weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

jimhigh66 wrote:
Has anyone converted a 4-cycle weed trimmer to a "mud motor" ( I know its
been done a number of times with 2-cycles. )? Menards has a 27 CC 4-cycle
trimmer on sale and the Adv. claims "...more torque and power than a
2-cycle..." Jim H.

Jim, I'm leary of that claim. I have a 4 cycle weedeater,a nd it IS
heavier than a two stroke, it doesn't rev as fast, and it does have a
psuedo-crank case for oil, so the engine would pretty well have to be
in an upright position. 2 cycles you can run upside down . I can't
verify the claims as mor hp. and torque, though. I like running the
two cycle better simply out of weight.


I've thought of makeing one myself, Why? I don't know.....

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

Has anyone converted a 4-cycle weed trimmer to a "mud motor" ( I know its
been done a number of times with 2-cycles. )? Menards has a 27 CC 4-cycle
trimmer on sale and the Adv. claims "...more torque and power than a
2-cycle..." Jim H.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

Tim wrote:

jimhigh66 wrote:

Has anyone converted a 4-cycle weed trimmer to a "mud motor" ( I know its
been done a number of times with 2-cycles. )? Menards has a 27 CC 4-cycle
trimmer on sale and the Adv. claims "...more torque and power than a
2-cycle..." Jim H.


Jim, I'm leary of that claim. I have a 4 cycle weedeater,a nd it IS
heavier than a two stroke, it doesn't rev as fast, and it does have a
psuedo-crank case for oil, so the engine would pretty well have to be
in an upright position. 2 cycles you can run upside down . I can't
verify the claims as mor hp. and torque, though. I like running the
two cycle better simply out of weight.


I've thought of makeing one myself, Why? I don't know.....

Anybody comes up with something actually useful, be sure and post it.
Google brings up nothing but wild speculation.

DT

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

On Apr 4, 11:35 am, dt wrote:
Tim wrote:
jimhigh66 wrote:

Has anyone converted a 4-cycle weed trimmer to a "mud motor" ( I know its
been done a number of times with 2-cycles. )? Menards has a 27 CC 4-cycle
trimmer on sale and the Adv. claims "...more torque and power than a
2-cycle..." Jim H.

Jim, I'm leary of that claim. I have a 4 cycle weedeater,a nd it IS
heavier than a two stroke, it doesn't rev as fast, and it does have a
psuedo-crank case for oil, so the engine would pretty well have to be
in an upright position. 2 cycles you can run upside down . I can't
verify the claims as mor hp. and torque, though. I like running the
two cycle better simply out of weight.

I've thought of makeing one myself, Why? I don't know.....

Anybody comes up with something actually useful, be sure and post it.
Google brings up nothing but wild speculation.

DT- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Been there, tried that :-) The weedwacker had way too high an rpm at
the end of the shaft. Once you have to start messing around with gear
ratios the cost savings is gone. I took the trolling prop off and
stuck the string spool back on and sold it on our local used stuff for
sale site for the 25 bucks I paid for it.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

jamesgangnc wrote:
On Apr 4, 11:35 am, dt wrote:

Been there, tried that :-) The weedwacker had way too high an rpm at
the end of the shaft. Once you have to start messing around with gear
ratios the cost savings is gone. I took the trolling prop off and
stuck the string spool back on and sold it on our local used stuff for
sale site for the 25 bucks I paid for it.

Makes sense to me. I would think it would be kind of neat if someone
would come up with a "jet" kit for one, though.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

( I want to build a shallow-water drive for a canoe. A small outboard
dosen't work well -- been there, done that.)
If you google "homemade mudmotor" on about the third page you'll find a
bunch of posts on this subject ( boatdesign.net/fourms/... ). According
to the posts this has been done successfully and unsuccessfully with
2-strokes -- depends on how it's done. But nothing is mentioned about
4-strokes. I've posted a question there but no results yet.
I would think the orientation of the power head would be about the same
for the mudmotor application versus weed trimmer. One possible problem
with a 2-stroke: Exhaust "tuning" can be critical and if you try to quiet
them with an additional muffler I'm not sure what it would do to the
perfomance.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

jimhigh66 wrote:
( I want to build a shallow-water drive for a canoe. A small outboard
dosen't work well -- been there, done that.)
If you google "homemade mudmotor" on about the third page you'll find a
bunch of posts on this subject ( boatdesign.net/fourms/... ). According
to the posts this has been done successfully and unsuccessfully with
2-strokes -- depends on how it's done. But nothing is mentioned about
4-strokes. I've posted a question there but no results yet.
I would think the orientation of the power head would be about the same
for the mudmotor application versus weed trimmer. One possible problem
with a 2-stroke: Exhaust "tuning" can be critical and if you try to quiet
them with an additional muffler I'm not sure what it would do to the
perfomance.

There are some wweed eaters that have a cintrifugal clutch in them of
sorts. I've seen some more expensive types (Stihl) that when the
engine dies the head wil still turn or "coast" i would think that
would work pretty good, seeing one could idle with out the prop end
turning, yet under throttle it would have propulsion. Unlike trying
to start it with the prop in the air, just to drop it down and have
water splatter all over the place and kill the engine too.

I know the battries would be a hassle, but couldn't a decent trolling
motor work?

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

On Apr 4, 6:34 pm, "jimhigh66" wrote:
Tnx Tim
According to some posts on the "google site" the clutches tend to burn-up
when converted to this use.
The mud motor (one brand name: go-devil) design puts the prop well back
behind the transom so the splashing water probably wouldn't be a problem
to the boat. ( Have you looked at "mud-motor" designs ?? )
I considered adapting a tolling motor but there is the weight of the
battery and limited "range" compared to gas power.
Regards, Jim H.

Well come to think of it, I saw, I believe on ebay, where Honda had a
"mud motor" and demonstrating it, had a guy in some jon boat ...
standing up, tuddering this contraption along. it was reminding me of
the boats in the Thialand and that part of asia where they had these
small car engines on some gondola type boat tooling down canals, etc.

Anyhow, this dude is standing in the back of this jon boat, and the
sequence of pics shows him attacking a beaver dam. The boat climbs
right up the side of the dam with the prop chopping away at the wood
sticks, and evidently it went fast enough that when it got to the top
it threw the guy out of the boat.

Most strange indeed.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

Tnx Tim
According to some posts on the "google site" the clutches tend to burn-up
when converted to this use.
The mud motor (one brand name: go-devil) design puts the prop well back
behind the transom so the splashing water probably wouldn't be a problem
to the boat. ( Have you looked at "mud-motor" designs ?? )
I considered adapting a tolling motor but there is the weight of the
battery and limited "range" compared to gas power.
Regards, Jim H.

weed trimmer conversion to outboard mudmotor
 

"Tim" wrote in message
ps.com...
On Apr 4, 6:34 pm, "jimhigh66" wrote:
Tnx Tim
According to some posts on the "google site" the clutches tend to burn-up
when converted to this use.
The mud motor (one brand name: go-devil) design puts the prop well back
behind the transom so the splashing water probably wouldn't be a problem
to the boat. ( Have you looked at "mud-motor" designs ?? )
I considered adapting a tolling motor but there is the weight of the
battery and limited "range" compared to gas power.
Regards, Jim H.

Well come to think of it, I saw, I believe on ebay, where Honda had a
"mud motor" and demonstrating it, had a guy in some jon boat ...
standing up, tuddering this contraption along. it was reminding me of
the boats in the Thialand and that part of asia where they had these
small car engines on some gondola type boat tooling down canals, etc.

Anyhow, this dude is standing in the back of this jon boat, and the
sequence of pics shows him attacking a beaver dam. The boat climbs
right up the side of the dam with the prop chopping away at the wood
sticks, and evidently it went fast enough that when it got to the top
it threw the guy out of the boat.

Most strange indeed.



You see the Honda and mostly Yamaha extended shaft mud motors all over the
Amazon. A dugout canoe with a 8' or so shaft extending off the back. I did
not see any using them in the mud, but the river carries a lot of silt. But
these motors are a lot bigger than a weed eater motor. At least 25-40 hp.