Alright I'm finally posting a review of my motor. I have been so busy I haven't been on in a long time but I see there is a lot of chatter about the Dixies so I figured I'd help some people out. I got my motor a couple months ago now I guess. It is the basic 23. Manual trim, no clutch. My boat is an old riveted jon 1636. Nothing fancy but I have completely gutted it and rigged it how I wanted to. This is my first surface drive so it took me a couple days to find the right spot on the trim and learn how to run it properly. Once I got familiar with it and ran it a few times I realized the belt was a little loose. Called Ben up and he offered to do whatever I wanted and either send it back to him to tweek it or he could walk me through it. I consider myself fairly handy and it was reallly simple to do so I just opted to shim the motor up myself. He sent me some shims and told me what I needed to do and what to look out for in the process of shimming it.

The motor is running great. It is unreal some of the stuff it has run through. With our lakes drying up there is some really nasty vegiation exposed and only a few inches deep and it cuts though most of it like butter. I'm not saying you couldn't stick it but it would take a whole hell of a lot. It pushes my boat about 25 mph in deep and not much noticeable change in shallow. What is kind of wierd is if I can situate the load in the boat properly I can get the same speeds with 1, 2, even 3 people and gear. My boat is NOT made to be a mud boat and we have determined we can attribute some of those types of things to the boat and just how my hull behaves. Since it is more narrow than most boats it does not 'float' on the surface like a 1648 would for example. It cuts more into the water since it has less surface area than a --48. For example my bow starts to 'plow' with much weight on the front deck but I have tried 100 things and it is definitely not a weight issue, just simply the attitude of the hull paired with this motor. I am very pleased with those speeds. Particularly since I can get them with a full load. This past weekend I took it down to the coast to do some flounderin and had me (210), and two smaller buddies probably weighing 300 together, 6 gallons of gas, deep cycle battery, generator, 2 coolers, gigs, etc etc and 25 mph is as fast as I would every want to go in the middle of the night. I am anxious to put my duck huntin load in it this season and see how it does since that is primarily why I bought it, but I would say the load is pretty comparable to the load I put in it for flounderin.

*One thing I wan to point out too is that the 23hp is relatively small. I have had several people comment on it and a couple guys even assume it was a 12hp or something similar. To me this is great. Less obtrusive and easy to conceal with the boat blind.

Ben and I have talked fairly regularly and he thinks we can get better than those speeds (particularly with one person and light load) and has been great help. Talked me through every little thing I could tweek and adjust in order to get as much as possible out of it. The next thing he wants to do is put new carb and duals on it to see if I can get close to pushing 30 mph. I am all over it, but its just a matter of budget for me right now. Again, I can't stress enough how great the customer service has been from Dixie. Ben has taken a lot of time to go above and beyond my expectations.

I have gathered that the mud motor community has a lot of the Ford or Chevy type discussion and a lot of people are commited to one manufactuer. I did a ton of research and weighed my options and unless you have more money than you know what to do with, in today's world money and budget weighs heavily on these types of purchases. I heard good things about Dixie's customer service and ultimately, between that and reasonable prices, I chose them. If someone is willing to stand behind their product if/when something breaks bad, thats what means the most to me and Ben at Dixie has done so, and then some.
All in all I am thrilled with my setup and can't wait for duck season to get here. I will post up some pics when I get home today so ya'll can see what my rig looks like and for those who are looking at buying a Dixie, you can maybe make some comparisons. If anybody has any questions feel free to PM me.

Ben is a awsome guy that stands behind his products 110%. I highly recommend them to anyone on a budget thats after a SD motor.

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Great review. I plan to do something similiar for the 6.5HP Dixie that I've got coming at the end of August.

Thanks again for posting

That's a nice set up. When is the fish fry lol!!!

I have an 18/36, what size Dixie u think I should go with?

Deerslayer I would go with 35hp Dixie. Call Ben at dixie mud motors

Deerslayer, I thought I posted a reply but don't see it now. I would say a 35 as well as long as the transom could handle the weight. The 36 is narrow and makes things a little tricky at times but very do-able. But like lawren said, Ben can answer any questions and give you great advice as far as your options.

A 23 should be good on a 36" boat.

23 hp for sure.