At least make it a useful comment if you're gonna call me a goofball so that other people don't become goofballs. How was it cut incorrectly and how should it have been done?

@JTgatoring you said in your video that you cut it a little shorter than the guage required, so you wouldn't have to cut it twice. "Just a thought," the manufacturer does hours of testing, run time, longevity studies, etc etc. So customers will have the best satisfaction and experience with the products. Even with less than desirable options, customers choose to use. The manufacturer, which builds a guage to eliminate questionable dought on the absolute correct length in your case, the crank shaft. You made the assumption that the manufacturers guage wasn't correct. Let me give you a little insight, everyone on the internet who has used those brands of motors has the exact same vibrations in the handles, ok? Being a lower quality built motor equates to lower quality parts and manufacturing, which would include balancing of components, like the questionable crankshaft that you cut off an inch or so. What do you think that did to the harmonics of the crankshaft? Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's the complete answer to the vibration. But using the engines bearings to stop the prop shaft slop isn't helping anything, including the engine life. I would rather brass washer behind the prop to stop the prop shaft forces onto the motor, then I would dump the direct motor coupler and get a Love Joy type rubber coupler so the motor and the prop shaft have a rubber separation and 100% drive capabilities.

@@joewinkler2168 I would agree, but the issue I have is requiring the user to cut the shaft in the first place. It should not be needed. After cutting the shaft and experiencing the vibration issue, I thought it may have been the engine so I put the swamp runner longtail back on it and the vibration was not there. This was the most used engine for its hp class. Designing it not to fit directly on the engine, without modification, seems like a poor design choice to me. So your comment of "if you would of cut the motor shaft correctly, everything would of been correct, and no changes would have been needed." is not valid if " everyone on the internet who has used those brands of motors has the exact same vibrations in the handles" because the was the main issue, vibration. The vibration is due to the kit design, not the engine as explained above and as you alluded too.

Thank you @ThemGnarlyBoys, I appreciate it. I hope to get back to making some videos sometime soon

Yes. I run a 9" standard prop on my 1436 and stock 420cc engine with a light load

Hey @BrianCheck, thank you. Someone had actually printed something up a couple of years ago. This was the file they created - www.thingiverse.com/thing:3113213 I really appreciate the offer. The one this guy made worked out great and does the trick.

14 feet long with a 36" bottom

I do not own a cable-driven engine like the twister. I have seen and heard too many complaints to even consider putting one into use. If not maintained properly or just bad luck, that cable snaps and you are out of service on the water. I do not know if you would be able to fix it on the spot out in the water if you were to carry a new one with you, but I value reliability which is why I picked the swamp runner longtail. It's a solid steel shaft with an aluminum prop that is $15. With poor maintenance, abuse, and 5+ years of use with 100+hr, the shaft hasn't randomly snapped or left me stuck on the water. And after all that I still run the original weedless prop. I'm sure a twister-like motor would be fine if you have the ability to be in calm water and a friend to call if it breaks, but if you're 5 miles down the river where most boats can't go and you gotta paddle upstream, that's something I don't want to do and I'm not going to take those odds. And, just now looking at the price, it's actually more expensive than a longtail, so I won't know why someone would be interested in it.

Thank you huxmetalworks7371. If you have back problems I would probably avoid a tiller motor like this. If the correct kit is purchased and properly tuned to the engine you have, then they can be "easy" to handle, but I still stand 80 to 90% of the time and do a lot of movement when it comes to turning the boat around. If you are just running the boat in straight lines and not having to do much navigating, then you may be able to swing it. But the way I use the engine can be quite labor-intensive and hard on the back even if you decide not to go through thick vegetation. It has a learning curve, but if you are determined to try one, I would get a 6.5hp engine with a small kit and see how you are able to handle it. That will be the easiest to control and the least expensive. Thanks again

Very nice! This setup is still going strong even though it doesn't get much use. Still love the layout. It would be nice to have a bigger hatch at times. Best of luck to ya.

@@JTgatoring That sounds like yours has lasted a very long time then. Noice! Have a good one!

Swamp Runner

I wish you the best. I know the PVC guides really helped me out. The only reason I walk it on is that I want my bunks to last as long as possible. If you didn't care about that, then put the trailer in just far enough to motor the boat up onto the bunks so you don't have to get in the water at all. The ramp is mostly sand where I am so there's no slipping or falling hazard and it's Florida so the weather is never too cold to get a little wet. For small jon boats, I wouldn't choose anything else. Longtail is the way to go from my experience.

Thank you @bobsmoot2392. I greatly appreciate your kind words

Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment like that. I really appreciate it bobsmoot2392

Thank you!

In general, the alumacraft boat purchased had a transom issue. Alumacraft was contacted for the issue and in short, they said the warranty was void because a non-traditional motor was used. Alumacraft jon boats also have a steeper angle to the transom which causes additional issues when using a longtail. So the transom was disassembled, fixed, and then rebuilt.

Haha yes, very true. But I won't be the one to show you that haha. I try to pick the days when there is no one out on the water and the wind is under 10mph if not under 5mph. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment

😂 I get that forsure, just looking for a stable job boat with a beam no longer than 59” to throw into my gmc savana, don’t care to get a trailer and all that, I currently have a pelican bass raider that is super stable but would like more room…thanks for the reply Just subscribed

@@phils6733 Thank you. Another option would be adding modular pontoons to increase your width/surface-area. That way you can take them off and put them in the boat when you have it in the bed of the pickup, and then when you got out on the water you can add them on. Best of luck to ya!

Haha I appreciate that! At this point in time, I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things before the end of the year... we'll see! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment 👊

Thank you! That tip always comes to mind when things just aren't clickin haha

@@JTgatoring same here!

I think it will be underpowered, especially if its a welded boat. If you are just going to use it as a general purpose motor it will most likely be fine, but when it comes to battling vegetation or mud, I wouldn't expect it to perform that great.

Awesome! I think its the best size jon boat out there. I hope you continue to enjoy it

I do not know. I would ask the manufacturer you are interested in for the measurements.

Yes.

If you're loading it into your truck bed, that gets old quick. Maybe if you didn't have anything in the jon boat and its only 100 or 150 pounds, but after fishing all day in the summer and then having to load the boat in the bed afterward, it only happened a handful of times. If you are just keeping it on the ground and going from back backyard to the lake out back, yes completely practical. If you plan to do it, keep it as light as possible because the issue is loading it back up after spending all day in the sun. Not when you're playing around with it in your yard. 12 or 14 doesn't matter when it comes to weight and that is the big issue for me. Length wise you'll need the bed extender for the 14 and you may not need one for the 12. Depends on the brand. Last I looked at the Tracker Toppers, it seemed like the 1236 and 1436 had the same footprint in the water and the 1436 just had more bow out of the water so you would have the same surface area in the bed between the two.

I don't know. If the mud skipper kit has a tapered shaft then I think it would

I would recommend getting a tachometer for the engine so that you know. Just from the sounds of it, if it's a true thai longtail, a 7.5" prop would be small for that setup. An 8.5 should run pretty well on that with a normal to light load if it is a riveted jon boat. If the 8.5" is too big, the 8" would be the go too. Again, I would think the 7.5" would be too small unless its a welded boat that's fully loaded.

@@JTgatoring there’s about 500 pounds in the boat normally (2 people, battery’s, etc) and the 8.5 ran pretty good but any thick mud or thick/tall weeds would choke the motor down a lotttt

Thank you @vargashidalgo9602!

I have videos on how much the floor and front deck weigh. Then I had a big deep cycle battery up front so guestimate at 60lbs there, plus the trolling motor, and then miscellaneous stuff that was probably about 20lbs. If it was a fishing trip, I would have a cooler with ice, a couple of rods, and a bow. Sometimes I would have a second person with me but I normally ran the weedless prop anyway. Speed was never a priority. Most of the distances I fish are quite short.

@@JTgatoring yeah okay I’ll be sure to watch those videos ! But speed is some what a priority because I’m running long stretches of river. With a group but what’s your opinion on float pods ? I’m thinking on adding them but will I loose speed. If I do them correctly I shouldn’t right ?

@@coltensawyer6761 Float pods will make you lose speed with a longtail. If anything, it would have to be one "float pod" that goes from side to side, aka a hunt deck. You want the trailing edge of the transom to be one straight line. When you add float pods, you break that line which negatively affects performance when it comes to a longtail. Look up "hull speed". Boat hulls hit a wall when they reach a certain speed depending on the design of the hull. After that wall, any additional power added is less effective. As a general rule, if the width of the boat is kept the same and the length is increased, the hull-speed/hull-efficiency increases also, but with increased length, there is also more drag due to increased surface area so more power will be needed. So what I guess I'm trying to explain is, you are adding more weight and more surface area and not changing your hp so you will likely see a decrease in speed unless the changes made greatly increase the efficiency of the hull.

@@JTgatoring okay fair enough! I was thinking on trying them because they helped my buddy’s boat out Is why I ask ! How much bow rise do you want when running the boat ? Basically how much of the bow should not be contacting the water when planing out ? On are size boats. Few feet ? Thanks man your knowledge helps me !

@@coltensawyer6761 Through my eyes, when running on plane, the water line should be just behind the weld point on the jon boat bow where the bottom starts to make the bend to the bow. You want to ride pretty level, but if you were to favor one over the other, I would rather be transom-heavy than bow-heavy when it comes to performance. If you are bow heavy or just overloaded, the boat will start to plow which kills performance.

If you are 150lb or less and can pull your weight up and over, yes and the water does get close to going over the side. But it is easier to have a rope with a loop on the bow (tied to the handle that comes stock on most jon boats). This way you can grab onto the bow, put your foot in the loop, and use it as a step and the boat doesn't move much this way either. You could also do this at the transom, but you normally have an engine in the way and it may be hot... So the bow is my choice, but I don't go in and out of the water a bunch.

As long as the boat sits flat, or has just a little bow rise, you should be good. If it's hard to handle, add more bow weight to see if it helps. I run the 8.5 hurricane with my 13hp on the 1436 as you see it in the videos. It sounds like the same weight as your rig minus the difference in the engine. If you think the boat will be too heavy for the 8.5 hurricane, I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe if you had a 13hp engine like me, but I still get 20mph +. So I don't see why it would not work for you. You may have a little more weight, but almost double the power.

Hey @mikalray6210, I very much appreciate that. I still check in regularly and I'm more than happy to let you know what happened. So I ended up rebuilding the transom. I replaced the wood in the transom by just cutting plywood to size, epoxying it, and painting it. I then used aluminum angle on the transom; I used aluminum square tube on the bottom of the hull running side to side, and then put angle perpendicular to that which was in-line with the angle on the transom; and then I used angle from the transom to the floor making a triangle. I bolted it all together and secured it with bolts through the hull and transom. I also added another aluminum plate on the inside of the transom. I did everything that way to show all the possibilities someone could do (I took video through out the process and will post it when I get time). Doing all of them is completely overkill. If you have any questions, just let me know. I did not attach anything to the seat. The transom does sit slightly lower in the water compared to before. Best of luck to you and thank you for taking the time to leave your kind comment.

Unfortunately, attending to problems that have priority over the videos. I will be posting again, it's just a matter of when. It has been quite some time since I've been out on the water so I hope that it is sooner rather than later haha thank you for taking the time to leave a comment @billymoon1775

Yeah. That should be fine. The only thing I learned was to not put your battery directly on the floor of the boat and go down a rough dirt road. It dents it up something serious. So just make sure the hull is protected in regards to that, but weight-wise, I don't see an issue. As long as everything is secure and doesn't move easily, and you're safe about it, then you should be good. If you make a small mistake you'll learn from it.

@@JTgatoring 10/4 on that I have a floor like you made in just my front portion with my fuel and battery which adds up to 95 pounds plus my small anchor I think it will be okay if you had around 100 as well and nothing happens to yours! Thanks for the tips. My next thing I’m sorting is I replaced my Transom and had to take the brace out the floor to Transom out. So I replaced the rivets with stainless bolts and washers in the floor. Was easier way for me then getting a solid rivit tool. but now the screw heads sit on the trailer bunk instead of siting on the actual boat bottom. Three are clear and three sit on the edge. I think my best bet is to cut a slot with a skill saw a 1/4 depth. All I can think to do ! Just don’t want three points of contact with a motor pushing on them ! Thanks man