well dshay you have a good start owning a weld shop ,seams like air boats are a lot of trial and error, 3 years ago I dident know the first think about a air boat and have been learning ever since.now running a 16 ft 15 in side 6 ft wide boat with a stroked 2.0 vw water cooled .and having a 17 ft panther being built with ls power so be carful its addicting.and will be building a mini by next year . some of your questions I can answer are its hard to run dry with small horse power ,its hard with big hp !! definetly a reduction unit will help,its winter here and im re doing my boat for the 6 time ,deck over the back ,weber side drafts more led lighting boat wrap etc. more horse power. great hobby and a lot of fun hope this helps saturn