastic joh....while it worked on the knarly trashy river i ran ok for coon trapping where you never really could run much speed due to hitting something every 100 yards, once i started using it in more open water rat trapping its limitations became apparent.....that auger prop design altough bulletproof is about the most in-efficient of anything else around...1/2 the power/thrust of a comparable longtail of same HP with a convention RH mudmotor prop.....a 5 hp godevil with a worn out prop will run circles around a scav with a 6.5 motor and new prop........problem is the scav are LH rotation and you cant convert to regular mudmotor prop......they might seem ok thrust and speed wise on an empty boat, but throw a load in it and youll see what I mean......throw 15 coon and gear in mine i had on the river, and it wont go any faster than you can walk upstream.......i always had to run downstream and arrange vehicle shuttling with it.....once i bumped up to a godevil 9 horse i could run upstream one day, and downstream the next, and not have to pull boat out every day...........for a reasonable lower priced entry outfit id look at a stumpjumper frame kit and add own motor like 6.5 predator, little more money a 7 hp suburu ele start on it.....it pennys and nickles mattered id get some thai mudmotor kit and try to get a regular forged s.s mudmotor prop on it, before id ever buy another scavenger......now if i was really rolling in greenbacks, id run up visit Calvin and try to get him drunk and buy one of his, then leave town with it before he wakes up.....

id upgraded the old go-devil i got with predator 14 hp ele start, it was the old style go-devil frame with a single prop nut.....it finally caught up with me and the yoke slipped and tore up bottom end seal cap so its about scrap iron now.....my plan was to upgrade with rat money this year to a 10-14 backwater longtail,.....now after selling 450 outta 700 rats last nafa sale i think the backwater is out of my budget and so is one of calvins,,,,,looks like it gonna be a long drive to northern MN to get a certain trapper drunk enough to sell me his thai mudmotor with that groovy custom conduit handlebar ........then start buying them props by the 12 pack.....

Does that handlebar double as a UHF antenna so a guy can watch Opra on the long stretches?.............

Marty, even with a 14 hp go-devil, and a 3/4 full load, you should be able to get off a hung up log shifting weight around, and rocking the heck outta the boat, even when ya cant reach bottom with a pole......maybe I just try harder cause im not the best swimmer, but Ive had some pretty bad hangups and ive never had to swim.....ive tiewired an oar to a pushpole to save myself once

I have lots of opinions on this subject, as I do for most, lol. So for me the answer depends on your goal.

I have run a 23 horse Go devil long tail on a couple different boats. Fine motor and with the right boat an effective combo. Turning radius is an issue for me. I have run surface drives also on many different boats. I have used a 23 horse with a vanguard motor, 23 horse mud buddy, 35 horse mud buddy (I think it had a Briggs, or was it Honda?), 75 horse mud buddy, and 35 horse Gator trax. I do know I have run motors with Briggs, Honda, and Vanguard engines.

So, here is what I have experienced with surface drives: I have thrown rods, blown heads, and twisted drive shafts like pretzels, which of course blew the motor. If my memory is correct I have watched motors blow 5 times, 3 times when I was driving. Make and model was a factor, but not exclusively.

To compare the two for agility and ability, surface drives all the way. For forgiveness on the equipment, long tails are the way to go. By design the surface drive transfers the energy in a fairly unforgivable manner to the prop. The reverse is also true. For whatever reason long tails are less prone to catching something and stopping cold.

So which one? It would depend on why it was needed. I'd still buy either style but there are some brands and configurations I wouldn't touch. I had planned to buy a kit to try the 6.5 horse long tail, but my life changed when I moved.

Rich Scavenger came out with new style prop with much better thrust. Have not bought it yet but called them and got details and price awhile back.

Just a little info on some of the Engines out there. When I bought my first mud motor I went with the cheaper Lifan motor. I "think" this motor might be the same one other companies run. Well they are junk. My only hopes would it would throw a rod...when and if I could get the thing started. I talked to my builder and he stated about all will break down as he's even seen Vanguards with the rods hanging out of the sides of them...but people seem to keep buying them. He stated, in his opinion, the Kohlers were the way to go. So All of my units now have Kohlers on them. I've used the 14s extensively and can not get one to fail. They are both one pull motors no matter if rain, snow, freezing sleet or leaving the gas on while trailering....summer or winter. I've had motors this size that would about break your wrist if you had the rope start... but these 14s pull over about like any new push lawmower....very easy. These are also very small motors size wise. I simply have not used my 28 hp Kohler enough to comment, however.

BUT, just because you can open an engine wide open, doesn't mean you should. Load a mud boat down real good with critters, traps, water and mud and you'll go about the same speed at half throttle than you will at full throttle most times (depending on the prop pitch), I've found. I learned this one night coming across a lake loaded after dark. I looked back and saw the muffler was cherry red with fire spiting out about 8" past the exhaust port. That's a lot of stress for any air cooled engine. I backed it down and sustained about the same speed without the heat.

Good luck getting that ol' trapper drunk, last I heard he got religion of some kind, took a sabbatical from the vile spirits, and only chases pentacostal girls. Don't know if you can believe all you hear. That handle bar is a nice touch if you got vertigo half the time.

Rich, I got a new 6.5 and 420 predator setting in the shed, still in there boxes, I picked up at an estate clean out. Havent decided what to do with them yet. That 420 is screaming for an SPS kit. SPS has weedless props to fit kits for those two motors .

Several of you have talked about matching it to the right boat. Well what is the right boat??? So far what I've read on duck forums it talks about smooth bottom in a Jon boat style. But others talk about a semi V(narrow boat) and pictures shown here show a long tail on a V bottom boat (which I already have). Would be interested in pictures and what works for you. As stated I want to use it on a secondary river and creeks leading in to it.
What I've learned:
Long tail are reasonably priced but will give you a work out.
Surface drive are more costly but seem to handle better.



B

Mudmotortalk.com is probably a better place for this question.

I would take advice on here over a bunch of duck hunters. Duck hunters go from point A to point B and sit. A mud motor for, say, a rat trapper or beaver/ coon guy is far different.
I think a guy has to narrow down his main targeted animal and how many traps he's running (and what conditions) and go from there.

I just got word that the guy/company that built my mud motors maybe coming back into business with a smaller 14 hp surface drive again. To my knowledge its the only unit that runs on a HD centrifugal clutch system...so chop the throttle and the prop stops spinning (no foreward movement when rat trapping can be a huge asset) and I've found his clutches to be bullet proof. I'll keep y'all posted.

What is this work out???? For crying out loud I keep reading about this "work out" when running longtails.

Get your cavitation plate bent correctly and you can run a 35 horse longtail down the river with one finger.

Somebody tell me what the work out is please.

Rambo had no trouble running a longtail.....

Muskrat, I think it's referring to us rat trappers that are constantly turning...or trying to (at non consistent speeds). Of course that's a far different application to river trapping.

Yea, right.

I threw the BS flag on Rambo a long time ago. Check Rambo running the longtail in this clip. Run it forward to 2:20 and click on play. Check out the lack of vibration in his hands as he grips the handle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OBSIKDN1rQ&list=RD4OBSIKDN1rQ#t=155

Let it ride to 2:29 and check out the boat being propelled supposedly by this mudmotor. Notice we're not seeing the end of the shaft in the water. That must be one real smooth engine to push that boat without vibrating just a bit, eh?

I've seen stern shots of Rambo running a mudmotor and they've done a good job of hiding the inboard in the boat.

Oh well, it's Hollywood.

If the huts are that close together I say break out the oars!

My little rig, at an idle will run you past a rat run, as it's just a hair too fast, and when you wheel around you have to be careful not to muddy things up so you cant see. I wouldn't go shorter than 14' with a small v-hull and my little 6.5hp rig.