new guy

**dirtyolds@vage** · 06-23-2010, 06:43 AM

hello, Im colton i live in NC iv lived on the water all my life but never had a air boat. Im looking to build one with my new 4a032. i plan on puting it on 10' Jon boat.
any help is welcom! I plan on building up this little engine(if it dont work then i will use a snowmobile engine)

**chuckitt** · 06-23-2010, 07:24 AM

Hey dirtyolds, Thanks for joining the mini site. You should get plenty of info from members on this site. Duane is from NC and he is building a MiniPro 116. Papee has used a 4A032 engine and now is running a 4A084. They should chime in today. Where are you at in NC?
Thanks, Chuck

**Papee** · 06-23-2010, 11:20 AM

Welcome to the site dirty, as Chuck mentioned I experimented with a 032 while I was waiting for my 084 to arrive.

How wide is the boat? An 032 will spin a 48" prop running it direct drive. This means your boat would have to be at least 54" across the top of your transom for the proper cage to prop clearances.

The next thing would be also concerning the width, I can't remember offhand how much the 032 weighs but the boat must be wide enough and have the surface area to displace the water so you boat does not float too deep in the water. The deeper your hull is in the water the harder it will be to get on plane. The engine will not make enough thrust to get it on plane.

As in most things, it's all relative. Most people say the hull should be at least 5 ft, but as i say it is relative to the weight you are trying to get on plane. The exception to this is that the motor must be capable of making the torque needed to turn the right prop to get the thrust needed to haul the weight. I've made a smaller hull work by putting on a smaller lighter engine, and getting the most performance out of it. It's all about floating the weight of the power plant, rigging, and operator.

In most cases you would want to choose your hull first.

You decide how much weight you will be carrying, one person, two, etc.

The hull material, Aluminum or fiberglass, this would be decided by the type running conditions you have, rocky bottoms would need an aluminum hull, most other situations could use a fiberglass hull and poly could be also added for more protection of the hull.

Hull width:
Wider is better to a point with Mini Airboats, if you get too much surface area it causes more drag. More boat contacting the water causes drag and is hard to overcome when trying to get on plane. With Mini Airboats it is very important to match your setup getting the most out of your motor. When on plane, the less hull you have contacting the water the faster the boat will be. It's a balancing act, a narrower hull will be faster than a wider hull running on the same back 3 feet of the boat while on plane becasue with a wider hull there is more surface area causing more drag. With this in mind, you don't want to go too wide for your engine choice. More is not always better.

We're here to help you, we realize not everyone has the money to throw at a boat to get on the water. This is one of the benefits in building a mini airboat. The more questions you ask the more information that is here for the next person with the same questions.

**buster** · 06-23-2010, 11:53 AM

Hi Colton

Just want to welcome ya to the forum. Chuck and Papee already gave you enough info to chew on for a while, but if ya got any questions, just fire away and we will do the best we can for ya.

Duane will be real glad to hear you live in NC. He says there is a big shortage of airboaters there. He will be bending your ear when he gets home from work.

Dave

**n4wsp** · 06-23-2010, 02:15 PM

Welcom Colton. The main thing is to have fun with what ever you build

Steve

**dirtyolds@vage** · 06-23-2010, 03:01 PM

Thanks guys, Glad to see that yall are willing to help me. I live in palmerville nc on badin lake. I want to find a used jon boat 12' max 8' min. Im plan on this being all alluminum(cage,engine mount,every thing)probly run about 5 gal tank max and im about 200lbs. All so looking for a decent prop prefer used but will buy new from ultraprop or arrowprop. wich ever is cheeper ? or better?.I plan on geting a shaft from saternsurp.
but dont know if any prop hubs will work on that (if i dont make up a underdrive)

Im just trying to gather up info on what works for this 4a032. I ll have to wait and see what kind of jon boats turn up on graigs list

And tell me what yall think will work best for this

**Papee** · 06-23-2010, 04:03 PM

I have an 3 blade Ultra Prop here I cut down to 48" if you decide to go that way. I also have a 57" and I think Chuck has a 59".

**buster** · 06-23-2010, 04:50 PM

Colton,

If you are running where you have rocks to contend with, a jon boat may not be beefy enough. I think most aluminum airboats have about 3/16" bottom, plus 3/8" or more poly and can take some abuse. Just something to consider, because a sharp rock thru the hull wouldn't be good.

Dave

**Duane Scarborough** · 06-23-2010, 07:02 PM

dirtyolds@vage,

Welcome to the Mini forum. I'm in Wilson, NC. Its good to hear that I will not be the only one building a Mini in NC.

I have heard of a "few" airboats in NC, but they are rare.

A 48" Ultra Prop may be a good choice. That, and a wide short Jon boat. I tried finding one of those on Craigslist a year ago, and didn't have much luck... The odd 1 or 2 that I did run across must have been made of Gold.

Good luck in your search, and let us know if we can help in any way.

Duane

**David** · 06-23-2010, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by dirtyolds@vage

Im plan on this being all alluminum(cage,engine mount,every thing)

Welcome to the site Dirtyolds when I first seen your user name under the member list I thought for sure we was gonna have to get rid of ya cause of the DIRTYOLDS

anyway lol I am not sure if I would use the aluminum for the rigging cause if you get to thin it tends to crack alot cause of the vibrations of the airboats and to thick well it would be to much weight If it was me I would just use the blue stripe electrical conduit JMO

**dirtyolds@vage** · 06-23-2010, 08:29 PM

I like old savage rifles

**Duane Scarborough** · 06-24-2010, 07:01 PM

dirtyolds@vage,

I had no idea where Palmerville, NC or Badin Lake was so I did a Google Earth search this afternoon. I was too tired and brain dead to do it last night.

Man, you are a LONG way from the salty coastal water that I plan to operate in. I chose Stainless Steel to build my rigging because of that.

David has given you some good advice If you do not plan to do much salt water running, then blue stripe EMT conduit may be the way to go. It's cheap (really cheap, and readily available at the local Lowe's, or Home Depot), easy to work with, and pretty strong, on a strength to weight basis.

Either aluminum, or stainless steel will be a good bit more difficult to work with, a bit more difficult to obtain, and certainly more expensive.

I have no idea what your skills are in metal working. Aluminum or SS require a good bit more practice to get good at it than EMT conduit does. EMT is a good choice for most people.

Let us know if we can help.

Duane

**Duane Scarborough** · 06-26-2010, 06:24 PM

dirtyolds@vage,

I've thought about your boat and engine combination some. It has occurred to me that you MIGHT want to consider building an Arrow Prop style air drive.

Okie Gator also builds a similar style. I think they call theirs an Air Pack.

There are other brands out there, but I just don't remember them at the moment.

If you built something similar to this with your 4A032, then it'd be really simple to move from one hull to another. That would let you test different sized hulls before you actually bought them. Or at least it would give you the option to use it on different hulls, sorta' like you can move an outboard from hull to hull.

Here's a link:

http://www.arrowprop.com/airdrive.htm

Why not give Don Miller at Arrow Prop a call. He's a nice guy, full of info, and he'll help you out.

His number is (405)279-3833. He's in Oklahoma, so figure that in to when you call.

Thanks,

Duane