I see plans all over the web for longtail motors but no plans for short tails/surfacedrives. IS this because nobody has taken the time to make them yet or because it isn't worth the time and better to buy a complete unit. Any thoughts?

im in the process of making both longtail and surfacedrive. for the srface drive i am just looking at pics of diff. motors and going from there

Seems like that would be pretty sketchy. You pretty confident in that method? I guess if you had a background in this sort of thing it should go pretty good.

What brands do you feel are the better models to go off of.

I'll draw up some plans that will work and sell it to ya for $50

mostly going off the copperhead considering im using a 16 hp clone. yea im a machinist and welder by trade so we will see how it turns out. there are some pics of homemade surface drives on duckhuntingchat.com that are pretty detailed.

Woodie..... WHat brand do you have / prefer? I just want to make sure I get the critical measurements somewhere near right so that I don't blow it on completley on the first try. What do you think are the better brands. I have read up on just about all of them and then out of the blue yesterday I see another new brand Orion? they just keep on coming .

Go over to duckhuntingchat.com. There are quite a few guys over there that are building/have built surfacedrives. Many of them show drawings. They have tried alot of different things with belts and chains, you can learn from their failures.

surface drives are easier to make in my opinion i have drawn up plans for both, as a fabricator by day i say spend the extra time and money and make a surface drive