Short or long shaft?

[slurpie]

I have an older Lund boat that currently has a short shaft 15 hp motor. I have a 25 hp long shaft motor. my question is can you put a long shaft on a boat that only needs a short shaft? And is there any down or plus sides to doing this?

[fishnowworknever]

You should only use one or the other depending on the transom height. Measure from the top of the transom to the bottom of the boat. 15-17" short shaft 20-22" long shaft.

Using a short shaft when you need a long will cause you to cavitate. And using a long when a short is needed will cause performance and drag issues.

Look into a conversion kit to shorten the shaft.

[Savage Brewer]

Running a long shaft on a short transom will "work" but performance will be hurt by having more drag, also there is more danger of rolling the boat in this case. Two reasons, most short transom boats are narrower, also with long shaft, turn the tiller full left or right and hit the throttle, and it will go up on its side quite easily.

I did that once as a kid by accident, took the long shaft 25hp off one boat and threw it on my 12' alumacraft replacing my 9.9 on that. Figured more power is better right? wrong...