Been thinking lately about getting rid of my Prodrive and buying an airboat. I don't know much about them besides they're obnoxiously loud. As much as everyone n here likes speed in a mud boat, what keeps you from going over to the other side? I don't hunt much anymore so it'd mainly be used as a summertime river runner.

1) Can't legally run an airboat lots of places that I use my SD rig
2) Fuel economy
3) Maintenance costs

Those are my big three reasons I stick with the SD. That being said, airboats are BAMF'ers and I would love to have one or 5, I just can't justify it.

PM RobertB4wd , he has owned an GD SD and two GTs. He just purchased a Dragon fly air boat with a 4 cylinder pushing over 100hp and can run in the high 30s two people and still got some throttle left. The cost is about the same as a fully rigged CC mud boat.

The boats I'm looking at have built automotive engines. I'm scared of the maintenance costs of an airplane engine, even though they seem to be more popular. My problem is that seems like over half the boats I'm looking at are advertised as being "freshly built". I figured it must be like a mud motor, put it on a lawn mower and it'll last forever, put it on a boat and all hell breaks loose.

I bought a freshly rebuilt 454 but it was pretty much stock minus a slighty different cam from stock. Id be leary of them stroker motors and such.

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Airplane motors usually last longer than car motors. They are built with looser (sp?) Tolerances and experience less wear. They also don't go up in rpms as much as car engines. Unless your talking about jet engines. But for the most part all airplane motors that run off of 100 or 110 lowlead, only turn 3k rpms max. They leak oil because of the loose tolerances so almost every time before you fly you gotta check and add a little oil. Rotax motors they use in gliders and ultra light aircraft turn much higher rpms but I'm assuming we're talking about piston engines. In summation
Longevity = airplane motor
Cleaner operation = car motor

It's simple. get a mud motor. shoot ducks in the face.

Wade if you buy one I'm getting one too haha


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Wife said I can't talk about air boats. When I talk about something enough, I tend to buy it.

With that said...You ever built an air boat, Jason?

My wife is the one that put the idea in my head. She wants me to keep the prodrive and get an airboat. I don't see the point in that being that I live so far from water.


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have both, wont give up either one. Sucks fishing out of an airboat. keep the prodrive. If its one or the other and your just running a river, keep the prodrive

And my wife says loud so we can't talk. Not sure if that's a pro or con though
Headsets are available if you would like the communication part.


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Been thinking about one too, finding myself more and more hunting sheet water over hard bottom, and having to push the GT a hundred yards or so to where it's deep enough to get up and run when we're done.

Maybe some of y'all with more experience with them can shed some light on this, but people keep warning me about how easy they are to swamp in deep water, and to go with a 17'+ hull for the first one. But those big hulls pretty much put you right out of the o540's and into the car engines and the big bucks. Realistically I'm looking at a 2-3 man hunt load.

Sorry to hijack. For what it's worth, my friends that run em love em when they're running. Just a high HP engine being run hard and that requires maintenance.

I wouldn't go over 17'. Past 17 it takes a lot of motor to run dry. Everyone I know with an airboat are 15-16ft. With the rake they are closer to 18'. A good friend of mine has a 15ft hull with an LS1 in it and we ran 6 people dry ground, just couldn't stop. As far as swamping them, yes its super easy. I've been on one that has sunk twice. On the same boat...as long as you get em up quick drain the oil and clean everything up their usually OK. And they are squirly as all get out and roll pretty easy on dry ground. I've been tossed out a time or two chasing a hog and watched one roll over last year. The cage does a pretty good job protecting you in a roll over though. Other than that they are a blast. We got the one with the LS in it up to 65 on a flat a few years back and that's prob the scardest I've ever been in a boat.

Airboats are not forgiving. Even really experienced drivers sink them from time to time.

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What's the problem with deep water? The chop get too much air under them?


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The other difference with an airboat is that your only chance to recover from a bad situation is to throttle down. If you don't have enough power or throttle left, then .... Good luck
Like I said, I don't have a ton of experience, but some of these others guys do. So correct me if I'm wrong.


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Ive been looking at them lately for early and late season ice fishing and just running around. There's a fishing guide in Milwaukee that takes clients out on Lake Michigan on skim ice and slams the salmon when nobody else can get out. Can you have power without so much noise? How do they handle a rocky river with a plastic bottom?
The only places I've really seen them is in Southern states and in Alaska. I'm concerned about sinking it in deep water in the cold. Sorry to hijack, but I'd love to hear from anyone running one in Minnesota. Seems like they are banned on the river in the southern part of the state. No one to ask about them here.

I'd love to have one but the wife gives me some sorta awful look whenever I bring it up.

I've been told more than once by more than one old fella, there's two kinds of airboats... The ones that have been sunk, and the ones that haven't been sunk, yet!

We can't run them in the saltwater areas nor during the months of Sept-Feb here in SC so it's pointless here for sure.

Ol trusty 454 big block...very hard to kill them. I think its a gasaholic though.

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LS mota jesse?

Mine stays on my lease so don't really run long distances to really know. I know it definitely burns more than the fuel injected motors.

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LSA


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Wtf you doing on here amigo?

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