# Mud motor in salt water



## Jake Sink (Jul 16, 2016)

Ive seen a couple boats set up how the boat is in the attached picture. I think it would be really cool to have a mud motor on a small skiff like that to fish negative lows as well as duck hunt out of. My only concern is how long a motor like that would last in a salt water environment. Anyone have any experience with this? or any other opinions on how this set up works


----------



## FSUDrew99 (Feb 3, 2015)

I used to own a prodigy 1854 with a MB 4500 BD. Ran it in the marsh all the time. Clean with fresh water after each use and I would use a corrosion X or a boeshield T-9 anti corrosion spray all over the motor and the electrical components so that it wont want to rust down the road. Do those two things and you will be golden.


----------



## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

If you leave them soaking in salt water all the time, I doubt you'll get 5 years out of the frame. Wash the salt off after ever use. Prime and repaint the skeg and cav plate once or twice a year. Hose the muffler down with WD-40 or equivalent. They will last that way. Pull your prop and retreat the threads of the prop shaft with anti-seize every month or so or the prop will corrode to the shaft and you'll fracture the shaft when you try to replace it. You can get galvanized frames, but sand and oysters will grind the galvanized coating off, so you'll still need to touch up the exposed metal with cold galvanizing spray once or twice a year.

Now for the other side of the coin. Mudmotors are heavy. You need a skiff that can handle the transom weight. Mine really doesn't handle it well and the motor hurts my draft at rest. Go-Devil recommends a 1644 for my engine, so I admittedly have the wrong motor for my boat, but it was free! 

The capabilities of mudmotors are somewhat over-rated. They actually need some water to work. While they can blow through acres of pluff mud in a Gulf coast low tide (the best videos come out of Louisiana), no mudmotor will get you home if you get stranded by an Atlantic coast negative low tide. Also, mudmotors can only skip across sandbars and oyster reefs. If you try to muscle through a sand flat or extensive oysters, you'll just grind your prop down. In my area of South Carolina, the flats are covered with oyster reefs and 5' above the water line at low tide. If I don't pay attention, I will spend the night high and dry.

Nate


----------



## Vertigo (Jun 3, 2012)

Maintain properly and no problem with salt water. It's what's in the water that could be a problem. Mud motors work great in mud, but not so good on oyster bars and limestone rock.


----------



## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

I had a long tail go devil that did real well in the salt. 
I've also had a few prodrive surface drives that I've used in the salt a bunch. 

Corrosion is an issue that can be solved with several different products. 

One issue I had was misfiring due to salt wTer/salt spray robbing conductivity from the plugs. 
These engines have no covers and are constantly exposed to the environment they are run in. 

Another down side is knowing how skinny you can run kind of encourages taking chances on very shallow flats that can get you in some real bad situations as well as lead to damaging a fragile environment .

I still run mudmotors for hunting in Ky but I feel like it's not worth the damage I could do in the salt flats. 

That's just my take. No condemnation and no worries.


----------



## Jake Sink (Jul 16, 2016)

Thanks guys. Ya I realize that if I'm running over oyster beds it will not only damage the motor but ruin the fiberglass of the boat so that is not my plan. Mostly just trying to hunt out of it as well as be able to fish low tides or floods.

Also from what i remember, I didn't think that a surface drive mud motor was much heavier than a comparable hp outboard motor when I looked it up before but I could be wrong.


----------



## Cliff (Oct 13, 2016)

It is very common to run these motors in the Salt Lake in Utah while duck hunting. I have run a mud buddy motor for 15 years without any trouble and the salt lake is far more salty than the ocean. The real problem for me is speed. My 25 HP on a 14 ft Jon boat will only go 10-12 mph tops. Less with two people and a dog.


----------



## ifsteve (Jul 1, 2010)

What Cliff said. Mud motors work fine in a salty environment but don't equate the mud motor HP to that of an outboard. Put the biggest mud motor on that skiff you can afford and that will handle the weight.


----------



## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

Jake Sink said:


> Thanks guys. Ya I realize that if I'm running over oyster beds it will not only damage the motor but ruin the fiberglass of the boat so that is not my plan. Mostly just trying to hunt out of it as well as be able to fish low tides or floods.
> 
> Also from what i remember, I didn't think that a surface drive mud motor was much heavier than a comparable hp outboard motor when I looked it up before but I could be wrong.


Surface drives are often lighter than some comparable longtails, but none are lighter than an equal HP outboard. It takes a lot more metal in the block to handle the heat of an air-cooled motor and the frames have to be made to handle abuse that an outboard isn't expected to survive. For example, a Copperhead 7 HP surface drive weighs ~90#, a Go-Devil 6.5 HP (old school longtail) weighs 109#, a Backwater Swomp Lite 6.5 HP (new school longtail) weighs ~85#, while a Tohatsu 6 HP 4-stroke outboard weighs ~55#.

I only have one engine for my hull and it is a mud motor. It beats not having any engine and while it rocks for loud, slow, dirty, freaky bumping and grinding during duck season, once hunting season ends, you want something smoother, sleeker, quieter, faster, cleaner and less stinky to spend time with. Plan on getting both an outboard and a mud motor as soon as finances allow. Buy the outboard first.

Nate


----------



## matt146 (Aug 18, 2013)

I had a 18/54 prodigy with a mud buddy 55 mag I loved fishing out of it. I had it for about 3 years and it was starting to show signs of being in saltwater with rust, where the paint got knocked off. I would wire bush the rusty spots and repaint them about every year. And one other thing is u can’t trim the motor up to pick the bow up, if u trim the motor up it just takes the prop out of the water.


----------



## paint it black (Nov 3, 2007)

This will be my third season using my 1444 mud rig. I love it for fishing the salt marshes throughout the state of Florida. So far so good, no rusting issues. I just hose it off after using it. 





  








Estrada Art - Salt Marsh 1444




__
paint it black


__
Mar 23, 2017


__
1










  








Estrada Art - Salt Marsh 1444




__
paint it black


__
Mar 23, 2017


__
1


----------

