Louisiana Mud Boat Build

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by IowaRiverRunner, Oct 23, 2014.

  1. IowaRiverRunner
    Joined: Oct 2014
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    Location: Iowa

    IowaRiverRunner New Member

    Hey Folks,

    I am I crazy? I am planning to build a lousiana mud boat here in Iowa. I will be using it for fishing and maybe lending it to a friend for duck hunting. My idea is to use a Thai long tail motor as a inboard on a 14' jon boat. Probably gonna start put in a predator 22 hp. I plan to use "dog leg" steering for the rudder controls. I will keep it simple with throttle controls by using a bike brake and cable attached to the steering stick. Primarily, gonna be fishing in small bodies of water (less than 900 acres), and on the Des moines river. Those guys down there must do a lot of original builds cause Google can't find a DIY building plan or details about best prop angles etc, or even a how to on push pull (dog leg) steering, must of that info comes from air boat forums and it's been vague. Any ideas or thoughts would be great, especially regarding the technicals would be much appreciated.
     
  2. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

    Hang in there IRR. Someone with experience with that sort of boat will surely emerge. As for me, not a dragon tail authority,.......14 foot Jon, 22HP, push pull steering, sounds like a chancy setup. That much power on a small Jon would make it go very quickly. A tiny rudder input could create an unwelcome thrill at speed.

    Let's see what the mud boat guys have to say.
     
  3. IowaRiverRunner
    Joined: Oct 2014
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    Location: Iowa

    IowaRiverRunner New Member

    The right set up

    In my research I found that vw engines are used a lot on what I would consider a small boat. I hope to find some type of equation or rule of thumb for rudder size to HP. I did find some notes on Glen L about rudder shape but I'm not sure about prop size and angle. Somewhere between 7-15 degrees. I'll prob go with 10 and go from there.
     
  4. portacruise
    Joined: Jun 2009
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    Location: USA

    portacruise Senior Member

    You can buy the Thai long tails separtely without gas motor and have them shipped fairly reasonably. Someone posted a link somewhere on this forum awhile back about this. The bearings in the Thai tail part are wood and you fill the space with grease, at least in the one I have from way back.
    There is more discussion in the DIY part of the forum, so you could go thru that to see what you turn up, for example: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/diy-marinizing/optimizing-longtail-setup-50637.html
    They work best with very long boats or a counter balance because of all the weight at the transom area.

    Hope this helps.

    PC

     
  5. Village_Idiot
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Location: USA

    Village_Idiot Senior Member

    You may be happier in the long run if you save your pennies and get a ready-made mud boat from one of the major companies that build them. They have already worked most of the bugs with their setups, and it will likely be much safer than a Thai longtail for your application.

    Check out boats from:

    ProDrive (Phowler boats, based in Iowa, www.phowlerboatcompany.com are ProDrive boats with a few accessories added) prodriveoutboards.com
    GatorTail www.gator-tail.com
    GatorTrax www.gatortraxboats.com
    MudBuddy www.mudbuddy.com
    GoDevil www.godevil.com
    BeaverTail www.explorebeavertail.com
    etc.

    With various setups, you can get options like longtail or short-tail, reverse, B&S or Kohler engines (stay away from Kawasaki for these systems), side-/center-console or tiller-steer, etc.

    Be aware that these surface drive setups work great in mud and swamps, but do not work very well in sandy conditions (I know this from experience). For shallow sandy rivers, I've found that a good tunnel prop setup is ideal, allowing me to run in six inches of water with a four-blade prop, and much faster than these surface drives can manage (even the 45hp surface drives).
     
  6. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

  7. Fanie
    Joined: Oct 2007
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    Location: Colonial "Sick Africa"

    Fanie Fanie

    Are you crazy asking a question like "Am I Crazy" ? But of course you are :p

    At first I thought you made a statement. "I am... I crazy..." which would have been absolutely natural, but fortunately the question mark saved you ;)

    Closest I came to Iowa is we have an Iowa Spur here, so I'm wondering if you make your boats rare or well done :D


    Why do you call it a "mud boat" ?


    Massabout, it seems the Thai's like hopping, some good examples of "cyclic pitch poling" there. Quite fast... not bad for weed-eater motors :D
     

  8. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

    Not weed eater motors. At about the five minute mark in the video you can see an engine with four throttle bodies or possibly carburetors. Probably a motorcycle engine. A typical 750cc bike engine can make in excess of 100 HP.

    Those drivers appear to have a death wish. None of them are wearing helmets or flotation jackets. The spectators on the bank are taking some risk too. The really fast ones appear to be using the super cavitating prop principle with the top blade out of the water.

    The OP could get to his fishing spot quickly with one of those things.
     
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