skiftcky

I picked up a 12' flat bottom boat that I plan to make into a one man layout boat. I want to put a mud motor on it that I plan on making myself out of a 2.5 hp horizontal shaft motor. I have designs for both short and long shaft. Short one would be easier to make with the design I came up with but some one told me that you want the longer shaft for your smaller boats. Personally I thought it would be the other way around. considering the amount of leverage that would be created with the longer shaft. Kind of making your boat teeter and what not. Either way, if some one has some experiences with the motors or knows which is best for a small 12' long 4' wide boat, I would appreciate your help.

psandhu

I've got a 14 x 36 flatbottom jon (that's 42 square feet), and yours is a 12 x 48 (48 square feet).

My boat weighs around 150 lbs, and so does my 13 hp mudbuddy longtail mudmotor. There is absolutely no leverage or any sort of twisting or torquing when I run the boat. The turning radius is fairly large though. Top speed with no gear is 16 mph. Add 50 decoys, a dog and my other gear; it's around 12 mph.

skiftcky

So basically it doesnt matter whether you use a long or short shaft? My biggest concern is stability when Im under power.

psandhu

The biggest thing that affects my stability when under power is the waves caused by mediums strength winds. Remember, I'm standing up in the boat and holding the handle with one hand and the boat is pitching to the left and right. You can't operate a longtail sitting down. If you hunt in big open water and there can be whitecaps, you'd really want to be sitting down when running the boat.