That's a true statement unless you're in a air boat. A mud motor can take off in mud, hard sand no. Biggest difference in the jet, it doesn't take much. With a bit of effort, I can pop out of 3". 5" takes no effort. That's hard sand, mud just acts like water.

What will set me down is an oyster shell, but that's a quick fix.

Airboat, mud motor, jet, prop in a tunnel will all increase your range, which is what you're wanting to do.

What does your boat draft when you are at a dead stop? Did you say that the intake to your jet is even with the bottom of your hull?

I'm a little above bottom of the hull, have a small tunnel to feed water. I am sitting on the bottom in about 4" of water, but I can still take off, the jet will still push water and usually can get up and going. Little easier with a passenger to offset the weight and rotate around the bow to get up and moving, or I can just lean to the right and punch it, once I start moving, I'm long gone.

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Pat, that is way cool!

Thanks for the picture and the explanation.

The truth is, it's all about the same as your four wheel drive truck. Yep, you can get into a lot more stuff, but when you do screw up, you're really stuck. I can get out of a lot of bad spots just because my boat's so light, I also carry a come-along, I can stick my mud anchor in and winch it along on dry ground when I have to, it's not at all fun, but better than calling for a helicopter.

Get a long shaft mud motor and you can dig holes! Let fill with water and slam motor down into it. It might take a few times to get you off the mud/sand...but sucker will move if it has enough HP.

thats the one good thing about a prop, you will bottom out before you get stuck.

It's too hard to navigate with a non tunnel prop, you'll be hitting stuff all day long. A good tunnel setup you *know* you can run on a dark bottom, if there's any ripple on the water I *know* I can run through it.

Where I do screw up from time to time is not making a turn in a back lake drain cut, and end up on the bank. No biggie, just slide it back in and gone we go.

Pat,

If I wanted to buy a used rig like yours, what would I look for, and what price range would I reasonably expect to be in?

Pretty sure you wont find a rig like his.. He's was built

Actually there's a few similar running around, they were built by a welder in San Marcos, I saw one for sale at 2 cool a couple of months ago. They are similar, but never exactly the same.

.30 gauge aluminum, all welded, I bash stuff in mine constantly and I can't break it. Everything on a boat is some manner of compromise. Can I just bust out across the bay when it's rolling whitecaps? Not even. Can I load four fat bellies and go croaker slinging? We'd sink at the ramp. Running shallow (and getting out) is all about weight, quickness, a little nerve, and reading water.

A good tunnel prop allows you to run anywhere you see a dark bottom, you *know* it's enough to go. The jet can run anything but oil slick shoals, and if it's just a reef, I can slide right over the top of it for a pretty good ways. It just makes navigating so much easier, because I'm only wary of less than 5% of the water, a regular non tunnel prop rig is wary of 40%. And if I can slide at all, I can get up and go, way shallower than a prop rig, especially on a hard bottom.

pat, how often do you replace the liner in the jet foot?