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has anybody ever hear of a 7.5 foot long and 5 feetwide aitboat with a 4 cyl car moter i was thinkin about building one bout that size with a saturn engin if anybody has any sugestions i would love to hear them this is my first time doing this and any input is greatly apreciated its gonna be a single seater and ever thind but the prop is going to be low in it thanks in advance
 
Mosquito is offering a deal on a do it your self pakage. motor redution and prop for only 3,750 a heck of a deal ,,,,,If you like to build your own....
 
try the guys at redriverairboats.com
awesome rigs and great help
 
Does anyone know what size motor is in the build your own package that Mosquito is selling? I am looking for the 35. I found the 31, Northern Tool is finally selling that one at a very reasonable price. Anyone know of a website that is selling the 35 so i can get some prices?
 
the mosquitos are running the 35 and the 31, but the build it your self offer is the 31 briggs.
 
i would do that but im getting a 4cyl from a saturn for free n that requires more of a gear reduction n its heavier thatn that i beileve
 

For the price that ya'll are gonna end up spending for a 35 vanguard with a reduction unity and a prop, you can easily find a used or a rebuilt 0290 125 4cyl Lycoming and actually have something then. You can find them used from $1000-2500 in excellent running condidtion.

I have a 10ft all 1/8" Alum decked Robicheaux airboat with an 0290 125hp with a 5-blade warpdrive on it and that thing will out do any 31 or 35hp vanguard airboat out there. With alot more power to spare.

I mean that 35 vanguard with the reduction unit weighs at around 115 to 130 lbs with that 125 4cyl I believe it weighs in at around 235lbs, and also packs another 90hp to the Vanguard. I'd think it over seriously before purchasing one of those 35 vanguard rigs.
 
It is not about horsepower or anything like that. These days all I care about is fuel economy. Paul Dixon showed me that a Briggs can run ground and by that I know it will run very will on mud flats and i can park in on the marsh that is all i need it for. I dont want to burn large amounts of fuel doing it if i dont have to. Fuel prices are going up 25 more cents in the next coming weeks. So why go bigger and burn more fuel if you can get what u want out of a gas savy small industrial motor. HP is good but torque is better. I have a torque to HP ratio that is almost 1 to 1 on the small motor meaning i can put more power into a fairly nice size prop plus it will have a reduction which can put more torque out. So why would i wanna go with an aircraft motor that has expensive parts and consumes a larger volume of fuel when i can go with a small briggs, get all the power i really need, cheaper parts, and a lot less fuel. I got and email the other day from a Mosquito owner, he said he ran is Vanguard all day for several miles and didn't burn any more that 6 gallons.

Oh and Duck hunter if you think a Briggs boat isn't that good you need to look at my website. http://home.mindspring.com/~mkg5491

Compare that to what you have seen out of small aircraft engines but also think about how much fuel it would take to run a aircraft engine around like that.

Also not to mention cheaper synthetic props, Powerfins only run about $700 vs. Powershift which run in the 1,500 range. $800 is a lot of money to me.
 
no, i just like small airboats, I have Paul Dixon's boat on my website. I dont just like one company, I like the Vanguard airboat period. No matter whose name is associated with it. Be it Paul Dixon, Kenny(Mosquito Airboats), also Mark Robicheaux is coming out with his soon. I even like Red River Airboats with the Kawasaki motors. I just like the small lightweight airboats, I am not here to promote anything. I just like to see the new advancements in Airboats as these new models of small engines come out. Like I said, fuel economy in the next few years is the key thing that I focus on. How can I get all I need and not have to burn 100 gallons of fuel a weekend. At our camp we run three airboats 454, 350, and O-540. We burn two 55 gallon drums a fuel per weekend plus several six gallon totes. With fuel prices increasing Duck Hunting is going to get really pricey if you know what i mean.
 

If you remember what I said to you, I would never do business again with Mark's after they screwed me over on a boat. My dad purchased a boat from marks new, a 12ft all 1/8" alum decked boat with a 180, we usedd the boat 1 time and came back with 3 t-bars with the welds craked the whole length of the boat and a busted gunnel. He knew we were running the boat out off Blind River near Dutch Bayou in Reserve. And he said its on us and he would not fix it. Look somewhere else besides him.
 
AB4fun---I had to laugh also when I saw B Daddy's post. Jeff Fox. would say " If your boat has more horsepower than the vehicle you tow it with---you might be a redneck"

HappyTrails,
"Redneck" Harvey
 

Im just saying that if your gonna spend the money on a 35 vanguard, and yeah it might work real good, but its not gonna perform as good as a 125 4cyl would on the same boat, which is gonna at least be 10-14ft anything smaller is too small. You get alot more bang for your buck with that motor. I got one on a 10ft all decked 1/8" alum boat, that goin on amolst 25 years old and its still runnin good. And i'd put that 125 boat up against any 35vanguard boat.

No i'm not a horspower freak, like ya'll say its just that you can't use those v8 boats where we hunt out in Springfield in Louisiana, they will get stuck and bogged down too easily, doesn't matter if you got a 454, 502, 383. Horsepoer is always a good thing but with the more horsepower the more wieght you gonna have, take in note your adding the reduction units, the composite props and all. I'd have to see one of those 35hp vanguard come to a stop on the Flottants and get back up again, and then i might be convinced.
 
Hey duck hunter where r u running your boat? On Lake Maurepas? I understand what its like getting stuck on a lilly rift. I have been there before but i was in a lil Volkswagon that isn't built worth a damn. Lets just say a Push Pole and a not letting up on the throttle is the only way. I am not buying from Mark, I just wanna see what he come up with? When it comes time for me to buy my boat I am going to see Paul Dixon, his boat is on my website for those who havent looked. He emailed me the other day and he said it hung in there with the big boats on mud trails all weekend. And i dont know about coming to a stop on flotants but the video on my pages shows Paul running around in his yard and has him going to a lilly rift but he is at speed and the boat dont slow down when he goes thru. And like i said Low profile is a good thing when it comes to hiding a boat when hunting or the way Paul builds i can just swivel the seat and use a lil brush to hide the cage and build a pop up blind the the boat like you see on many mud boats. I have a lot of ideas for a small boat not sure if any of them will work. I just know what i see and what Paul has emailed me about. Check out those videos Duckhunter and tell me what you think http://home.mindspring.com/~mkg5491

I am not saying HP isn't a good thing but I agree that weight changes a lot. And all i can tell you where we run in Terrebonne there is this mud that has a certain grass seed, we call in coffee beans b/c that is what it looks like to us, but that stuff can stop a 454, 350, anything u can think of in its tracks. W/o a sprayer some spots are impassable.

I will mostly be running mud flats when the tide goes out and shallow water when the tide is in. The main bayou is deep but I know that the 35 will get up and running mud flats will be no trouble.

If I had the money for the aircraft engine and the parts its something breaks I would go with it. But I stress again I see those gas prices still rising and I know of a lot of people having to put the big boys up cuz they cant afford to run them.

ITS A GO-DEVIL ON SKIES
 
Was wondering if the humor got lost in the mud.....

Nice thing about this forum is it allows for a difference in airboater opinion and provides a forum for expressing ideas, opinions and experiences.

Ya know you're a Redneck when.....Your truck runs in four feet of water and your boat runs on dry ground.

I'd love to see that little boat in operation. Hard to imagine it climbing the Kissimmee Ridge or BS Hill or Mount Catfish Pond - but, ya' never know.

I would bet LA flotants are just about the same things as a Florida tusset. Floating islands - nasty stuff. Gimme an 0-540 and SuperSlide Poly. I'll buy the fuel when the skeets zero in.

Doesn't take much HP to slip and slide on the mud - just a big ass and a couple of ABCs - got the dirty clothes to prove that one.
 
br,lc,LA - That mud with the seed looking junk in it. We always called it coffee grinds because that what we said it looked like. Funny how similar names pop up.

That stuff can give me flashbacks and I starts sweating. A few years back in the middle of August we stuck a 14 footer with a 350 - 310 marine engine in that stuff. We thought it was a regular mudflat and boy were we wrong. The driver came off the throttle and was going to do a little sliding in the mud, that damn boat just stopped and locked up in place. We figured two of us would jump out and help push to break the suction. Good lord, that crap was about 3 feet deep, it was hot, humid, and coffee grinds were stinking. Just soft enough for the boat to make a hole in and flow back around it. Just firm enough to make walking through it next to impossible. We scoup up muck, tossed it away from the boat, stomped and sweated and dumped every bit of water out in that muck (BIG MISTAKE) trying to get that boat free. She finally broke free at full throttle, I fell backwards and my buddy grabbed on the side and slide in Navy Seal Style. They didn't dare come back, cause the motor was starting to get a little warm, so I had to make it back to the boat by myself about 200 yards away. About 98 degrees, 98 humidity, and the top inch or so of that stuff felt like 110 degrees. I ended up sliding out on my belly, gator style, because it got deeper and walking was impossible. And my buddy had the balls to ask why I didn't retrieve his hip boot he left in the mud was the boat took off. Used to be lots of that stuff in Vermillion and Cameron Parish. Miss those marshes but had forgot about that stuff.

Got Nutria Ich that day as well, and for those that don't know what that is, it makes you feel like the worst day of mosquitos you seen would be better naked than to gettin Nutria Ich.

Dcukhunter - would agree lots of different uses and different hulls out there. No one boat will cover it all.

There is a Panther down the road that runs around in the yard really fine, in and out of ditches with mowed grass really great, but put her in wiregrass in the marsh, and like the saying goes, that boat won't hunt.
 
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