Thread:

Fun speed boat w/v drive

Oh and I never thought $500 for a motor was a lot. I understand the "big boys" are like 10-15 g's for a motor alone. I'm not looking at going 487 mph across water, though. I just want something to cruise with and if I can engineer some parts together and make a little fun boat then heck yeah. Maybe in the future I'll slap a 454 in a boat and give 'er hell but not at this time. I know you can put like a 35 hp outboard on those mini pickles and go 35-45 mph cruising around. I figured maybe for the same price maybe a little more I could fashion a motorcycle engine in there and make it a smaller inboard.

I'm willing to have to use the ancient paddle to get me turned around instead of having a reverse and like I said, I read that people start their boats in gear anyway to avoid the clunk ruining their tranny (unless I was thinking something was the tranny that wasn't?)

Love2,
Mini Boats boats have been around forever and have been built in most every shape you can think of from the GW Invader to the Abbott mini drag boat. APBA has run the T&Y boat classes forever. Most of these boats are powered by 2 stroke snowmobile or Jetski engines. The T boats are direct drive and I believe most of the Y boats are running a gearbox built out of Maryland but are a Z-drive. All the drivetrain parts are easy to come by and much of what they use can be made yourself. You might want to get to a APBA event that runs these classes and take a look at how they are set-up. What part of the country are you from ? I currently have a vintage T-boat, cabover design, but it is a round nose powered by a 72 cu.in. Toyota direct drive. I also have a Faser picklefork jetski. Here's a couple pic's of T&Y boats. Tim

Originally Posted by love2flymn

Even if I do a direct drive from the motor to the prop? I would fork over a little for a prop, the rest I can either machine or buy used/salvaged.
I did notice the prop shaft alone would be spendy but we would have to see when the time comes.


I was surfing the forums earlier and saw people start their boats in gear anyway so what's the point of a transmission other than redirecting the shaft backward?

If it really came down to it I suppose I'll just go with the outboard for now and modify the boat to a v-drive in the future. But I really think I could get it done cheap. If you knew me you would understand King of Thrift one could say.

I would fork over a little for a prop......nooooo, bend over...a lot.
You are building in place nobody ever goes....Prop is the most important part on the entire deal and you have so much to learn
you will either make a career out of the project or burn up all of your spare time and never finish it.

Yep, start in gear. Transmission in a boat...actually more like a stall converter....is water....the gearbox is how you get the motor in the right place to balance the boat and it's how to get power to a prop shaft that is installed at a very precise angle and has gears that allow prop shaft to be overdriven from 10-60% Props need rpm to work because of slipage. Propshaft on my deal spins 7-8k rpm.

Good luck with setting a deal up for outboard and swapping it to v-drive....might as well set it up hovercraft while you are at it.

King of thrift? lol I built a 'track cart' Sorta go cart with tracks.
2 snow machine track systems set upside by side with a 1200cc 4 cylinder honda wing motor in the middle turning a golf cart differential with a disc brake on each side and separate master cylinders and levers to steer. 30" tall with a roll cage and semi-reclining seat supported with springs/shocks. Geared it down to run 75 max and used ignition interupt/electric shift....Spent less than 500....169 of that was for shifter...All the parts were just laying around the shop and i had a tig/mill/lathe....got to drive it 5 times, guy walked up with $5k cash and i said SOLD.

You are in way over your head with a v-drive deal...they are way more complicated than they look....it's finely balance piece of machinery...upset that balance and bad things happen.

Wanna build something cool? copy this...silly little 750 cc jet ski driveJet Dinghy, Build and test, NZ - YouTube

Just so you are aware of what your about to get into, you will be lucky to finish this boat under $6K

Originally Posted by love2flymn

Thank Tim. I was thinking much of the boat could be built with parts I can find laying around/make myself/convert into what I need.
Thanks for the pics, too.
To answer your question I live in Minnesota.

One more comment related to this is that everyone has to start somewhere right? The internet is basically an infinite resource for information. There seems to be a few people in this thread willing to help me with this project, if not I will go to a different forum and find people willing to help.

I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind, as to what you want in a hull. If your not dead set on a picklefork type hull, APBA used to run very small inboard runabout classes, 48 cubic inches(Z class). There are probably still plans for them around. With modern power(jetski/snowmobile) could be really something You have a pretty good bunch of vintage guys up in your area that have done some outstanding restoration work on vintage hydroplanes. They would be a great help to you both in construction,advice and locating parts. One boat I always wanted to build was the 12' Glen-L Tiny Might. Now that I'm retired I have a couple v-drive projects I have to finish up but I might just give building the Tiny Might a try. The one thing I do agree with is adding a v-drive would just add many problems and cost to a just fun little lake boat. Tim

Well then get busy! Might as well start a thread while you are at it.


Just so ya know, I've been working on cars and m/c most of my life. I built the original worlds longest limo and a built a suzuki street bike with a mono shock before suzuki did. Been into this boating deal about 3 years and invested lot of my undivided attention...the one thing i re-learn about every day....Just how little i know and how sharp guys who have been doing this most of their life, really are.

Ok this guys sounds intent and capable of making something cool on the cheap and has already said he's not looking to set records... sounds like he would be happy at 40mph. So instead of beating him up about it how about a few suggestions?

I was thinking if you want to prop drive it with a bike engine there is no need for a v-drive... mount the strut/propshaft into the boat put a bulkhead into the boat (he's building it right?) that supports the forward end of the prop shaft and absorbs the thrust load... mount the bike engine with its center of gravity center line in the boat but above the prop shaft as the engine would be in a real v-drive but angle the engine's output shaft to be parallel to the prop shaft and chain drive the mofo! a REALLY good guard should be obvious in this situation..

As far as props go, just machine up some dealio that mounts an outboard prop to the shaft, get one of them old school props with no exhaust hub.... hell make a prop!

Sure there will be lots of little issues but thats half the fun of projects like this, not every boat has to be 100,000K and rarely leave the trailer!

BTW my friend made a wooden boat, fabricated/machined EVERYTHING and now has a 12' triple expansion steam boat. It does 3 1/2 knots and he's happy as a pig in shit!

Good luck