Got my motor today and ran it this afternoon. Heres the rundown.

Packaging/shipping: Definately the most organized packaging ive seen a mud motor arrive in. The crate was beefy, the owners manuals, hardware, all the loose stuff was wrapped in foam and attached to the frame. Shipping was fast. Paid last Monday, they built it and shipped it Tuesday, and I got it in South Texas today in perfect condition.

Buid Quality: Perfect. Tig welded DOM tubing, powdercoated everything, came with a fuel line and primer bulb, and a camo cavitation plate. The motor is the new Marine CDI 35 with the stainless muffler. I got the SS which is a 59" shaft for short transom boats.

Performance: Ran awesome. I put it on a 1542 with pods which is obviosly not the best hull for it. With a 24v trolling motor and batteries and 2 guys I got 23mph. Solo 24mph. Ran it through slop and it did way better than expected and went through thick hyacinth that left me stuck with my surface drive. You can easily run the motor with one hand, seated or standing.

Arlen and Jake are awesome to deal with. I called Arlen atleast 10 times with various questions and he was great.

Pics to follow

Good lookin motor!!!!

why are you missing 1 rib in your boat?

There was a seat there and I took it out.

Good review! I wonder why you selected the SS model? Do you lose any speed with this as opposed to the standard length 72" shaft? I would also think it would make turning a bit easier. I am hoping those guys finally release their own line of boats. What hull would you put this motor on if you could? Have you had to adjust the cavitation plate? On other mfg. longtails the plate is level and you adjust the trailing edge up/down for proper planing depth. How do you do that on the convex BackH2o plate?

Yup.
Definitely jealous

Nice motor - I want one.

I'm a little surprised @ 24mph you alone.

I thought they would do 28 all day long... Boat size maybe?

Wishful thinking perhaps?

yea thats a good looking longtail and sounds well built. You said you had a surface drive before did you switch to the long tail becuse you were unhappy with the surface drive(dint know if you might have more than one rig) if so what S D did you have?

The motor comes with some nice shims that you use to adjust the cavitation plate. There's no way you could bend it because it bolted on to a beefy bracket with 4 bolts. I played with the shims but found that the stock setting was best.

My boat is definately holding me back. I would put it on a longer boat if I had the money. The cavplate rides on top so I think a SD type hull would do nicely.

I had a copperhead 18 before this and I got stuck in heavy vegetation a lot. That was my reason for switching. As far as build quality is concerned I've never seen a mud motor built this well and I'm not saying that because I shelled out for it. I need to take a pic of the trim adjuster because its top shelf.

Thats a good lookin motor you got there.

Thanks for the compliments! I hope to get more speed out of it.... exhaust and new hull.

I have that same boat. Can you tell any differance in structure when you took middle seat out. Would like to take mine out but was unshur if it would make weak in that area.

Also like the way you did the OH SHIT bar.

I can't tell any difference at all with the seat out.

Thanks for the comments about the grab bar. I made it out of exhaust tubing. It has a shelf now that holds my GPS. Best mod I ever did!

i can't find any reveiws for these on an 18 footer, have you seen any top speeds on an 18 ft?

They run an 1860 with 24" sides in the video and it seems to push it really well

Im running the new 35 SS on a 1848 custom 16 inch transon, that weighs about 500 pounds Im getting solid 23mph with a passenger or alone. My nephew has the 35LS on a 1860 lowe roughneck 20 inch transon he is getting 22mph with one passenger and 23-24 alone. I will be posting pictures of my rig as soon as i can find my damn camera.