Comparing the Best Long-Tail Mud Motor Kits of 2018!

Comparing the Best Long-Tail Mud Motor Kits of 2018 took a decent amount of time to put together; starting in the first week of December and just now ending in April. This is the information that I collected.

There are many things that come into play when you start researching which long-tail mud motor kit you should get. You’re on the right path if you were able to find this article, and I’m going to try and make it a quick and easy experience for you. With a few years of knowledge that came with owning a long tail mud motor, and the many hours of hands on experience with these three kits, I will be scoring these kits on their performance in each category. There is 3 major categories: Unboxing, Assembly, and Water testing; with a maximum of 5 points earned in each category for a maximum total score of 15 points.

If you didn’t know already, there is multiple articles and YouTube videos to look through before you decide on which long-tail mud motor kit you should get. This is just one article. So lets get started!

Long Tail Mud Motor Categories	Beaver Dam	Swamp Runner	Mud Skipper
Unboxing	4	5	2
Assembly	3	4	2
Water Test	3	5	3
Total	10 out of 15	14 out of 15	7 out of 15

Unboxing – How was the kit packaged?!
Assembly – How was it putting the kit together?
Water Test – How did the kit perform out in the water on the boat?

1. Unboxing

	Beaver Dam	Swamp Runner	Mud Skipper
a. Cost of Shipping	$60	$60	$62.05
b. Quality of Packaging	Good	Great	Not Good
c. Damage to any Parts	One broken parts bag with one loose bolt and shaft spline showing	None	Busted open bag with missing hardware and shaft & handle not packaged well
d. First Impression	Seems okay, lots of room to improve	Very good, seems professional	Cheap. Bad first impression
Score	4	5	2

Unboxing Overview

If you want to see more in depth pictures and angles of these long-tail mud motor kits, watch the comparison video, or TLT playlist for all the videos, or visit the TLT Mud Motor Gallery. I scored Swamp Runner first with 5 points, Beaver Dam second with 4 points, and Mud Skipper last with 2 points.

SPS Swamp Runner

5 out of 5 points _ The Swamp Runner Medium kit gave me the best first impression and won the unboxing for the best long-tail mud motor kit. Everything about this kit looked professional. The packaging, the parts, the instructions; they all stood out compared to the other kits.

The handle was wrapped with the shaft just like the other kits, but the final wrap on the shaft and handle was a very thick black plastic that was 2 to 3 times thicker than any heavy duty garbage bag you could buy.
All the parts arrived undamaged.
The quality of the parts look good with no loose pieces in the box.
The coupler housing & coupler shaft have a lifetime warranty & all other parts have a two year warranty.

CLP Beaver Dam

4 out of 5 points _ Overall the Beaver Dam kit was okay, its just heavy. All the pieces and parts are heavy, except the coupler housing and support bracket. The shaft is VERY heavy compared to the other two shafts.

All the parts had their own separate plastic bag, but there was one loose nut in the box.
Everything in the box was well packaged and little chance of getting damaged, because there was no room for the parts to shift or move.
The packaging on the shaft and handle could be better, with the shaft arriving with the splines sticking out past the protective packaging, but it still arrived undamaged.

CKS Mud Skipper

2 out of 5 points _ With the Mud Skipper kit, it gave me a bitter first taste. This could have, and should have, came better packaged. If you received this package and didn’t have anything to compare it too, you may not think much of it. But comparing it to the other two kits, it is unprofessional and cheap.

The box was too large and came crushed when I received the package.
I had an open bag that had missing pieces of hardware.
I had a few holes punched in the box.
Has a two year warranty

I paid $62.05 for shipping, which was more than the competitors, and the box size could have been smaller to save on some of that shipping cost. The parts of this kit look cheap compared to the others. If you don’t know much about long tail kits and have had nothing to compare it too, then you may not think bad or good of it. Comparing the quality of the other two kits and the way these kits were packaged, this kit is on the bottom on both quality and packaging.

Guide

a. Cost of Shipping – What the cost of shipping was for each kit shipping to SW Florida.
b. Quality of Packing – How well the pieces and parts were packaged.
c. Damage to any Parts – If there was any damaged parts and the severity of it.
d. First Impression – First time putting hands on the parts and seeing the kits in person.
_ Score – on a scale of 1 to 5 how well the unboxing phase went for each kit.

Beaver Dam Mud Runner, Swamp Runner, Mud Skipper Tiller handle and shaft

Unboxing Beaver Dam Mud Runner 8hp 16hp kit

Mud Skipper Long Tail Mud Motor 8hp to 16hp Medium Kit CKS

2. Assembly

	Beaver Dam	Swamp Runner	Mud Skipper
a. Directions	Out of date. Poor quality images	Easy to read and follow	Out of date. Missing inforamtion
b. Difficulty	More involved	Easy	Confusing
c. Issues	Throttle assembly, Kill Switch, Transom mount	None	Directions, Transom mount
Score	3	4	2

Assembly Overview

If you want to see more in depth pictures and angles of these long-tail mud motor kits, watch the assembly video, or TLT playlist for all the videos, or visit the TLT Mud Motor Gallery. I scored Swamp Runner first with 4 points, Beaver Dam second with 3 points, and Mud Skipper last with 2 points.

SPS Swamp Runner

4 out of 5 points _ The Swamp Runner Medium kit was very easy to put together with the awesome product manual that came with it. Inside the manual was:

The instructions on how to assemble the kit
Safety information
Warranty info ( Lifetime warranty on coupler housing and coupler shaft, two year on everything else)
Tips and tricks on running your longtail, and more.

The instructions need to be updated for their new throttle lever, but you will still be able to assemble the kit with ease. All the parts went together with ease and I had no issues with assembly.

CLP Beaver Dam

3 out of 5 points _ The Beaver Dam kit has room to improve.

Their owners manual is printed on printer paper and with their black and white images being pixelated, and out of date for the product they currently sell.
The wording of the instructions them selves are okay, but a little long winded.
The coupler assembly has a few more assembly steps compared to the others due to their shaft supporter.
Their kill switch comes with no wiring, which you could pay extra for, but both of the other kits come with wire.

CKS Mud Skipper

2 out of 5 points _ With the Mud Skipper kit, the directions that came with this kit were not good.

The pictures and text were both very outdated.
The installation instructions are not very specific and confusing since they’re out-dated.
The only instructions for the kill switch wiring is a YouTube video, no written content.
The transom mount was awkward and didn’t sit nice on my transom.

So if it was your first time assembling a mud motor, and you could only rely on the instructions they gave you, you would have a difficult time.

Guide

a. Directions – What were the directions/owner manuals like
b. Difficulty – What was the difficulty level of putting these kits together
c. Issues – Issues experiences when putting the kits together
_ Score – on a scale of 1 to 5 how well the assembly phase went for each kit.

Longtail mud motor kits comparison of Owners Manuals

Swamp Runner Mud Motors Medium Kit Assembly Instruction Manual

Swamp Runner Mud Motors Medium Kit Assembly longtail shaft

3. Water Test

	Beaver Dam	Swamp Runner	Mud Skipper
a. Overall Experience	Awkward, was never easy to control	Little adjustment needed and very easy to control	No adjustment, hard to control
b. Tail Weight Adjustment	Yes	Yes	No
c. Speed with 8.5″ prop	18 mph	18 mph	17 mph
d. Maximum speed reached	18 mph	23 mph	17 mph
e. Operate while standing	Yes	Yes	Difficult with straight handle
f. Operate while sitting	Difficult with extreme bend in handle	Yes	Yes
Score	3	5	3

Water Test Overview

Visit the TLT playlist for all the videos, or visit the TLT Mud Motor Gallery. I scored Swamp Runner first in the Water Test series of the best long-tail mud motor kits competition with 5 points, then Beaver Dam tied with Mud Skipper with 3 points.

SPS Swamp Runner

5 out of 5 points _ The Swamp Runner kit was the only one that I was able to control with one hand while going over 13 mph. With a small adjustment of the skeg, this kit ran effortlessly while on plane. It became weightless. Reaching 23 mph with a 9 inch prop was definitely an awesome feeling.

The tiller handle is perfect for standing or for sitting.
This kit has the greatest range of motion allowing it to be mounted on a very angled transom or a regular straight transom.
This Swamp Runner kit did have more tail weight compared to the other kits, but it was the only kit where the prop would stay in the water and it became weightless once you got on plane.

CLP Beaver Dam

3 out of 5 points _ Beaver Dam, oh, Beaver Dam. I never got it to ride nicely over 13 mph.

Once I hit 13 mph the prop would blow out and shoot to the side of the wake, causing the handle to jerk and the boat to slow down.The faster you went the more difficult it became to handle. At speeds lower than 10 mph it was easy to handle.
The throttle lever does not have full travel. What I mean by that: The throttle lever with this kit has less movement/reach/travel than your engine does. So you are not able to get idle speed and full throttle. You will either have idle speed with 3/4 of maximum throttle or have a high idle speed with full, maximum throttle.
With having an Alumacraft, my transom is angled, and this kit did not handle that good. I had to flip the transom mount around to even test this kit safely. If I didn’t flip the bracket around, I was not able to get the prop out of the water, because the engine base would bottom out on the transom mount. You need to be able to take the prop out of the water to stop the boat or start the engine.
I also had the handle twist loose while operating the motor. There is no bolts that go through the tiller handle to prevent it from twisting in the mount. With the tiller handle being long, it becomes a lever and transfers that energy to those bolts that keep the handle in place with pressure & friction. If I have to test this kit again, I am going to have to modify it by drilling it and through bolting the handle in place. It was very awkward to operate while sitting down and very difficult when you reached the higher speeds.

CKS Mud Skipper

3 out of 5 points _ I was never able to get the Mud Skipper to ride correctly either.

Same as the Beaver Dam kit, once I exceeded speeds over 13 mph, the prop would blow out and shoot to the side of the wake, causing the handle to jerk and the boat to slow down. The faster you went the more difficult it became to handle. At speeds lower than 10 mph it was easy to handle.
One major draw back of this kit that is DETRIMENTAL, is that you can not adjust the tail weight. Once I fully assembled the kit and pushed down on the handle, I knew the tail weight was incorrect, and this kit would not handle well. I was correct. This was also the only kit that came with the 100″ shaft, and I think they did that to help with the tail weight. The balance was off and you can’t adjust it, so now you’re stuck with an unbalanced motor that won’t handle easily at high speeds
I experienced the same transom mount issue I ran into with the Beaver Dam kit. This kit would bottom out on itself (engine base would bottom out on transom mount), so I couldn’t get the prop out of the water, so I had to flip the transom mount around to test the kit.
This kit came with the straight handle. It was the shortest handle out of all of them. My Alumacraft has a very deep/wide seat, so it makes it difficult to stand and operate because the handle ends half way over my seat.
Mud Skippers CKS brand line now uses props without a keyway so their new CKS branded props wont fit on the SPS Swamp Runner kits or the CLP Beaver Dam kits. This is because the Swamp Runner and Beaver Dam kits have a keyway on the shaft and it prevents that keyless prop from Mud Skipper from fitting on there.

Guide

a. Overall Experience – My thoughts on the kits after testing them
b. Tail Weight Adjustment – Ability to adjust your tail weight = CRUCIAL
c. Speed with 8.5″ prop – Each kit’s speed with their 8.5″ prop
d. Maximum speed reached – Maximum speed reached with each kit
e. Operate while standing – Was it easy to operate while standing
f. Operate while sitting – Was it easy to operate while sitting
_ Score – on a scale of 1 to 5 how well the assembly phase went for each kit.

Swamp Runner Longtail Mud Motor Kit Test Run

Beaver Dam Longtail Mud Motor Kit Test Run

Mud Skipper Longtail Mud Motor Kit Test Run

Conclusion

You made it. You’ve read the whole article, I would first like to thank you for reading it; and I hope you enjoyed it. I put a large amount of time into it and I hope I was able to help you become more informed, or more interested in Thai long-tail mud motor kits. I would never recommend trying to build a long tail mud motor from scratch. Buy a kit, save a lot of time and some money, and become part of the community where you can ask questions and learn. If you’re up to it, help someone else out with their questions if you can.

Comparing the best long-tail mud motor kits of 2018, I would recommend the SPS Swamp Runner Mud Motors kit. It out performed the other kits it was put up against and dominated. I will continue to test these kits and see what they can do. I have other projects that will rely on this motor, so stick around and see what this Swamp Runner Mud Motor can do!

The YouTube channel will have a load of videos on long-tail mud motors, the Longtail Gallery on the website, along with my experiences with them, as they grow. Do your research by; watching some videos, going to the TLT Mud Motor Page, visiting the forums, and contacting the long-tail mud motor brand you want to go with, then ask away!

Beaver Dam Mud Runners – CLP

Most expensive kit at $549 + shipping

Swamp Runner Mud Motors – SPS

Middle Price kit at $499 + shipping

Mud Skipper – CKS

Least Expensive kit at $395 + shipping

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Comparing the Best Long-Tail Mud Motor Kits of 2018!