I was looking for alittle advice on a good style mudboat or even some plans that yal have used that worked. Im 15 years old and have been duck huntin since i could walk and get in the boat and my dad is getting to the point now were he has stopped huntin as much and its me with my litttle brother and my friends. I have tried the long tails and where im at in mississippi its nothing but flat open marshes with alot of ground to cover. My uncles sd is great but i was looking more toward a imboard style boat with some form of a subaru. Any ideas would be great.

Hello, ran a mudboat for a long time, would not recommend a subaru. You will be working on it all of the time. First suggestion would be a SD. If you want an inboard, get a 35 briggs. Someone I know is running it straight drive in a 16 x 40 fiberglass boat by Kurt and he is running 28 mph light.

Thats what i was thinking i was looking at the sabarus only because we have a 350 checy mudboat but that sucker is so big and so loud i cant jump shoot most of the birds we get, but i also get tired of always using my dads stuff. I was thinking something like a 15 footer with a 2 foot fan tail and i could also use that for sight fishing reds later on in the year. I looked at those that a made by kirk down in des almonds but they want a pretty penny for those boats. Are there any other bigger horse power engines that i could use for these straight drives?

My neighbor has a 350 chevy and he is running dry exhaust. Do not know what type of mufflers he is using, but his is quiet. If you want to stay water cooled, stay with a chevy. A 4 cylinder Toyota would also be a good choice, but get parts are expensive.

what kinda engine would you put on a 17 foot mud boat im wanting it to be air cooled cuss alot of the stuff i run through in mississippi is less then 3 inches of water and its coffey grin mud im need the abality to run fast because sometimes when its calm you can run the outside along the bay and get there way faster, but i still need the pushing power to get through that thick stuff and ideas on boat designes to

go to www.louisianasportsman.com and look at the classifieds and browse for duck boats you can finds grest deals on a kirks hull there my buddy has one with a 35 and is getting some prop work done before he sees really good speeds but other than that it is an awesome boat kirk knows his stuff

i dont think a mudboat is for u buddy, mudboats r the shit, but..u better have money burried in ur backyard, and pretty good with a wrench. i had one with a subaru and it was very nice, very powerful but u always got to be turnin a wrench when u get back.

Money aint that much of a problem seeing how i have two jobs and have been working for two years now. Ive got my own truck and boat. As for the wrech my dads a mechanic at Dupont and did fiberglass work for years before going there for 20 years. I know they are powerful and thats kinda why im looking at them.

If you absolutely got to have a mudboat.

Aircooled - 35 vanguard with 1.5 to 1 Tranny (preferbly skiff hull to split nasty stuff rather than climb on top like a flat)

4 banger - Toyota 22R (Subaru can't touch da torque.)

If you must have a bigger engine, I would go with an inline six due to simplicity, price, reliability, and torque.

Mud boats are very popular around my parts (alot of 4's, 6's and v-8's) and I have owned or drove each of these set ups. I don't know all your needs, but if I were to own a mud boat again it would be the 35. I currently own a Lycoming airboat, Pro-Drive, and small Go-Devil.