finished my mud motor

[MARSH_HUNTR]

I finally finished my mud motor, for those of you that have no idea what I am talking about, its a motor for a boat with a long shaft and an air cooled motor for pushing your boat through very shallow water, I have a 5hp honda engine on mine and yesterday I took it to the hunting lease (duck hunting) and I was running in 2" of water

[professur]

any action?

[MARSH_HUNTR]

no sorry, no action I don't have a camcorder

[vicegrip]

Hard to see ??? theres sort of an upside-down dorsal fin ?? and a horizontal spash tail ??
and is there a little prop or a pump discharge back there ....fascinating but unfamilliar to the likes of me ...

[toolaholic]

Never saw one. that is so clever! work is very neat have fun tool

[MARSH_HUNTR]

yeah its a fin, and the cavitation plate is on top, there are several companies that sell them, if I was to buy the motor it would cost 1500.00, I built this one for 150.00.....the motor was free.

go here

http://www.mudbuddy.com/Mini%20Longtails.htm

[MARSH_HUNTR]

here is a better pic

[blaz72282]

i see those all the time on the saco river up in maine and new hampshire. it's pretty neat to see them in action, and yours looks very well made! have fun!!

[MARSH_HUNTR]

it was a blast to make, considering my lack of skills & tools, I have a hobart 140 handler and a skill saw with a metal cutting blade oh yeah and the ever handy grinder I had to have the shaft keyed and threaded but the rest I did

[moe1942]

I think some enterprising GI borrowed that concept from South East Asia. They use the same thing to run the rivers. Saw them in 70. They go from your size to 350 Chevy engines depending on the size of the boat. Simple and neat..

[vectorges]

That is a great looking unit. How about some tech details on the bearings, shaft, material sizes, etc.. I think this is something a lot of guys would like to make, but it is a bit intimidating. I am especially interested in the thrust bearing that keepos the prop from pullign the shaft out.

Thanks
George

[MARSH_HUNTR]

The u-joint is a high torque 3/4" ujoint from Mcmaster carr, there are 2 small bearings but I am not sure about the thrust bearing, there is a shaft inside the tube and it is filled with grease, I put a grease fitting on the outer shaft. On the ends of the outer shaft there are bushings made out of oil impregnated brass.This is the way some of the manufacturers do it. The outer shaft is a piece of 1" heavy walled steel pipe that is threaded on each end. The bracing along the shaft is 1"x1/8" flat bar.

[MARSH_HUNTR]

the shaft is a piece of 3/4 hot rolled rod and it is threaded on one end and keyed on the other. The steel plate that the motor and mounts are made from are scrap 3/16 steel. The arm that is used for driving it is a piece of thick walled steel pipe that I found laying at work in the dump bin. not sure about the specs on it. I know my welds look crappy, I am still learning how to weld....