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Thread: Gatortail vs Mud Muddy

  1. #1
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    Default Gatortail vs Mud Muddy

    I知 in the market for a 40HP mud motor, weighing my options. I have narrowed it down to either Gatortail XD 40 or a Mud Buddy HDR 40. What do you have ? What do you like about it? What do you not like about it? I知 open to all suggestions. It Will be going on a 16 gator trax hunt deck. Thanks.

  2. #2
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    Get you a 50-70hp outboard and have reliability, speed, and carrying ability. Mud motors are over priced, over rated, unreliable, and not needed to kill birds in South Carolina or just about anywhere else in the country that you can think of. Hell, I’ve even hunted the North end of Catahoula on a normal water level year with a 40hp outboard on a 14’ Polar Kraft and that place is as close to “mud motor necessary” as it gets!
    Living in Moncks Corner but looking forward to moving back to the West Coast in 2020 where there are more ducks and less duck hunters!! LOL

  3. #3
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    Mud motors are like anal...sharp learning curves with a good chance of getting pooed on.Stick to an outboard with a jack plate or use a kayak to get to the really hard spots.

  4. #4
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    I’ve got a gatortail 40. This is the 3rd season on it with no issues.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ring King View Post
    Get you a 50-70hp outboard and have reliability, speed, and carrying ability. Mud motors are over priced, over rated, unreliable, and not needed to kill birds in South Carolina or just about anywhere else in the country that you can think of. Hell, I’ve even hunted the North end of Catahoula on a normal water level year with a 40hp outboard on a 14’ Polar Kraft and that place is as close to “mud motor necessary” as it gets!
    You must’ve stayed in the creek run then.Or tore your motor to hell, at 29.5 there’s no way in hell an outboard is going to go through that shit without tearing something up.
    RIP Kelsey "Bigdawg" Cromer
    12-26-98 12-1-13

    If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

    Missing you my great friend.


  6. #6
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    I know plenty of people that have mud motors with no problems, myself included. I am a mud buddy guy but that’s just me.
    RIP Kelsey "Bigdawg" Cromer
    12-26-98 12-1-13

    If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

    Missing you my great friend.


  7. #7
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    I understand where you are coming from Ring King, I am just tired of poling around the lake and having to hunt the tide in the Cooper. An outboard isn’t cutting it for me anymore to do the kind of hunting I want too, a surface drive would make it a lot easier.

  8. #8
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    My son is running an 1850 Prodigy with a 40hp GTR. He loves it but even he admits that it’s not a necessity. He hasn’t had any issues with his yet. This was his first duck season in it but it’s been run HARD since he got it over the summer. My Mud Buddy was garbage. In fact the original was garbage as well as the one that Glen gave me as a replacement since I had so much trouble with the first one. I was told by a close friend that was both a Pro Drive dealer and a Mud Buddy dealer that if I ever wanted another mud motor that I needed to go with a Pro Drive because they are more durable. I’m just too hard on my equipment to put my faith in another lawnmower engine powered boat. Chad Lecompte told my son that I could tear up an anvil with a rubber mallet. Maybe he’s right????? LOL

    As for Catahoula.........I assure you that it wasn’t easy but that old Johnson 40 made the whole trip and came back to SC running just fine. I came off plane on the first trip up there and the boat sat down on hard bottom. We had to walk it a ways to find ankle deep water to float it again! Only hit one hard thing that trip. Not sure if it was a piece of pipe or what but it was solid. The wake behind the boat when I was running was pretty much revealed dry ground! CootSlayer was with me on that trip. He and another friend were in a long tail powered John boat while Bobby Becker and I were in my PolarKraft. Everyone on that lake thought I was crazy including the other three in my group! We shot a pile of bird up there though!!!!
    Living in Moncks Corner but looking forward to moving back to the West Coast in 2020 where there are more ducks and less duck hunters!! LOL

  9. #9
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    I've had a Mud Buddy and a Gator-Tail. Gator-Tail was my preferred.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ring King View Post
    My son is running an 1850 Prodigy with a 40hp GTR. He loves it but even he admits that it’s not a necessity. He hasn’t had any issues with his yet. This was his first duck season in it but it’s been run HARD since he got it over the summer. My Mud Buddy was garbage. In fact the original was garbage as well as the one that Glen gave me as a replacement since I had so much trouble with the first one. I was told by a close friend that was both a Pro Drive dealer and a Mud Buddy dealer that if I ever wanted another mud motor that I needed to go with a Pro Drive because they are more durable. I’m just too hard on my equipment to put my faith in another lawnmower engine powered boat. Chad Lecompte told my son that I could tear up an anvil with a rubber mallet. Maybe he’s right????? LOL

    As for Catahoula.........I assure you that it wasn’t easy but that old Johnson 40 made the whole trip and came back to SC running just fine. I came off plane on the first trip up there and the boat sat down on hard bottom. We had to walk it a ways to find ankle deep water to float it again! Only hit one hard thing that trip. Not sure if it was a piece of pipe or what but it was solid. The wake behind the boat when I was running was pretty much revealed dry ground! CootSlayer was with me on that trip. He and another friend were in a long tail powered John boat while Bobby Becker and I were in my PolarKraft. Everyone on that lake thought I was crazy including the other three in my group! We shot a pile of bird up there though!!!!
    Ring King, I actually know your son, very nice boy. We haven’t hunted this season but we’ve talked a fair amount.

  11. #11
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    Love my Gator Tail. The only thing I dislike about it is the handle and control/trim set up. But mine is older and I can fix all that by buying a new one.
    Quote Originally Posted by BigBrother View Post
    I can eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit out a thought process better than the vast majority of you clemmings.

  12. #12
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    Jun 2015
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    I’ve got a mud buddy, it does what I need it to. If I was on the market I’d be taking a look at the prodrive motors for durability/reverse capabilities. The Mud buddy reverse is good for docking or minimal reversing, but the full power reverse of the prodrive could be helpful if you get in a sticky situation.

    I mainly hunt hard bottom flooded woods, so a mud motor isn’t entirely necessary, but helpful to keep from beating up the lower unit of an outboard and running through shallow sloughs to get to spots where outboards have to drag or pole.

  13. #13
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    No matter which motor you chose, this is what the clutch looks like when they short out and burn up. LOL (this was on a Mudbuddy)
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Listen to your elders. Not because they are always right but because they have more experiences of being wrong.

    "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give" Sir Winston Churchill

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by LabLuvR View Post
    You must’ve stayed in the creek run then.Or tore your motor to hell, at 29.5 there’s no way in hell an outboard is going to go through that shit without tearing something up.
    That's a fact. My blind is on the upper end and I feel like I'm going to tear the ass end out of my mud motor at 29.5.
    Poverbs 27:17 "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another"

  15. #15
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    Nothing better than the sound of mudmotors in the morning.

  16. #16
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    Have you looked at Boss drives? Seems to me like they have got it figured out and made them as close as you can to an outboard. I知 not sure how the drive gears hold up hitting crap but supposedly you can beat them up the same without fear of tearing it up but idk. Just curious.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goin Coastal View Post
    Love my Gator Tail. The only thing I dislike about it is the handle and control/trim set up. But mine is older and I can fix all that by buying a new one.
    Which you ain't gonna do.....

  18. #18
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    I like mud buddy i got about 1500 hrs out of mine before i had to rebuild it. Its still got the factory valves in it. And if i cant tear it up its got my vote.
    "I'm just a victim of a circumstance"

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by TXFowler View Post
    Have you looked at Boss drives? Seems to me like they have got it figured out and made them as close as you can to an outboard. I知 not sure how the drive gears hold up hitting crap but supposedly you can beat them up the same without fear of tearing it up but idk. Just curious.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    I think they池e out of business


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  20. #20
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    I agree I’m pretty sure they’re out of business.
    RIP Kelsey "Bigdawg" Cromer
    12-26-98 12-1-13

    If love could have saved you, you would have lived forever.

    Missing you my great friend.


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