I don't know the proper area to ask this question so I'll try it here.

Have any of you tried running a centrifugal clutch on a mud motor? How well did/do they work? Pro's and cons? The reason I ask is because I saw on the Mud Buddy site they had some centrifugal clutches for sale. I would think they'd have to be better than running direct drive, but then again, I'm new to surface drive motors and don't know the history of the things tried in the past.

Has anyone beside Mud Buddy ever offered one on a motor? I was wondering how hard it would be to adapt one to a Go Devil surface drive. Anyone ever tried it?

Thanks for educating me, Willie...

Copperhead had one on their 18 hp. Not sure how it worked out though. Maybe someone with one will chime in.


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I have a Polaris 4 wheeler with a centrifugal clutch and it works fine for that application, but wonder how it would work on a boat motor, especially when they don't kick in until around 1800 rpm's.

I gotta believe it would be fine for idling down and stopping the prop, but wonder how well it would work when all you want to do is go slow?

The only place I would see it a problem is setting deeks and putting around but I've never had any issues with my snowmobiles. I'm guessing once you get used to itthats i would be just like riding a bike. I've beat the shit out of my 600 skidoo for 7000 miles and the clutch and motor never skip a beat. One plus you never have to flip a switch just blip the throttle and do what u gotta do. I wouldn't kind it at all.

Yep. I don't know exactly how many miles I have on my '05 Polaris but its quite a few and ready for a belt change. Other than that, there is no electric clutch to burn out. My only concern with a centrifugal clutch on a boat motor would be the ability to putt, which I do a lot while bowfishing.

Hopefully someone with experience in this will chime in tomorrow.

You can't "idle" around with it, you have to bump the throttle to go but that's nothing when you get used to it. It would work fine for everything else. I don't think there's room in the GD housing for one though.

From what I understand if you run from 1600-1900 rpms a lot the clutch will over heat and won't last

I still run a direct drive and if i'm putting and want to slow down I just trim up a bit. Easy once you get used to it.

Yeah, you gotta have the understanding like driving a stick shift, either go or don't, don't ride the clutch. You might can find a different one, not sure if they make one big enough but I know go cart clutches go down as low as 650 rpm. Maybe there's one out there that would pre engage at 1200 and you can set the idle to 1000 or something... It doesn't take nothing at all for the rpms to come up.

I have ran the same centrifigul clutch since 2005. Somewhere around 200 hours. Zero issues. When i need to go slow i trim the motor up so the prop isn't getting a full bite, and keep the rpm's above 1900 I have run countless other boats with electric clutches, and i prefer the centri. The only reason MB quit selling them is because people didn't understand how to run them correctly, and the warranty claims were too high.

Thanks Glade. I'm just exploring options. After more than 25 years of running long tails I'm looking to buy a surface drive. I use my boat primarily for bowfishing and was wondering if it was possible to putt with a centri. I guess if I'd thought harder before asking, I would have figured it out on my own. LOL. But you guys are a big help when it comes to sharing your experiences.

I basically do with my long tail what you're saying you do; run the prop half way outta the water. The big difference is that I have to HOLD my tiller handle down in order to run the prop half way outta the water and that's what I want to get away from - the HOLDING DOWN THE TILLER HANDLE.