I am new to mud motors and I'm the market to purchase my first one. My budget is about $3500. I am trying to decide between long shaft 23 hp motors such as go devil, beavertail, mud buddy or getting a 12 or 14 hp copperhead surface drive. Primarily need it to get into shallower water and areas with lots of grass and vegetation. I will be traveling in open water from the ramp and I'm a little worried about the speed in crossing these areas and the control I will have with the motors. I know surface drives are much faster and I do think that it would suit my needs a little better but do to price I couldn't get much bigger of a motor then a 12hp in a surface drive or 23hp in a long shaft. I usually hunt with one othe person and we don't carry to much gear. I also recently sold my boat and I'll be buying another Jon boat but smaller probably 14x36 or similar for the new motor. So what do y'all think?

Go with the Copperhead, the weight of the gdLt will kill your 1436 you won't like the way it performs. The copperhead is faster, lighter, easier to drive. Honestly tho my opinion save another grand and get the 23hp copperhead. It's worth every extra penny. You can run a 23 on a 1436 but if you want a bigger boat down the road you'll have an engine that can push it. I run a 23hp copperhead on a 1542 and it's great. I also ran it for a bit on a 1436 just as fast on the 1542 and it drafts better.

The small motors dont have the grunt to deal with veggies. You crossing big water in a lontail 1436 sounds pretty unsafe. Imo be patient and find a 23 sd and keep an eye for a boat a tad bigger than 1436. Or even the 23lt but still on a lil bigger boat. Ive seen some gdsd23s for around 3k. But this is duck season

I think the 23 long tail is too big for the 1436. My buddy has a 6.5 long tail on his 1436 and it does fine. He doesn't win any races but it gets him where he needs to go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The long tail will work.
I would go with the copperhead though.
And I would get a used copperhead with a slightly bigger motor

thanks for the responses. I'm trying to find a bigger boat now. I know a motors lifespan depends on who was using it but how many hours is too much when it comes to used surface drive motors?