Motor swap from 25 Merc to T8 Yami in 14′ Jon Boat?

I am ordering a new Lund Alaskan 20′ tiller and am contemplating purchaseing a T-8 for a kicker. I currently have a 1448 Jon boat for use in rivers that has a ’99 25 horse 2 stroke Mercury on it that will push the boat to about 21mph according to GPS. I would like to sell this motor and move the T-8 off the Alaskan when fishing rivers. Anyone doing something similar? As long as I could get it up to about 15mph I would be more than happy, does anyone think that is possible?

15mph on a T8 might be a tall order. 2 guys, 14′ jon boat, 494 landing of Pool 2 up to the south runways of the St. Paul airport, (against current)…………. approx. 4 miles (?), time………..30 minutes. Going back was still a solid 20 minutes or so. At best, that puts us at 12mph with the current. I’m thinking you’ll want a little more motor to hit 15mph. I’d go 15hp or accept longer “commutes”.

I am sure that Jon J will chime in here-he did something similar for one year w/ his jon boat. It was OK, but it did take 20 minutes to run 4-5 miles.

I’m here!

I have a Crestliner 1448 jon and ran a T-8 on it for one season until I could afford to put a 25hp on. The T-8 would not get the boat on plane, even if I was alone in an empty boat. With 2 guys and gear, the boat ran about 8-9 mph max! But, once I got to where I was going, that motor worked out great!