Swamp Runner SPS long tail mud motor on a Saturn Kaboat
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- 16-foot Saturn SK487XL KaBoat running a Swamp Runner longtail mud motor small kit with a 212 predator harbor freight engine from www.mudmotorkit.com on the upper Potomac River in Maryland. Running in rocky rapids and shallows.
Updated with major upgrades here: ua-cam.com/video/4eAjv5x7mzg/v-deo.html
Just bought same boat n same kit
Thank you! I just upgraded the motor on my 14ft Jon to a standard 15hp outboard. I was looking for something to throw the mud motor on like a prowler or crawdad. This is a WAY better idea.
I really like my new 385XL.....easily TWICE the boat for HALF the money, compared to my previous zodiac fastroller 310. What I lost in width, I gain in length...anyone used to travelling a canoe will find these simply great...
Nice boat! Do you still have this kit? How’s the longevity?
You may looks at the new Mars series with 16" tubes, the 13" tubes looks really tiny and bet you take on a lot of water. Extra heavy duty bottom as well. That mud motor looks pretty cool!
Sorry just saw your comment. Thoughts on the predator 8hp that weights in at 57 lbs instead of the 13 hp that was too heavy?
Great video thank you!
Thanks very much for all the Info. on this video - Very much appreciated!
I know this is a three year old video but that's a great little setup. If you're still looking for another motor option I have the same kit but I put on a 305cc briggs (Model# 19N132-0051-F1) with a 5/8" thick aluminum spacer at the coupler to the motor on the small kit. Just had to drill one hole different on the mounting plate for the motor base pattern. I stuck with the small kit when upgrading because of the shorter shaft. It has been running strong three seasons been through all sorts of stuff.
Do you think the transom would handle the 13hp engine? I think the weigh 130 and if I’m not mistaken, the are rated to 100.. any thoughts would be great. I imagine dragging the boat with 130 lbs would be tough and damaging.
Thanks for the great video, I have the same boat and was considering the 6.5hp predator engine with swamp runner kitbut after your comment perhaps the 8hp would be better. I'd like to send you a pic of the seats I put together.
Sorry about delayed reply. Would like to see those seats. Recently I've been running more stripped down, without seats and all. You really have to jump around a lot in fast moving water (on and off the oars -- etc) The seats were becoming more of a pain than they were worth. I just plant my butt on a tube, or even kneel canoe style when running in rapids so that I can be more responsive. Send a pic to broom.scott@gmail.com Also, let me know what you did for a motor, and how its working out. Since this vid, I put a go kart "hop up kit" on this motor and removed the governor. It improved top end speed some and gave me a little more power to run a larger prop. Id say it was worth the few extra bucks as a project to improve this. This engine pushes a 14 ft jon onto plane a whole lot better than the Saturn KaBoat, but I about ripped the transom off my tin boat hitting rocks out there, and nearly sank it once. I would rather have an Alaska Jet Ranger, but this rubber boat and cheap motor does an awful lot for not nearly as much money.
See my updated video. I built a simple rudimentary rowing frame out of galvanized electrical conduit - with benches and swivel seats. MUCH better now.
Whats your opinion on running this motor on a self bailing 13 foot raft?
excellent, economical and rational kit
How the transom holding up with that heavy motor setup. I just got my boat and thinking about make a frame before mounting swamp runner motor.
The transom stayed solid. Never an issue. The swamp runner with 212 is about 90 lbs which is lighter than a 9.9 outboard which the boat is rated for. I considered a frame motor mount too but never did it because the transom was good. Boat is sold now.
Did you go for the 85" shaft or 100"? I have the 15' Alaskan model kaboat and was wanting to throw one of these kits on it, but I did see on their site that they don't reccomend this for boats wider than 48inches at the water. Anything close to 48 inches they said to use the 100" shaft. I only ask because my kaboat is 50 inches wide, however I think it is probably 6 inches or so narrower at the base level that actually meets the water.
Mine was 100”. DOES NOT turn like a sports car! Reminder: just about any long tail at plowing speeds has the leverage to toss you out of the boat or tip it to an uncomfortable angle. Once you are on the plane those issues diminish. It is one of the trade-offs of playing this game. Analogy: you would not take an ATV on the interstate. Same here. This is a purpose built shallow runner with trade-offs.
What swamp runner shaft is working for you 85" or 100"?
100” from base fulcrum point to end of prop nut. Never run the short one you mention. Didn’t know they had ‘em. Can tell you the wake from pontoons is not the same as a flat bottom and the two wakes meet right about where shaft is in water which may not be ideal but works fine for me. I can plane out but its no speedster. 14-16 mph running light. 12-13 heavily loaded. Can also tell you I ran a MudSkipper 14 hp “Twister” on it with poor results. Lots of tinkering with cav plate needed. Hole shot ran prop too deep with lots of skeg strikes and got no big speed improvement with the extra power because i don’t think the RPMs were any higher. Extra Power was expressed in more torque and less strain on motor, but not in more speed. Have also run a 10 hp 4 stroke Tohatsu. The boat became a screamer running on a flat plane at scary speed. Hitting any waves with that bouncy inflatable would be downright dangerous at that speed but it was real fun on glassy water. Currently running a 23 hp surface drive on a flat bottom skiff. Considering selling the inflatable rig with trailer but not motivated enough to advertise.
I want the kaboat
Thanks for your Video.
I like you setup and I think that is the direction I want to go with my Kaboat. I just bought it and was wondering how
your setup is still doing/ running? I am looking at the Swamp Runner Longtail now here in Alaska. Did you do a bigger motor, if so did it help? Anything you would setup diffrent? Andy
Delayed response sorry: I would go bigger than the 6.5. Even with an inexpensive hop-up kit (header/breather/carb jet) on the motor I can barely plane with 2 guys. Predator is not designed for speed and trying to increase RPM reaally doesn't get you much anyway, so removing the governor on the engine was largely a waste of time. Mostly the hop up kit increased torque power at 3800 rpm allowing a larger propeller, which helped.. One of the shaft clamp threads stripped on the Swamp Runner kit, apparently from vibration and perhaps too many bottom/rock bangs. Simple fix by backing it with a nut. Saturn Oarlock gave out when pin pulled from assembly. Not designed for whitewater. Some have put frames on boat for more rigidity while running and better oar leverage. Im not there yet. The boat has stood up surprisingly well with a lot of rubbing on rock for 3 seasons now. I am considering buying some fabric strips and glue to reinforce the bottom going forward. It wont last forever. Also, gravel, shell and other debris lodges between tube and high pressure floor resulting in annoying pinhole leaks as the boat flexes under use and rubs through spots along that seam.. This is resolved by getting a strip of vinyl flooring cut to further protect floor and keep debris out of this area. 18" floor width between tubes is narrower than my canoe. This is not a freighter. You'll be surprised how quick it fills up with a cooler and a little gear. Still it is nearly perfect for my use, and im surprised more people don't run this boat where I play. Flat bottom tin boats are the norm here but in class II rapids they are dangerous and too easy to wrap or tip on rock strikes. This thing just bounces off while I drift and fish. Jets cannot drift these rapids and must proceed under power to maintain control. They miss a lot of fishing as a result.
Great video, thanks for the info. What alternative solutions to plywood would you recommend for the air floor protection? I plan on purchasing this boat and want to bring along my two dogs but worry about their claws puncturing the floor.
I bought a roll of vinyl runner mat like one might put on a shop floor. Home depot. Light, cheap and easy to trim. Better than the thin ply boards i had in which added weight. Others use trims of vinyl flooring as might be in a kitchen. I cut mine a bit wide to function like a “tub”. Thats because stones, shell and other debris can work their way into the seam where the floor and tubes meet. Over time they rub pinholes in the floor. Easy to patch but annoying. Do your best to get that stuff out or prevent in the first place. My boat stays inflated on a trailer which makes this difficult. The only way to really clean it out is to deflate the floor, remove and hose out. A bit of a chore after each outing that I don’t do because im lazy.
Uh a bigger motor may be too heavy
Correct. I tried a 16 hp Twister XL from MudSkipper. Like to have torn the transom off and it was levering the stern deep during hole-shot/plane transition, causing more bottom strikes than the longtail. I had to sell the Twister XL kit at a loss. My mistake, hopefull will save someone else some money.
like
How has the boat been holding up?
6 years and still floating/holding air. But, I’ve made plenty of repairs (which are no big deal). The most major at year 5 was to double-layer the bottom of the tubes with sheets of new vinyl because some threads were thinking about showing and there were patches that needed support. That problem is now solved because Saturn makes an “Alaska series” that’s already double reinforced. I’d recommend it. One spot thats annoying is the area where the high pressure floor meets the big tubes. This area collects sand, gravel, shell bits and debris. It has been the site of some annoying pinhole leaks in the floor. The problem is solved if you deflate for transport and clean it out. But mine is on a trailer and stays inflated all season. The video says I used ply panels to protect the floor, but later i substituted a roll of vinyl flooring material which was much lighter and allowed me to flex the edges to create a “bathtub floor” that blocked some, but not all, of this annoying debris. At year 6 the glue on one oarlock seems to be giving. But the OEM oars are like useless pool toys anyway. I built a frame for bench seats and sturdy NRS oarlocks to support actual oars. Much better. You can see these improvements in a subsequent video pinned to the top of comments. BTW, the OEM bench seats are bare bones and cannot handle a swivel seat. The torque of leaning back pulls them out of the webbing slots on the tubes. If u want beefier seats, build a frame. My original idea of putting seats on milk crates was inferior to the frame. The bottom line on the boat is that it takes a shocking amount of abuse, but its not bulletproof and not up to the standard of a guide-capable whitewater rig. On the other hand it is not in the “toy” category. These sell well in Alaska, for instance, because they are cheap, capable and light enough to roll up and tie deflated to the pontoons of a float plane. Leaks are infrequent but inevitable. You MUST have patching materials. As for the motor, I had one catastrophic failure after five years. That long shaft is mounted directly to the engine. There is no frame supporting all that weight and torque. I freely admit abusing this rig by running in rocks and rapids. The resulting frequent rock strikes ended up cracking the thin aluminum crankcase on the harbor freight motor on one outing. But the engines are so cheap and easy to install, I just replaced the engine for $99 on sale. I think the change out took a half hour snd now I have a “parts” engine to cannibalize. This story ends with me buying a flatbottom guide skiff that’s rigged with oars for driftboating in modest rapids and thats powered by a beefy v-twin surface drive. It planes at 25 mph with a heavy load and runs in ankle deep water. Its great. It also runs $12k +++ new (mine is used). The Saturn goes all the same places, a little slower, with less gear, but cost me less than $2k with the engine all in. Plus I can roll it up and throw it in the trunk of a car. Its all a trade off on pros, cons and cost. For the money, I’d highly recommend it but don’t expect to run the Grand Canyon in it. And on a safety note, the original KaBoat UA-camr (the guy from Finland who turned me on to the Saturn) drowned on one of his adventures a while back. Finally, my rig is for sale at this point. If your in the Mid-Atlantic and are interested email me.
Thank you for the detailed response!! I've been looking at the alaskan series. 2020