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newb looking for answers

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fish4rob

Member
Hello forum. I am asking the same question as the previous post, but I will be a little more specific. I am wanting to build a mini myself. If I can't build it I don't want it. Part of the fun. I will be using it to run a river. The river has about 2 miles of deep water before you get to shallow areas. I will need a boat that could get on plane with about 700 lbs. of load. I will only use it to hunt. The access that I have to the river is through a friend. Therefore, I will have to take him and his dog in order to get in. I have a dog as well. We are both around 225lbs. and our dogs weigh about 80 each. Gear and all puts us around 700 lbs. Speed is not an issue, but there is a mile and a half walk over rocks in about 2" of water that is. I was thinking about building the lake buggy hull, but modifiying it to be able to use a 35 hp briggs. That is what I want to know. Is the weight thing doable in a mini, and what type of engine should I get to do it? There is more info here than I have ever seen, so I will need to lean on someone to do it. Cost is a concern, so I will probably looking for a used engine. Tell me what you all think. Appreciate any help towards this and thanks for reading this long post if you made it to the bottom.

rob
 
Welcome to the forum Rob :)

Sounds to me like you don't need a mini. You need a 13-14 footer with a 220 GPU or something.

Maybe someone else will see a way to tote the weight, run the deep water and still get ya through the walkthrough area on 35 HP, but I just dont see that happening.

Scotty :wink:
 
if it was me with the weight you want to carry i think it would be better to try to find a small four cylinder aircraft .. you can pick them up really cheap depending on your horse power. but with that much weight i think a brigs motor even with a reduction would struggle to get on a plain.. you can get a100 horse motor on ebay for any where from 500 to 1500 hundred complete..
 
i wuold try to get a pe 90 continental 150 horse and a 12 foot hull . you can get these motors for 1200 to 1800 conplete and there really good motors .
 
i agree with Whitebear I run rivers 90 percent of the time and river running especially in deep water is no place for a mini if I were you I would build a bigger boat
 
I agree with whitebear and JT540, you might need somthing bigger with that much weight. But i just finished my mini and it has a snowmobile engine with a reduction on it, kinda along the lines of what your looking at building. I will test it thursday with GPS etc...to see how it does.. I will be using mine for hunting also with dogs and a buddy going in some rivers and lakes around here. ..I live here in fort worth ...If you are still interested in a smaller boat(mini) ill be happy to make a trip there and you can see how i built mine and run it to see if it's something thats gonna work for you and your friend....Ill post pics of it soon....Its a 10x5 fiberglass with a the snowmobile engine that is about 30 to 35hp.....I don't know as much as the other fellas on this site but i figure you could get an idea if a mini is what you really want by checking mine out.....What river do you run on over there in waco?

later, Shawn
 
Hate to break the news but a 35 horse mini is not for you. Look in Airboat Trader and find a good 220 GPU boat with high sides and you'll be good to go. I had what could be considered a mini with a 65 horse VW engine and it was a blast. You put a second person in it and performance went way down. By myself I could get on plane and move pretty well and I weigh 190. 700 pounds would have sunk the darn thing. A mini is for one person and maybe two but any additional weight cuts performance. Do like I do and find the boat you want and then go to Florida and pick it up.
 
Thanks for the replies. I figured that I was overshooting the mini with the weight, but wanted to make sure. My biggest concern after building the boat is fuel consumtpion. Anyway, I'll look on the other forum about building a bigger boat with a relatively small engine (100-150 hp.) If you all don't mind, could you give me a resource for some type of plans for the larger engines and boats. I'm also interested in the types of engines I should be looking at and where I can get them.

Rob
 
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