The Duck Dependent Podcast
beyond the trigger pull is a story of grit, determination, and tradition. This is The Duck Dependent Podcast,where we honor the past, celebrate the present, and secure the future of the waterfowling life
The Duck Dependent Podcast
Mud Buddy Motors pt.2
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We sit down again with Keith from Mud Buddy Motors talking reliability, unmatched performance, factory-backed power, and the relentless drive to build the best mud motor on earth. A must-listen for waterfowlers and outdoorsmen. 🦆
All right, everybody. Thanks for joining me on the Duck Dependent podcast, guys. I can't believe it, episode 19. We're fired up. We're at HQ Mud Buddy. Keith, how are you doing? I'm doing good, Dion. How are you? So excited to be here. Thank you again for taking the time. You bet anytime. You're always welcome here. Man, I appreciate that. But before we get going, I gotta get the partners. They make this thing go. Guys, flight day ammunition, you heard me talk about it before. Straight, cold, hard steel. Believe it or not, I killed a turkey this year with it. You can save some money at checkout with DD10. Guys, that's flight day ammunition. Check out DD10. Also, Les Schwab tires, guys. Good better best. It's travel season. Right now, they have a promotion where you can go and get your tires and brakes and basically a safety check before you hit the road. Go check them out. Les Schwab tires. Good better best. And then, guys, I talk about it all the time. Retay USA, the baddest inertia shotgun on planet Earth. It's my favorite. Guys, I just picked one up today. I'm excited to talk about it. Um, and then finally the new partner, Bucked Up Energy, man. Proud to have them as a partner. Proud to have them throughout the season with those energy drinks. You can save some money with checkout DD10. That's bucked up energy. And then finally, uh it's duckdependent.shop, guys. We got tons of hats. Keith, you got a hat, guys. Go check it out. I'm already thankful, so thankful for the orders that we've already had. Okay. Now we can talk business. Keith, how are you doing? I am doing well, Deion. How are you? And I'm doing great.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so we're at HQ. If you hear noises, people are working and grinding away. I'm excited to be back. Uh, but I want to talk to you about your off season. Do you have anything going? Any projects? What are you up to?
SPEAKER_00So I do have a big project, one that I started kind of in the middle. So I kind of got tired of rolling up to the ramp and seeing 10 boats, and they were all up to fade marsh. So ditched the up to fade marsh. Uh as you saw we walked out before. Out in the back, I've got the uh I bought the old salty assassin.
SPEAKER_01Yep, we remember that boat.
SPEAKER_00Remember that boat. Um, so I've repainted it. I'm going with a solid color. It's a dirty gray, it's part of the real tree paint. So I've re-camoed the motor. I like it. I actually like it. It's bottom lands. I knew I'd mess it up. Bottom lands bottom lands. Okay. And dirty gray is part of the bottom lands camo. So that's where I got the color for the hole. And then we went with the bottom lands camo, and then we're going to do the gunbox, the seat, and the light. We're going to do the camo, but the boat's going to be the solid, dirty gray. I like the solid color. It's like you in your old school. You pull up 10 boats, there's one old school boat. And I want it, I want it to just be different than Tom Dick and Harry. You know, it's just like, which boat's yours? Oh, let's see. That's my truck, so that must be my boat. So yeah, that's been my big project. Just kind of getting her ready to uh freshen it up, liven it up, do something different. Um, you know, have I have um some access here at Mud Buddy, so we can we've got a great painter, Cole, who's done who's does all of our camel stuff. He's done the uh painted the hole for me, recameled the motor. Um that's that's a big project that's been going on, and it's been a little tedious because I'm not a tedious person. I'm a I'm a cut whack, splice it back together, uh partially tape it. Sometimes I don't. Um so but no, it's just just want to be a little bit different, you know, just something fresher.
SPEAKER_01Well, I wish we had a camera on that because it does look phenomenal. The solid color was a great idea, and Cole, that dude can paint because I've brought mine in here with a few NYX, you know, stuff happens during ducks, you know. And uh I'm talking factory showroom. So that guy is on it, but I love the flat color and I like the idea of bottomlands. Well, thanks. Little sneak peek at the gun I picked up today is a two-tone bottom land retay, and it's pretty sharp. So uh absolutely love that.
SPEAKER_00Well, good. Your gun collection's amazing, and I I love I love that gun. One day I'll have to go out and shoot one with you. We got to get you out there to shoot that retay ace, man. Yeah. So it's just something, it's not really expensive to do when I did, it's just a little more time consuming because can't paint the boat inside the shop because that happened a few years ago. Over spray, a lot of trouble. So, and it's been so freaking windy here. It's like get here early in the morning, it's like, okay, a little cool, well, wait an hour. Then the next thing you know, you walk out there and you go to hit the gun and spray, and there's no paint on the boat. It's all in the air. It's like, gotta wait another day. And it's that's just kind of where I'm at kind of in a holding spot for no wind and a little warmer weather because what yesterday, 52 degrees? Hey, something happened yesterday.
SPEAKER_01It was snowing.
SPEAKER_00I uh have a daughter who lives in Wyoming. I sent her a picture because it they said I-80's closed, and she has to take I-80 for like two or three miles to get to work. All she gave me was a finger emoji. It's like you haven't had snow all year, but yesterday we get dumped on.
SPEAKER_01It's crazy. It was it was absolutely needed, but it was out of nowhere. I've been in doing baseball and all these things, and all of a sudden it just shut us down for a second. It's crazy. And I've been wanting to run the boat, as you know. Right. Trying to get the boat out every single day. It's been just you you got a little testing you're doing for Mud Buddy. But doing some testing. Testing. Good.
SPEAKER_00We're glad you're doing some testing for us. We appreciate it really. Because um the only two test people we have at Mud Buddy are Keith and Ian, and we both were here four or five days a week, so we just can't run to the lake. And you live close to the lake, but you're still battling the same problem with me trying to paint the wind.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I've got it out. Luckily, in the morning, like you're right, I'm really close to the marina, and I've been sneaking out in the morning and doing some testing, but by eight, nine o'clock, that wind's already just ripping. And you can't really get a good test because I want to make some long runs, and you know that lake gets nasty. I I respect, I'm not scared of it, I respect it.
SPEAKER_00There's a yeah, there's a difference.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And so I respect it. So you know, I'm putting some hours on that testing, but hopefully here real time, like today would have been a great day. Yeah. Uh, but I got tied up with important things like a podcast and picking up a new gun.
SPEAKER_00So the new gun, definitely for sure. But you know, go back to the boat. Yeah, it's not expensive, even if you do it yourself to repaint the boat.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00You know, you can buy paint, you can get stencils out there online, you can kind of do whatever you want. And it doesn't hurt to refresh it, it doesn't take a lot of time. A solid weekend, if somebody's not ADD like Keith, you can probably get it done in a weekend. But if you're like Keith, it's oh look, oh, oh wait, what's over there? You know, so but yeah, just and you know, something to freshen it up. Just look a little bit different, make that old dinosaur look like a newer dinosaur, you know, because some of the guys I deal with, their motors are 2004, 2005, 2006. Some of them look brand new because they don't use them, and some of them look like they went through World War III and and could use a fresh, you know, can of paint, spray, however you want to apply it, you know.
SPEAKER_01You know, I I got a question for that actually now, because I've had some people ask me that. Obviously, we're at HQ, right? Right down the road here in Utah. Is that something that a customer could reach out to you guys and say, hey, is there a shop rate, or is it an hourly thing, or is that something you're just starting to get into where it's like, hey, I'd like to freshen up my Optifate or I'd like to go away from it, or whatever. Is that something they could call you guys on?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we could we could work something out, I'm sure. A lot of it just depends on timing in the shop. Right now, last week and this week would have really been tough because it seems like no camo, no camo, 20 camo. Oh, as far as orders, as far as orders, and so it's like we've got one amazing painter, but it can take up uh two to seven or eight hours, depending on what camo the person goes with. Boats are a little bit different, but like refreshering your motor and sneaking in for a camo, yeah, we could probably work something like that in. But you're you're gonna be in the $400, maybe a little bit more range is because uh we're gonna have to wipe off the grease. It's labor intensive. Yeah, it's labor intensive. It's it's not hard. It's just once it's like painting your house. Once you get it prepped and all that done, well, the rolling is easy. Yeah, like with him with all of the everything we do now over the last probably two years is all spray gun. Where before, spray gun the base coat, everything else was stencils were rattle cans. So this is just a lot easier for him. He's got the nine or ten colors that we carry and and all of that kind of stuff. So it is it's something we could do. I I don't think we could do 20 or 30 a year, but here and there we could we could definitely see.
SPEAKER_01I've had a lot of people ask me that about sprucing up or maybe go into a solid color, like you were saying, and and now that we know we have it here, right? Yeah, right from Keith, it's possible. Um, I'd definitely reach out to the guys here at Mud Buddy and see what they can do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01But the one thing I I want to highlight too is I saw two 54s come off the showroom and you talked about it with Cole. And let's I want I want you to just describe and explain to the listeners on what it takes the detail when you do these Optiphade, because there's a beautiful Optiphade marsh, and there's beautiful timber. Once again, I like them all. I love the bottom lens that you're doing and that that color. But can you let us know, or the listeners know a little bit how labor-intense that is? Because it looks awesome. I think we just snap our fingers, I want timber or I want Optiphade. Help us understand what that takes a little bit.
SPEAKER_00So the first process is when it comes off the line, is it's gonna roll into him. He's got to clean off all the grease, all the oil that the guys that the anti-C's, the permatex. So we're using a lot of acetone cleaners like that. He's got to get it uh roughed up with the Scotch Brite pad, then it's wipe it all down again. Now you're taping and masking everything that you don't want paint on. You've got to pull the mufflers off, the throttle cable's gotta come off, all of that stuff, and then it's just tedious. And and Cole's that kind of guy that he can put a piece of tape over your um sticker and he will Zacto knife it out perfectly. Key's just gonna whack and hack it. That's what my that's my style. But Cole takes that time and it is labor-intense. So our camos can run anywhere from three to seven hours per camo job, depending on what you get. Because per motor. Per motor. Wow. Because, like the Optifade Martian Timber, there's two different stencils and eight different colors of paint.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_00And our stencils are, I think they're 18 by 18. So he's trying to hold the stencil himself the way he wants it, spray it, then move it, and then he comes back all the way around the motor, grabs the next stencil, the next color, and then he stages out all the way around. So it's it's tedious. It's just look laps around the motor with different stencils, trying to line the stencils up, get the colors where you want them, and then you know, letting it dry overnight, peeling off everything, putting the muffler back on. So, yeah, it's not like we walk in with a spray can and go it done, you know. It's uh it takes a lot. And we use a um, and I don't remember the name of it because I asked them a week or two ago when I saw it, like, do I need to put this on my boat? They go, No, it's specifically for plastic. So they sprayed this chemical conditioner, what, over the brig's plastic, and so it helps the paint adhere better to the plastic. Because we went for a while, and you could tell if you don't do a good prep job on the plastic, it peels and flakes really fast.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00So this stuff really helped with that, and also our previous painter, actually, the one not the one before Cole, the one before um Heine, he was a speedster. He was like Keith, you know, really quick, really fast, look good, get out on the out on the marsh the first time, and the paint's peeled off everywhere. And it's just all prep work, and that's what it is. So Cole's really good at that, but it is it's crazy how time consuming it is. As I was watching him do a camo the other day, I'm like, I could never, ever do this job. I don't even know if you could give me the spray gun and say paint it black. I don't know if I could finish it because I just I'm not me.
SPEAKER_01Speaking of black, that's one of my favorite colors for motors. What is so I'm looking at different ones out there. I saw the mini, I saw some black motors and all the camos. Um, is there a factory color where there's not enough charge or is it all a charge? Because I have a lot of people reaching out to me about the different camos. And I love Optifade, I love bottom lens, like I talked about. But uh for me on all my boats, I've never not had a black motor. Right. Is that a factory color? Is there different with a smaller engine or what is it?
SPEAKER_00So the HDRs are all typically black, that's the base color. Okay, and then with the camos, it could be a different base color than all the other stenciled colors. The minis is a brown, and that's just to signify the difference between HDR and the Mini. Gotcha. As the two the two basic colors that we had. Back in the old days when I started, we used cobblestone with a little bit of black flake in it, and that's how we did it. And then I remember when I started here in 20, was it 2006? We took rattle cans, straw, hazel, and brown, and we just shot lines up with like a reed power. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you would walk out out to the end of the day, and your fingertips were raw and sore because you're smacking parts of the motors, you're going up.
SPEAKER_01Did you guys do that? How long did you do that? Because I remember finding mud buddy, like 2009, 2010. I think I remember. We were still doing it.
SPEAKER_00It was a little more 2009-10. We were using stencils, but yeah, but back in the old days, it was just spray cans and colors and bloody fingers, man. So yeah, we've uh we've evolved a little bit in the camel part of it. And you know, like you said, people just don't understand, you know, what it takes. It's like I was watching a um gal the other day, she paints motorcycle parts. Yeah, she's out of New York. She does an amazing job, but it's the prep, the sandy, the painting, the sanding, the repainting. Then she gets it all buffed out, then she clear coats it five. It's like, no wonder they charge you a couple thousand dollars for two fenders and a gas tank. You know, it's just it's not hard, it's just labor-intensive.
SPEAKER_01And when you when you you know explain that I from a consumer and a customer, and uh and part of the Mud Buddy team here, but it just fires me up because you look at the detail, those motors came off, and you talk about Cole and his his attention to detail and how awesome they look, and that and you've got people like me out testing things, and it's just this culmination, guys, and I'm just excited about it. You've got the 54, the power, and the one thing I love about Mud Buddy is they back everything. Yeah, you know, I've been hearing that lately about uh some other manufacturers, and and guys, this is a built motor, not to hop off on that, but I'm just excited about how how Mud Buddy is always willing to go to the next level, and it and you described it with paint, and the motor and the warranty. Right. Does that fire you up every day? Because I can hear it in your voice.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I it does. There's some days it's a little harder. It's like every job. It's a job and it's work. But you know, I've got a guy talked to today from uh Virginia. We don't have a very good customer, we don't have a lot of customers in Virginia. He runs a prodigy, really nice guy. I mean, it's like talking to my brother, you know, and a lot of the guys I consider, you know, you're part of the my buddy family. You really are you're not just a customer, you know. Sometimes, you know, you might be just a customer, but you're part of the family no matter what part of the country you're in. And I always try to treat them the way I want them to treat me. You know, you get, I've always been told you get more with sugar water, with honey than you do with vinegar. I like that. You know, so I try to treat people that way, and you know, sometimes it works great, and sometimes it's just not gonna work out. But I like what I do because I'm my my wife calls me chatty Kathy. I love to talk to I love to talk to people I know. I'm a little more distant until I know you, then you're like, wait, this guy just shut. But it's I that's what I love about it.
SPEAKER_01But you're on the front line talking to customers all day long. I've talked to you for a decade, so I understand that. Um it's it's it's an amazing guy, and I I'm just I I get fired up, so I I love seeing how fired up you are still after all these years, right?
SPEAKER_00It's been what I just started my 18th year. Exactly. You know, so it's uh and I I started out as a pee on in 2006, putting nuts and bolts and washers in holes, learning uh you know, torque settings, loctites, all of that kind of stuff that you know people just think that thing just rolls out the door. Well, there's a lot of stuff that goes into pre-assemblies, pre-wiring before we get the motor back like from uh the motor builder when we get that fifty that 40 back that's been built to a 5400. We're the only ones in the industry that build built motors that offer a warranty for one year on the motor and the frame. So that kind of sets us apart for the best in the game. The other guys are running all 40s, and well, you know what? That 40 is a good motor, it's a good starting base for whatever you take it to on your next level because we all know I look at it two different ways. You've got the mud guys who hunt the hunters, and you got the racer mud boat guys that go to Cadio Lake and those kinds. They're two different kinds of people. Some need all the horsepower in the world, some guys want a little bit more horsepower to carry a heavy load, but want reliability and get back home. The race guy, he don't care what happens to it as long as it gets 600 feet and then it happens, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, there is a warranty difference, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, oh yeah, big difference. So on your 40-horse bricks in Stratton, that motor is covered by brakes for three years. Okay. That's a big deal. Yeah. Anything that Mud Buddy modifies, like the the old 4,000s of 45 mags, the 5,000s of 54, they all came with a one-year warranty.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00You know, so um sometimes it costs us and sometimes it doesn't. You know, it's it's one of those things, you know, stuff happens. It's all manufactured from, you know, Briggs, the motor comes from Briggs. Yeah, we pull the heads off, we do some secret little things, we put them back together. Um, but yeah, it's it's something that we've been doing since I've been here. And they were doing it before I got here at the end of 06. I remember building hundreds of carb kits a year to take your 35 to uh 45 Black Death or 5,000 Mag. Awesome. I would build 20 to 30 kits a week. Wow. Just carburetor. Just got that that was monotonous, like, you know, one gasket, two, three, and just lay everything out, and then hopefully you got everything in there and they shipped shipped well stuff. So yeah, no, I I like it here. I love it here. You know, it's like just fun. We've got some we got a great group of guys. I've seen it where we had a 15-man crew, and now we're down to like eight. We're just a little bit more efficient now. A little bit lean, a little bit lean, a little more efficient on our sub-assemblies, getting some other subassemblies from outdoor vendors in that we don't have to build as much. So we've you know, if you're not improving and changing, you're not growing.
SPEAKER_01No, I agree with that, and you can see it by the product. And um, I just absolutely love that stuff. And Blood Buddy's a hard, hard motor to beat. I agree. I put it through a lot of stuff, fishing, hunting all over the West, and no complaints. And uh to hop real quick back to that warranty, as duck hunters, we're tough on things.
SPEAKER_00To say you're like making me joke on my water, to say the least.
SPEAKER_01And so it just it's the it's that confidence, you know. You invest in that thing. This is a long-term investment, and I want the most horsepower, I'm just saying speaking for me, right? You want the most hopped up thing, and guess what? The manufacturer building it is not just gonna sell it to you and say go away. Right. That's what it meant a lot to me, and how I ended up coming with Mud Buddy and just continuing to stay with Mud Buddy is that they're not gonna say go away. We're gonna back you with a warranty. We know you're gonna go tear the you know what out of these, but we got you for one year. So that that's a big deal to me.
SPEAKER_00Right. Well, and you know, you're one of the lucky ones that live here in Utah. Yeah. It's it's going with another brand here, who's going to repair it for you? That's true. You know, um, I'm not gonna say we haven't done one or two of the other brands, but it's mainly been because of the engine, it's a Briggs and Stratton engine, and it's a warranty problem, and we're a Briggs warranty dealer, and we fixed their problem with their engine and you know, sent them on their merry way and did the warranty for them, and which we'll always do. I'm not that's awesome, you know. I'm not gonna just cut them off because you know what? At the end of the day, we're all just out there to kill ducks and go fast and do crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, that's true. You know, so I've been seeing it all over the web. We've got some hours and time. Obviously, you guys uh did a lot of pre-work with the 54. How's production? How are you guys doing? What's the excitement? Because the excitement, I'll be honest, just on social media and everything, has not died down. That thing is an absolute machine, it's a unit. How's production? Are you guys shipping? Is it when do we see that time where you probably know this better than I do? We all wait to the last minute. But is it ramping up? Is are you still anticipating the calls in July and August saying I need one tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00how's that how's that looking it's going that way now people are thankfully they're they're they're looking ahead and and over the years i've been here duck hunters are getting a little bit smarter we're not trying to be as laid back and wait till the last minute and and think you're going to get a 5400 in a week it's not going to happen it so the motor the motor comes in here goes to the engine builder it's a week right and anywhere between eight to twelve fourteen motors a week is what we're getting back okay so yeah the demand is there I mean that's no paint that's no paint that's just the engine going out coming back and you know thankfully our engine builder's five miles away and he's a Mud Buddy guy he's been with Mud Buddy well I've been here Mike has been here over 20 years oh Mike is a great dude to talk to so um and a a big asset to the company uh does really good work um so yeah it's it's busy and it just takes time to take stuff apart rework it put it back together and then it once it comes back here it's another it could be two to four to five days once it lands back at Mud Buddy to get the motor on the frame the transmission the belt tension and then all the finish work and then an extra couple days if you want to camo it so I I want to say the lead times are six weeks maybe a little bit longer but as we get closer to September which the way time's going right now isn't that far away it's gonna get worse yeah you know because you can only physically do so many a week if we could get um 10 to 15 5400s and the 40s on a good week we can average 50 motors a week out of the shop.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00And so it just depends on what's doing it. But sales right now one week 40s are ahead the next two weeks there's more 50s sold so it's just something that's back and forth and ever changing it's just crazy and um the one of the reasons why I did upgrade the paint and all that for my motor I went to the new style handle. Oh did you I did I haven't got to run it yet but I went to the new handle um it's a lot of work it's a lot of parts and right now you can you could switch over but it's expensive in your like $1400 to $1500 range. I have been told and I'm probably gonna get in trouble if I do this but I'm gonna throw it out there anyways we are looking at making a plate that will bolt under your existing frame in your motor that will allow you to put the new style handle onto your transition a little easier and cheaper transition because I had to change base plate the front nose plate the handle so it was just more involved because I had to replace the base plate which was tear the whole thing down to the frame do some repairs of because stuff because of the way we run them had a little damage but got all of that put back together. So I'm excited to go hopefully another week or two I'll be able to go out and uh run that new handle and and see what everybody's raving about. Well I'll tell you what when you do that hit me up let's go hit the lake and go around get some time on it and I want to get out and do some boat fishing my rotator cup soldier is pretty good I think we're close. So yeah but uh no 5400s dude they're just they're like what they're like a hot potato. God it's just like they're just awesome models right yeah we're having really really good luck with them um they're pushing big fat heavy loads because everybody pretty much everybody I talk to and every duck hunter you see when you go to the marsh or the river or wherever you hunt in the country you're overloaded. Absolutely every time it's just like are you kidding you look at that and I think where's Ranger green pants with the ticket because five guys in a 1648 is it's a it's yeah you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_01But um that you need power and reliability and that's why the 5400 you know punches the ticket you know so I want to ask you because I have had people reach out and I always talk about it um the 54 it's still is uh just as adaptable as the shorter drive right as a 34 versus 27 is that still an option to get between those and the one thing that I always want to talk about never forget that sets Mud Buddy apart is the gear down situation. Can you explain and help us as listeners or customers or people looking to get a new boat or maybe make a change I've ran the longer drive it's not my boat but I've ran one versus the 27 uh what are for me it's all pros what but what are the main differences between the longer drive shorter drive and the gear down what what are all those um the different styles help you in in different situations if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah let's do the 27 short drive versus the 32 27 inch is great for guys who are running timber really fast rivers or creeks where you've got to have quick maneuverability and turning okay that's where the 27 really comes in 32 more for the guys like Louisiana Utah where we're running mud straight mud straight mud we got to get down into the mud farther as far as performance wise there's no difference. It's just the way it handles okay 32 is a little bit slower but when you're out here in the Marsh in Utah like you and I are you can make a five mile sweeping turn. Right correct you know we're not we're not turning on a dive you know and so that's the big difference between the 2732. Say you want a Timber king because you like the hand guard the oil cooler cover but you want a 32 inch drive you can order it with the 32 inch drive I love my buddy for that you can do it how you want it. But a lot of people don't know that and some of our dealers don't know that so don't be afraid to ask your dealer if they don't know call me call the shop we'll let you know you can run a 27 inch drive or a 32 inch drive on any hyperdrive HD HDR motor doesn't really matter. At one time for a few years we even had a 40 inch drive those were horrible to install because it took two guys to hold it up but it got you down farther in the mud and those kind of people really liked them. I'm glad we don't do them anymore. As far as gear down so we came they came up with a gear down idea years and years ago because we're here in Utah we're 4500 feet above sea level so we suffer with no air you don't have air doesn't matter how much fuel you give it you air and fuel make power. So what we do to compensate the 17 horse percent horsepower loss because of elevation is we gear the motor down so we've got more low end we still get the good top speeds but our RPM's a little higher right so say somebody in um Arkansas right now they're running a 36 tooth on the top a 47 tooth on the bottom that's their our standard sea level gearing for anywhere in the country you come to Utah Idaho Nevada parts of Wyoming some of Colorado we're gonna run a 36 on the top but on the bottom we're gonna put a 50 gotcha and so that helps us get everything up and moving and rolling. Also where that comes in is with Prodigy boats um Excel boats heavier boats and you're gonna run two or three guys in heavy gear you can gear it down lower so you can get that big old tuna boat going and up on plane with the lower gearing versus the standard gearing.
SPEAKER_01That's a great point thank you for bringing up because that was my follow up is it's not necessarily just an elevation right no if the guy's trend he's transparent with you and says hey Keith I'm building an 1860 I know I'm at sea level but I run three or four grown men and your recommendation would be absolutely we need to gear you down.
SPEAKER_00Oh definitely and probably next thing would be is like we're gonna put you in a nine pitch warrior prop. Because we once you get up on plane and stuff you're slowly going to build up speed and get going and stuff. Your main thing is let's get up on top of the water and start moving and if you run standard gearing with the 1860 four 200 pound guys a dog and some gear it's yards and yards and yards before you get that thing up on plane. So gearing it down like you said it's not just an elevation thing it's a weight thing. How can we get your big old weight going because people don't think about it years ago when the 37 EFIs came out we were doing them HDR guy calls and he's he's he's upset and he wants to know why his boat won't get him up on plane I'm like all right what do you have? Yeah I've got an 1860 okay you got a heavy boat all right how many guys you have well well there's me and my two buddies I was like all right well how big are you and your two buddies well the two of them were defensive linemen the other was offensive linemen they're all over 300 pounds. It's not gonna work power not going to work and that and so we geared him down as far as we could we made it as good as we could get for him because he was just underpowered and that's because he didn't know he didn't tell his dealer what he was doing and it just the communication wasn't there between the three parts.
SPEAKER_01And that is a that is so important. So thank you for bringing that up because that's a reality like you said earlier. Do not be afraid to talk to your dealer to call mud buddy to say hey and be honest with yourself too about hey I am probably going to overload this and if your standard day is three people you might want to have a conversation about me about gearing this thing down especially if you're doing those bigger bigger boats that might be a question don't be afraid to ask the dealers right and you can reach out to you at any time yep uh but I think that's super critical because I have a lot of people reaching out about uh believe it or not not knowing that or thinking it was a sea level thing and I was like absolutely not yeah you call Mud Buddy every every time about those questions but if you're gonna run heavy big loads gear down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah big loads you know heavy boats yeah but it like you say it's not just an it started out as an elevation thing but I think probably really over the last six years or so it's um since heavier boats come out and I don't want to just use project because there's every heavier boats but they were the one one of them so we're like hey we can take our gear down put it in your boat right and let's get it rolling and then we can work on the gearing and that's one of those things that Mud Buddy does that the other companies don't do.
SPEAKER_01And I've noticed over the years I love the accessories but I think you solved multiple problems with that gear down because my boat's a one two five gauge 1854 right and you start adding and I'm a box guy so I want everything nice and neat put away so I've got a gun box I've got a rod box extra boxes I've got the big huge 11 gallon I say big for a mud motor but a big tank up front and trolling motor and all this stuff. And so I think by that gear down elevator I think you've solved problems is what I'm saying. Right. And these boats aren't getting any lighter because as hunters we want more stuff just bare boat right lights and all that it all adds weight the winch and all that so um I would just say that yeah guys reach out talk get get yourself hip on it but we're trying to educate you here and I'm getting educated on that on that gear down.
SPEAKER_00Well you know that's what we're here to educate you know I mean hunting hunting with uh our old sales guy Clint was here for 25 years a great guy you know um hunting with him over the last 10 years and the different kind of hunts we've been on his boat's so overloaded one area we're just in the marsh where we've got butt seats so we can we can shoot out of the boat we can shoot in the cattails you know we can shoot off the bank if you get up to a river area you've got to have uh river decoys you've got to have sleds to get your stuff from the boat to the bank and then if it's snowing you got to have snow camo or if you set out on a point you've got you got to carry a blind and even the decoys I have river weights that are way heavier ten ounce versus a little two ounce here in Utah so you're so you you're not at the end of the day it's like where did that stupid decoy go? And I you know being all of that was new to me I'm I made that mistake the first time I went out like do we really need to throw this many decoys out because I bet we threw out seven dozen decoys you got to pick those up well and you know the mud here in Utah good lord I I can't I don't need my son-in-law right now because of some of the health conditions I've had over the years and stuff he's like Pops you set the boat I got the decoys which is great for me because I know when I get out of the boat I'm gonna fall it's just when I'm I know it's gonna happen so I I'm stuck into I do the boat details and I'm okay with that. Hey that is totally that's so funny because I I'm a decoy technician right now my father-in-law comes into town and he's not gonna leave the boat he's barking orders you go put the decoys out uh but it it's a real yeah that it's a big deal here that mud so it it is you know and just having you know you've got to have Clint had two jet sleds we had three buddy seats we had three um of the box seats with the backs you I mean it's like what are we hunting off of he's like it just depends on where the birds are and you you know that because you hunt over the west and it's like you've got to be able to adjust on the flight and if you don't have it in the boat it's back of the truck you're not going back to the truck so you're gonna adapt for with what you have but I usually just shoot out of the marsh so we've got the boat which is my favorite but I do like sitting on the butt seats and getting into the cattails because you know you're into the nature part of it and you're better hidden.
SPEAKER_01That's fair you know and and there's a lot to say of that but and sometimes you hide so well it's like I can't see through the cat yeah no it's it is tough here when they because a lot of them want to work it from from kind of coming over the backside of it right and and when you're sitting down in there it's tough. I've done both I'll be honest I don't know if it's age or just different styles but I've kind of transitioned to all boat blind there might be some areas where it's too shallow where I'll get out right but for the most part here in Utah I'm 80 90% pulling in and pulling up the blind oh I agree that's that's like if my son in law we're gonna pull out the butt seats I'm staying home exactly it's like I'm just gonna sit in the truck no but it it is a different thing and you know I'm gonna go to uh Ian shop manager he's got his 1854 set up with a um a blind it's not the fast grass it's the shaggy the shaggy material with those flip tops on them those are that's an awesome he showed me that dude the first time we took that out after he kind of came up with his idea we went out to um Willard Spur.
SPEAKER_00Okay it was second second week in January nice day little overcast when those birds come decoyed in son-in-law calling them in and we stood up they had no idea we were there until those tops come up and then and then it wasn't fair well Ian's ducks it was okay with because he couldn't hit his butt but my son-in-law and I did really well and but you know them coming over the top or coming from the sides and if you're moving it's uh if you're not hidden you're not shooting no that's fair you know it just it's just crazy how every day or every time you go out you have to change something up because certain areas like here in Utah Farmington Bay you like to shoot there and it's a great place but everybody in Utah likes to shoot there because it's like centrally located for everybody. It is it's a competition out there you know and if you're not that two three o'clock in the morning guy you show up at five you're probably not going to get your first choice luckily there is a lot of area yeah here in Utah and I will uh pump up the state there's a lot of public land and I absolutely love all the areas here and it's there's a lot and you know a lot of great people you hear you hear about some of the the wars and the fights at the boat ramps and stuff like that. That's not here.
SPEAKER_01I want to knock on wood because I have not had that happen here. I haven't either always good morning how are you guys doing we go about our day and then you go your separate ways or whatever.
SPEAKER_00We rolled up on a couple guys a couple years ago at a local Ogden Bay up on my house my son-in-law and I, you know this is a part where I am a well-oiled machine I have when we pull up to the ramp I pull the cover off I pop off the back straps I fire up the motor he's getting all of his gear on next thing we know we're ready to go and there's two boats in front of us and they're gonna get free boat ramp though you guys do it before you get to the right before we get to the right so we get all that done and we're and so I went up and said hey guys we're we're ready this is kind of where we're going if it's not going to hinder where you're going are you cool if we jump in front of you yeah man go ahead we're just trying to get our stuff together yeah I know that's why we're asking that's why we're asking to bump ahead in a nice way they did it in a nice way and they were really cool about it. But but I've also been told hey you know just kind of relax a little bit we're we're moving I said I understand that no it's cool and I'm not trying to be a a winker about it I just like you know when you get to the boat ramp be ready to go the boat ramp is the last stage I've I put ramp all over the West and that is the only way to do it is what you just said pre-do it.
SPEAKER_01When you're going to the ramp it's literally the guy has the rope and you're getting ready to push off or the guy's getting ready to drive off and you go.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01I will I will second that because that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_00It is you know get it pre and you know you're letting your motor warm up. So when you pop it into the water he runs the truck back he jumps in you're warmed up and good it's not coughing spitting and sparting all these these new EFIs don't do that but those old carburetor versions if they didn't have a 10 minute warm up time it was a rough it was a rough ride out of the marina.
SPEAKER_01Those days are over because these these EFIs they fire actually right up I've had them in some crazy cold temperatures and it's yeah they're phenomenal. A few things I want to ask you though yes okay because we talk about it often we're probably not the best on it I'm not gonna speak for everybody because there's a lot of people out there on top of their maintenance and doing all that uh let's pretend it's me. It's now what is it almost June?
SPEAKER_00But you bring it to Mud Buddy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well that's true. Let's say it's June. And I haven't done anything to my boat from last year. What are the absolute have to some of those things I I should have got done.
SPEAKER_00You can yell at me but what what needs to be done if I've neglected it since Well so if you're if you're gonna start taking out and doing some fishing or boat fishing here in Utah I'm gonna look at I'm gonna pull the dipstick look at the oil. If it's black runny I'm gonna change the oil the filter look at the spark plugs um if you didn't run fuel stabilizer in your gas hopefully you did if you didn't um I'm probably gonna let you know we're not gonna do it here at Mud Buddy you either get some type of stabilizer in it pump it out put it in your car put some good fresh octane in it because these especially if you're running these bigger motors the 50 for the 5000s 5400s or our old performance motors you've got to run 91 octane octane or better. And if that gas has sat there for four or five months it's not good for your system and going in it's like well like you've got 11 gallon take well I got like six gallons that so I'll just pump five fresh in it and it doesn't really work that way you know so uh I would recommend just doing basically with my boat I try to do it because we bow fish during the summer I try to change my oil before we go out on our first boat fishing trip and I change my oil and filters um before duck hunting season.
SPEAKER_02Gotcha.
SPEAKER_00It just because the the the the more you change the oil and the oil filter the longer life you're gonna get out of your motor. Yeah the smart plugs you can go 50 hundred hours fuel filter a little longer greasing your drive belt tension those are very important but oil and fuel are the big things that um that'll kill a mud motor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah you know so I would recommend if you haven't done anything now what does it cost you 30 40 bucks for oil filter plugs or oil yeah you know wherever you get your stuff at you know local auto parts store or whatever it's uh it's good insurance it really is so it's within reason and let's talk about within reason because it's not necessarily a bad thing if you want to do visual inspections like the spark plugs I usually change mine a little bit sooner on on some visual or just peace of mind and kind of store some for backup right none of that stuff is really an hindrance right you can't over maintenance within reason right I mean you okay yeah no you can't really over maintenance I mean a lot of guys you know with the old carburetor motors you definitely want to have a pair of backup spark plugs because you were going to foul them sooner or later.
SPEAKER_00And if you had them it never happened but if you didn't have them you needed them so yeah just you know storage them you know before you put it away make sure EFIs you don't drain the system you could put a good stabilizer in the fuel make sure you run it for 15 20 30 minutes so you're getting the fuel through the line into the motor with the stabilizer not just dumping it in the tank and and not running it. If you want to start it up once a month you could do that too. I don't do that with mine. I put I keep a little bit I keep a couple gallons in it I stable it really well I run it for a while I disconnect the battery put the cover on it and it's done until I bring it out and ready to change the oil and plugs And put fresh fuel and stuff in it because we have an 11-gallon tank. I don't care for the 11-gallon tank because of the weight. That's fair. And that's all it is, it's weight. It's like that little six-gallon tank where we run, you can go out two, three trips. That's fair. Some guys even farther. Now, Andrew and I running out of the spur, we're running seven to ten miles out. We're only going to get two trips. But you're running around Farmington Bay, you're good for two, three trips. And if you've got that 11-gallon tank, um, so when we decided I decided to paint the boat and stuff, we drained a tank. And he's like, Well, there's not very much in it. I lift up the flop. I'm like, what do you call not very much? It looked like it was full. And it was nine gallons. I was like, Why you got nine gallons of fuel in there? Well, every time I went out, I just put like two or three gallons in. I said, Well, did you ever lift up or look at the gauge? No, no, I just always put gas in it. So, you know, it's it's not something you need to have. I don't like 11 gallons, but I know there's lots of people do because they might run a little bit farther than that. But our six gallon we had in our first Excel boat, you know, if you're if you were nervous about it, we made a rule on the way out of the hunting area, the first few station we passed, we filled it up. So if you decide, hey Keith, I'm taking the boat out tomorrow, you know it's got fuel in it because our agreement was you use it, you fill it up before you return it.
SPEAKER_02Sure.
SPEAKER_00You know, and that's just something that we always go by. But yeah, no, just basic maintenance. I mean, especially fuel and oil. If you change some people like, well, I talked to a guy today. Talk about over the top, 10 hours, every 10 hours, oil and filter.
SPEAKER_01Really?
SPEAKER_00Every 10 hours. Is it gonna hurt the motor? No. Is it gonna cost you a little bit more? Yeah. Who but you you know when you're buying a what $10,000 to $12,000 motor, investment? Yeah, what's uh hundred bucks a year in oil, filter, and plugs? Nothing.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's the thing. You're talking two cords, the filters, the plugs. That's kind of why I'd have increased the intervals as far as far as like even the little fuel filters, the inlines. I mean, they're it's yeah, they're pennies to the on the totality.
SPEAKER_00Right, yeah. And that was just funny. Listen to this guy, like he's like, you think I'm a little too much? I'm like, uh for you, no, because that's the way you are. For me, yeah, you're a little over the top, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I'd rather have you do that than the guy who brings his motor in here, you pull out the dipstick, and it's blacker than black, and it's runnier than water. And you're like, when was the last time you changed it? Well, I don't have a clue. Yeah, well, we can tell, you know. And so anything that we service here, we write down with a wet marker, yep, the date and the year. It's on mine. I saw the date. You know, just so you you can look at it like, oh man, it's been two years. I better get back in there. But some guys' two years isn't even ten hours of runtime. That's true. So it's kind of one of those things that's but yeah, I'm twice a year, regardless of how many hours, just because our hot summers and just trolling with the mud motor idling around, shooting carp. Yeah, it's hard on it.
SPEAKER_01I'm on that that schedule twice a year, too, because of the moisture from the winter and even the summer, the hot and all that.
SPEAKER_00So it's just uh and it's what supposed to be 90s again next week. Oh, I'm not ready for that. I wasn't ready for the cold either yesterday. It's like, holy cow. But yeah, no, just preventative maintenance is like one hour twice a year, and you're pretty much good to go. And you look over everything, and don't forget there's four grease pivot points on those things.
SPEAKER_01I just did that yesterday. I'm serious. I do it twice a year, just a couple of squirts in, right?
SPEAKER_00Because yeah, that's plenty. You know, get a little bit coming out the sides of the the bolts there, but the especially the one on the vertical tube, because if you don't do that one, I should say the vertical horse is it vertical? So the vertical tube, there's one that's your left and right steering. If you don't grease that thing, that one can cost you a lot of money. A lot of money where 50 cents of grease once a year will save your bacon, and it'll save me and my guys a lot of a torch, a torch, a lot of profanity, and whatever else gets thrown around the shop. It's it's no fun. So yeah, there's more to it, and you know, you always just give it a lookover because things things break, things crack. You know, some some guys it'll never happen to, and a lot of guys it'll happen to just because of the way they run them. You know, the hard thing here in Utah is going over one dike to the next if you're winching it or pushing it or over the rollers. That's the hard part here in Utah. Yeah. Running through the marshes, we don't hit stuff. Well, Utah Lake, you gotta watch out for the T-post.
SPEAKER_01There's some stuff there, there's some traps.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's a there's a story, but we won't go into that one about a guy losing his boat on a T-post at Utah Lake.
SPEAKER_01So we say that for another episode. You'll say that for another one.
SPEAKER_00But this guy's gonna have to pass away before okay. We'll wait on that one.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Before we give before we tell that one.
SPEAKER_01So you guys you guys heard heard it here. Simple maintenance goes a long way. I'm always dialed in on that. And Keith will set you straight. If you have any questions, call in, reach out. Um, it's always a big deal. And I think it's easy and cheap, relative. That's I know that's for everyone to to kind of decide, but it's cheap as far as what that motor costs. And I and in my heart of hearts, if you treat that motor right, it'll treat you right, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, and it's like anything you do if you've never changed oil or you've never done a filter. Yeah, you're a little apprehensive the first time, but when you're done and you're all cleaned up, you're like, well, that was nothing. I can do it. I can do that, you know, and just a little bit at a time, especially customers who don't have a Mud Buddy location near them. You're going to have to do it yourself, or you're gonna have to drive an hour, two, three, or however far away you are. So we do a lot of tech support. Okay, here's how you tear this apart, here's how you put it back together, and we do have some videos on YouTube so to help out with that.
SPEAKER_01The website's full of those. I still watch them today, or I'll just text Keith. But those are great information. I've got a few more things. Before I let you go, I want to talk about the partners one more time, guys, that helped this thing go, okay? Flight day ammunition, the best still, in my appre, in my opinion, premium product. You can save some money at checkout with DD 10, guys. It's flight day ammo, just like we talked about motors. Don't wait, get your ammo now. Leshwab tires, guys. I'm getting ready to take a trip with the family. I'm gonna hop in there and get my free inspection. Right now, they're doing a promo. They give you a little box with some air uh tire pressure meters and all those kind of things. They kind of give you a good little box. It's good, better, best. And then our new partner, uh Bucked Up Energy, I use them. I'm traveling all the time. Um, they make pre-workout, post-workout. But guys, just excited to have those retail USA. I'm gonna get Keith out on the reins, let him try it out. The new 20 gauge I just got, my favorite inertia gun, and then uh duckdependent.shop, guys, go check it out. I'm always uh refreshing that, having the best lids. But before I let you go, if you don't already have your dream rig, I I know you've got an awesome rig, and you just talked about it. If you were to start from scratch right now and Keith gets to build his dream rig, can you spec it out for us uh as we close this podcast out?
SPEAKER_00If money's not an option, no option, no option. What are you building? I I'm gonna go with the um the new style pro hole. I want the low deck.
SPEAKER_01Low deck, okay.
SPEAKER_00Low deck. I like the low deck, it hides everything down a little bit lower. Plus, my son-in-law's 5'7 Key 6'4. There's a little difference. We got a little height difference, you know, and um it'll help me be able to sh or for him to shoot over me. Um and I just like to put everything on the front deck and it stays there, it's out of the way. Um, I like those new welded-in seat positions in the back. I'm going to run the trays down both sides. I'm going to run the six-gallon tape because that's me. Yep. Just because I don't need to run that much fuel and the weight, the batteries on the other side. I'm probably going to color-wise, I don't know. I'm I really like the Badlands camel that I've done and the dirty gray. So unless something's just like floored me, I would I would go with that setup again. Just because it's you're not going to see it every time you pull up to the ramp.
SPEAKER_01So low deck, did you say size? Uh I went to 1854. 1854 low deck with the 54. Yep, 54. Are we lighting it up? Are we putting lights in the box? Are you doing clear?
SPEAKER_00I'm probably going to do um I probably do. I like orange. We probably do lights inside on the orange and some type of light out the back. You know, I'm I'm not a young kid, so that doesn't really excite me, but my son-in-law likes those reverse, not reverse lights, but rooster light, rooster tail, yeah. And that kind of stuff. And then um probably maybe some type of sound system because I love music and I know you don't have the music on where you duck hunt. That's why I have my earbuds in underneath my homies and because I'm not paying attention anyways, but yeah, just something real practical. I, you know, I like the HydroTurf. Um, if money wasn't an option, would I go with some of this pre-cut with the ducks and the geese or logos? It's beautiful. But then I remind myself, and I always say it to people, it's a duckboat. It's gonna get scratched, it's gonna get muddy. But if money wasn't uh a deal, I would definitely do that kind of stuff because it just looks nice. Yeah. And you know, the only people who see it are is myself and my son-in-law, and a few people that see it moving down the road. But other than that, I mean, doesn't matter what camo, what kind of finish, whether it's dull, a matte finish, or a high gloss. When you pull up the blind, nobody knows what color. The ducks don't even know what color it's.
SPEAKER_01It's like fishing lures. It's for us. Right, it's for the colours.
SPEAKER_00It is it's it's your it's your thing. A lot of guys like the high shiny stuff. Some people don't. It's okay. We all have our own, yeah, our own what works for you doesn't work for me, and what works for me doesn't work for you, and that's okay. But yeah, that's 1854. So we step down from 1851 to the 1854. I'm running, I've got the old salty that we ran on shallow water adventures. I want the 18-footer back because it's faster, it runs smoother, it maneuvers better, it's a lot more stable. The 1854 versus a 1754. Gotcha, really. Yeah, okay. Just it just that that one extra foot just and Clint tried to tell me, but you know, what do I know? You know, I'm just a dumb old man. But that one foot made a big difference in how that thing handles. And even my son-in-law is like, if we get a new boat, let's go back to the 1854. We thought 1754, still do everything we wanted to do, a little easier to hide. It's a foot. Does it really you're you're trying to stash 17? What's 18? Right. So yeah, I would I would definitely go back to my 1854.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so Keith dreamboat. Lights, orange, 1854, the 54. Uh, what was the camo? Uh uh bottom land?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, bottom land on the motor and like uh the light, grab bar, and the seat box, and then the boat hole just a flat, dirty gray.
SPEAKER_01What about the gauge? Are you 100 gauge, one, two, five? What's your go-to? Because we're out here, there's a lot of stuff we're not gonna hit.
SPEAKER_00Right. 100 gauge would be okay, but the pearl holes are 125, so you've got to go with that, and that's okay. I absolutely love the one, two, five.
SPEAKER_01You don't have to worry.
SPEAKER_00No, and like you, you run the mid the overall rivers, rivers. That's where the the one, two, five really comes in handy. So yeah, I I would run the one two five just because really that's what they make it in, that's what I'm gonna go with. But yeah, definitely 1854. Okay, you know, hydroturf, that kind of stuff. Trolling motor bracket, gotta have the trolling motor set. Front LED. Yep.
unknownNice.
SPEAKER_00Even though I don't hunt in the motors anymore.
SPEAKER_01But I need it when I come back at night, right? That's true. When it gets evening time. So you guys heard it here, Keith. We're gonna work on getting you that dream belt. Somehow we're gonna find a way. Maybe when I retire, that'll be that'll be my going away again. Let's work on that. We put it out there now. But I I want to say thank you. Thank you for taking the time. I hear the guys working, and I I absolutely love coming here. Well, thanks.
SPEAKER_00We're glad you're here.
SPEAKER_01Thanks again. Guys, I'll catch you on the next one. It's always awesome to have Keith on. And guys, we'll catch you on the next one.