Who on here has made their own and how hard was it?

go on mudmotortalk.com they we be able to answer all your questions great site. not saying none of these gentlemen won't be able to help you but have had great luck with that site

Iv been thinkin of doing the same. copperhead sells kits without the motor for 10hp range i think

My brother and I just built one last week, working on getting the bugs out of it right now

I built a surface drive earlier this year and it has runn fine so far. Ive been running during teal season

I would love to know the details on the surface drive. It looks pretty dang good.

Its not that hard, just dont expect it to be get finished and throw it on the boat and take off. You will have to tweak it to get everything right.

why would you want a mud motor??? get to those shallow areas??

Man that looks awesome is it a belt drive or chain drive? Where did you get your parts from? Is it steel or aluminum?

looking good!

Here is the one me and furdown built. Just now getting it tweaked and ready.

I built most of the frame from scrap steel I had laying around the farm. Because im cheap I went with a chain drive instead of a belt drive and I spend $626.00 total. The ebgine is a 16hp Duramax engine from Maxtool.com wich cost $289.00 delivered and has and electric start. The prop is a Hill Marine and I purchased off of Ebay for $160.00. The rest of the parts such as chain, sprocket, bearings, trottle cable were purchased localy at places like Tractor Supply and Grainger.

Just Like Furdown said you will need to make some changes after you run it. Since I took the pictures I re did the Skeg Plate and made a custome exhaust for the engine. The old skeg caught grass and the new exhaust added a quicker response to the trottle.

Ive got a cousin that has a 40hp Kohler mounted on a go-devil frame and yes he can run circles around me in speed but he cannot run shallower than me due to the amount of weight he has.

I had a great time building the engine and am looking forward to realy giving it a work out this season. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me anything. Also like DOMB52 said Mudmotortalk.com is a great resource. Thier are several guys there that build thier own engines and will be more than happy to give out advise.

and this is my cousins brand new 40hp kohler on opening day of Teal

Ours is made out of 3/16" steel. The box is a piece of 6x4 rectangular tubing. The rest was cut out of plate. We went with a belt drive. It works great we just have to get the small things tweaked and fixed. We have a 420cc predator engine from harbor freight and a mud buddy 10x8 prop. It's not that hard to build. We ended having to rebuild some mounts that wouldnt work. Just be ready to do some tweaking and you should be fine.

Do you have a cost analysis twixed building your own Vs. buying a used one or new one? I understand a certain satisfaction is derived from DIY. However in my latter years I kind of shy away from DIY as a lot of the times it bites my hiney.

I have about $550 in motor and prop, I already had the steel. I don't know the price of bearins and pulleys but you can get some from mcmastercarr.com for about 75 for bearings and about 100 for pulleys. I'd guess that I have about $1000 into it. For a similar hp surface drive most are up over $2000 or $2500.

Brock2013

Ive been fine tuning my motor and was wondering what drive ratio you used for your motor and what type of performace you got? Also how did you harnes the propeller thrust on the shaft? Im currently running a 1.6 to 1.0 drive ratio and I used a trust bearing at the end of the drive shaft.

I'm running a 1.5 to 1 reduction. It runs pretty good. I haven't had the chance to really try it out much. We are using flanged mount bearings that have set screws that lock down on the shaft.

Man I need to start building these...how do you go about registering them?

what kind of speeds are yall getting?

Ounce you get a motor finished there are a couple of forms that you can down load from TPWD and after you fill them out you call and schedule a appointment for the Game Warden to do an indpection. After that they will issue a title for the motor.

Ime getting around 14 to 15 empty just running around. With 1 person, Dog and gear it will get around 11 to 12. With 2 people and gear it will get around 8 to 9. The boat I have it on is 25 years old and the bottom is very beat up with hooks on every rib. I think with a cleaner hull I would get better speeds. this compared to the same boat running a 20 HP Evenrude wich was getting 18 to 19 empty, 15 to 16 with 1 person and gear and 11 to 12 with 2 people and gear isnt to bad. Most of the hunting I do is within 2.5 to 4 miles from the ramp to its a 15 to 20 minute boat ride. The true advantage to the motor isnt speed its the ability to run shalow. when my out board would run out of water I was draging my boat loaded with gear another 1/4 to 1/2 mile and with this motor I can run all the way back which makes for a much easier hunt which I like.

What happened?

I have a question for yall. Is it a direct drive, or is there some type of clutch so the prop isnt spinning the whole time? The only clutch set up i can think of would be a centrifugal clutch like on a go kart; but i havent had much luck with finding them in the bigger sizes. What do yall use?

You can put a centrifugal clutch on it if you want. Ours is a direct drive so the prop spins when it is cranked up. I just hold the prop out of the water when I crank it and lower it down to take off.

Mine as we'll is a direct drive. You can get an electric clutch which is like the ones used on riding lawn mowers to engage the blades. They are a little over $125.00 . I wanted to keep mine as simple as possible to eliminate multiple failure points. I put a catch latch on mine so when I tilt it all the est ip it will lick in that position.

Why did y'all go with the sd over a long tail?

We didnt want it hanging back that far and also a surface drive is easier to drive and you get better speeds from what I've been told. I

how big is the boat you plan to use?
One option for small boats is this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/COMPLETE-LONGTAI...5f8&vxp=mtr
My 14' fiberglass boat with hunting gear and me goes about 6 m/hr with 6.5HP longtail

It will go on a 14 ft modified v but as soon as I get it finished ill get a 12 or 14 ft flat bottom.

Im going to get the 16 hp duromax from maxtool

I agree with Brock2013 about having a SD instead of a long tail. Although there are several advantages to a long tail I like the SD ease of turning and maneuverability along with the increase in speed.

Ive got no complaints about my Duramax and would recomend it to anyone. A little back ground on these engines is the Duramax, Preditor and Lifan engines are Honda Clone engines and there are ton's of after market items for these engines. You can google GoKart performance engines and get huge list of vendors and parts. I removed the govener to increase the RPM and build an exuast to improve air flow which cost nothing. The other Items I will get is a after market fuel pump ($25.00) If you have any question about the engine or how to work on it just let me know.

Thanks! can you post some pictures of how you made your exaust? did you just cut the old one off and use the same manafold?

and how long of a drive shaft is it? the thing that im having most dificulty with is how the shaft will be suported where the sprocket is i think ill put a pillow bearing on the wall closest to the engine then just have my bearings and seals suport it coming out of the shaft housing.

I built one before last season. Used 20hp Honda. Then upgraded internals with go cart racing parts. Aluminum belt housing. Hardened shaft with 11x8 mud buddy prop. Boat is 16'. GPS 17 mph with two people, dog, and dekes. I need to change to a larger prop b/c I have a lot of water blow out with current prop. Should run mid twentys after