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Has anyone in our group had experience using a Briggs & Stratton for a kicker on a 17' classic Whaler? Impressions, photos of installation in operation greatly appreciated. Specifically, are members satisfied with a 4 cycle 5 hp for trolling?
Tom from Rubicon

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Tom,

I have never seen one on a Montauk however, a guy I work with has one on his 21 sea ray and loves it. He also uses it on his duck hunting boat to get back into the marshes of Lake St Clair and never has to worry about it over heating because of weeds covering the water intake since it is an air cooled motor .

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They are used a lot in Louisiana in the swamps, no water intake so no overheating.
They are called mud runner motors. Air cooled and a long shaft to the water over the top of the transom. They are used instead of a regular outboard.

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I believe the motors that Tom is talking about is the Briggs & Strattion engines that has just come out in the last few years. They have a pretty conventional shaft body and lower unit as other outboards. With the exception of a lawnmower type motor in place of the power head. I have not had the privilage of seeing one in action, but back in the late 60's early 70's there was a Eska5 and a Eska7 which sold at a now defunct chain department store (Woolco) the Briggs looks as though it is a reincarnation. A freind had a 5 hp with a 12 ft aluminum vee hull which performed as well as watercooled outboards of same horse power. What I did not like was the noise, the exaust was channled down to the water, but the fan-flywheel and governer arangement did not alow a cowling so it had the sound of lawnmower on the water.

The motors that Wrangler is talking about began as a large side shaft (horiz.) engine with a long shaft from the crankshaft to a propeller, the motor was balanced on a pole with a pivot to lower prop into water with the aid of a tiller handle. It has evolved to a new generation that somewat comes back to a outboard in what is called a surface drive engine. The videos at the Manf.'s site are impresseve ( a boat moving across a mud bank with prop digging a furrow that does not close up) check them out at WWW.GODEVIL.com The original motor ( the long tail godevil was a copy of a motor seen in a James Bond movie in a asian port, a lot of us saw it and talked about how that would work down here but soon lost our pipe dream. About 6 years later Godevil was born and in a interview with the owner, he revealed he was inspired by the James Bond movie.

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The one thing I heard about them was you needed to keep them away from saltwater. Other then that, I can't say I've heard much about them.

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Thanks for the comeback guys, I have been using it on a 14ft. johnboat. It may be a little noisier, and it would benifit from a counter balancer but it sure is easy on gas.
Tom from Rubicon