Does anyone know about the jet drive lower units for outboard motors? I'd like to know a little about them, are they good in water that is 1 or 2 foot deep in the river, are they better than buying an airboat dollarwise? How much hp do they rob from the motor, I have a 35 hp Evinrude, would it still push my 16 ft John boat as well as the prop does or would I need to go to a bigger motor &then put the jet drive on it? if anyone has one or knows of a dealer that has them, please let me know about it? Thanks Hank51

it will still hang down as a lower unit( as opposed to the true jet boat style river boats) so it will hang 6" lower than your transom. I believe(if I remember correctly) you lose about 30% of your horsepower..

i did a lot of searching a couple years ago... I would put "jet drive lower unit" into google search or "jet boat" some good reads will pop up....

you will be able to run in 4-6" of water on plane (unless you run across grass- then it will bog down from sucking it in)

We used them all the time running the rivers in PA. 6" average for a fair fishing load. Most of though the hulls were lined with teflon to slide off the rocks. (Susqhanna River) The 30% is a good estimate.

Thanks Ronnie, that answered my question! Now, I have another question, my boat is rated for a 35 hp motor, it has a 35 Evinrude on it, if I put one of the jet lower units on it, will my motor still be able to plane my boat out or do I need to get a bigger motor to put the jet drive on? My boat is a 16 ft Monark that is the wide one & it'll float in less than 6 inches of water, would it be good for shallow river fishing? The place that I'm moving to is below the Lake Whitney dam about 9 miles, I wanna have enough power so that if or when the COE starts letting water out & the river starts rising fast, I wanna be able to get back to the ramp to get out of it, there is no way of knowing when they will start generating at the dam. Most of the neighbors there have airboats, I'd like to have one of those, but I'd bet they are expensive! Do you or anyone else know anything about them or what they cost for a small used one would run?

you could probably plane that boat out with 15hp.... so yes... it will work quite well... airboats are toooo loud and seem like they are very hard to learn how to drive.... i would stick with the jet drive lower unit..

thanks a bunch Ronnie for the info, I will pursue a jet drive for my 35hp motor!

The jet lower unit will only be about 2" below the bottom of the boat to run in shallow water. You will also need a hydraulic jack plate to lower the motor to run if there is any chop to the water or the unit will suck air between waves. (learned this the hard way)

thanks for the info, do you know where to get one of the jet drive lower units?

Hope this website might help.

http://www.outboardjets.com/index.html

Thank you much sir, I will check them out!

unless your going real shallow why would you want one

I don't want one now, the deal fell thru on the place I was gonna buy on the shallow river below the Whitney dam!