Got a question for all you mud motor owners. I run the arkansas river primarily between eastern oklahoma and central arkansas. Very sandy bottoms, pretty hard, lots of stumps. I have rode with a few guys in prodrives and gator tails and they both performed well in these areas but the guys usually ran them in other areas that weren't sand so never really had to deal with the long term effects of constant sand bottoms.
If you guys had to recommend GT or PD what would be the choice and why? I would do the rock guard on either and wondered if that would be enough to keep the prop out of the sand for the most part. Any input would be great, thanks guys.

sand eats a prop up pretty quick if your "down in it" .....I would go gt because of the drive angle...the prodrive sits deeper and the skeg will drag and keep you from getting on plane...the gt however has less drive angle and the skeg has a better angle that dosent dig as much.....I couldnt tell you anything about the rock guard we dont have em in our marsh. just oyster shell.....I would think that the rock guard would drag bottom when trying to get on plane in shallow water though.......just my .02.........

That's kind of what I was thinking, the rock guard I think will be a necessity, I run the smaller feeder creeks on beaver lake here that alternate between mud and gravel bars with no rhyme or reason so you never know what you're gonna hit. I also thought that the GT is about 100 lbs lighter than the PD that may help from digging too deep into sand as well. Thanks for the input

Good question, I wonder the same thing. I have leaned toward GT because of the drive angle. I have the same conditions here in north Florida.

I dont think the rock guard will do anything for you in gravel, I think its designed to keep the prop from hitting larger "rocks" ....and as far as digging in, the trim switch trims up and down to dig in or run shallower.....drive angle is key with hard bottoms or mud bottoms with a lot of dead vegitation in it.....my prodrive grabs vegitation in the mud and piles up on the skeg due to the drive angle and the drive angle is even steeper when trimmed down.....on hard bottoms, the skeg drags even when trimmed up with half the prop out of the water,,,,prodrive is more like an aircooled outboard, where all the other surface drives are basically modified long tails that reduce the drive angle of a long tail and operate more like an outboard than a long tail.......

All I run is hard bottoms, if the boat will float, you can go. The plus to a prodrive is the reverse, the design lifts the back of the boat throwing water under it which helps tremendously with a hard bottom (as long as youre not setting on the bottom)I've backed across places that I couldn't go forward in...but either one will work, I think it's all in the operator.

turning that motor around with a hard bottom is tough....6 inches of water and you aint gonna get it swiveled around without getting help to pick the boat up and then you aint gonna move because the weight of the boat is pushing the skeg into the ground......turn your motor around on the trailer and trim it where you want it.....look how deep and how steep the drive angle is.....what is your definition of shallow water?

oh and with a prodrive, you use reverse alot because sometimes you aint gonna go forward because of the skeg dragging....I use it a lot in the mud when there is a lot of clay in it...motor wont push through it but it will pull it through.....

Will, how long does your prop last?

I run 85% of the time sand bottom shallow rivers and I took the rock guard off my 35GTR and now it runs much better when really shallow... for sure. The rock guard does nothing for saving a prop in a sandy bottom. I've never even seen a prodrive, so I can't comment on that, but I've been happy with the gatortail.

I usually go through a few props each season... If you run smart they last a lot longer. I totally ruined a brand new one in 20 minutes... it was the first 20 minutes I owned the new motor. I learned a expensive lesson that day.

yea i kinda figured tha rock guard would be more a hiderance than a prop saver......

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a rig after this season. It sounds like the GT is the way to go for the areas I run. Only thing that concerns me is I am not much of a motor guy so most repairs will have to be done by someone else. The closest GT dealer is over an hour away and PD is only a few miles. Should that be a concern or should the rig be pretty reliable if I do basic maintenance and upkeep myself?

yea, im not sure I could rachet it around at full throttle...or will it finish itself once you gas it? Ive never tried it before, only been in hard bottom shallow stuff a few times and usually had to get out and push the boat to deeper water....if i had to guess, id say it was about 6-8" with a solid hard sand clay bottom.....it was shallow enough in spots that the drag of the skeg got me off plane.....

I have the rock gaurds on my dual rig and have been thinking they might be hurting more than they help.

First mud motor I had was a long tail used in a sandy river I got stuck and burried that sucker down and pushed myself out I wore down the prop pretty good pretty fast. Now I have a 18ft gator boat witha 35GTR it will run maybe 3 inches in sand bottom with it trimmed up no prob you just have to gas it. when I hit real shallow spots I let off the gas the boat will just slide over and once im clear I drop it back down and its off to the races pretty badarse feeling. I've never had a prodrive but in comparing them I think GTR was better for me but they are both top of line. When I picked up my GTR there was prodrive manufacturer right down the street. Both from Loreauville Lewsiana